Solomons Gold
Solomons Gold is a New Zealand-based company that offers delicious and ethical vegan chocolate that supports and celebrates local cacao growers in the Solomon Islands. Their chocolate is made in-house from bean to bar and is 100% free from dairy, gluten, nuts, soy and refined sugar.
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About
Solomons Gold was founded by Glenn Yeatman and Clive Carroll. Glenn was a fourth-generation coffee farmer from Zimbabwe who was forced to flee Africa to escape the regime of Robert Mugabe.
Glenn’s coffee-growing background eventually led him to work closely with many cocoa growers and plantations in the Solomon Islands. It wasn’t long before Glenn and Clive both realised these beans were something special and Solomons Gold was born.
“We want to showcase what we believe to be some of the best cacao in the world, and it comes right from our neighbouring Pacific cacao communities.
Their international award-winning chocolate factory is based in New Zealand. There they make chocolate from scratch, using artisan bean to bar methods. The cacao beans are hand-selected from the pristine Solomon Islands, where they work hand-in-hand with the cacao growers and their communities to source organically-grown and single-origin cacao.
This transparent supply chain ensures a premium and ethical product.
Solomons Gold’s hand-crafted chocolate contains just 2 ingredients - premium cacao and coconut sap sugar (for their flavoured bars, they only add natural flavour oils).
“It’s what we don’t put into our chocolate that makes us special.”
Since 2006 Solomons Gold has been providing support to help our farmers improve the quality of their beans, and also the quality of their life.
Agriculture is the main source of income for the Solomon Island people and Solomons Gold empowers growers by providing employment, sustainable cacao bean management support, vital infrastructure, financing, and well-above-Fairtrade prices for their cocoa harvests.
They pay their growers 20% above the standard cocoa price which is significantly higher than Fairtrade. Currently, they are financing a group of their growers to become organically certified.
“Because we deal with our growers directly, it means more profit goes to them - there are no middlemen.”
Their passion for sustainability is also evident across the entire supply chain.
Solomons Gold’s chocolate factory in Mount Maunganui is proudly a zero-waste factory where even the wooden pallets are upcycled into beautiful rosewood tables. Used cacao hessian bags are repurposed, and they use compostable bags for our cacao nibs and chocolate pieces. Plus, their chocolate bar packaging is all recyclable.
“Sustainability and ethics lie at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is to preserve the unique taste profile, whose origin belongs to one place and its people... the Solomon Islands.”