Valentine’s day. For many, this is a day to shower their beloved with kisses, presents and flowers. For me, 14th February acts as a wonderful excuse to focus my energy on my first love, Chocolate. Well… it’s everywhere at the moment, right? Why even try to resist?

I’m not going to lie to you, I’m a little addicted… OK, so more than just a little addicted. It was already a problem growing up, but it got worse when I discovered that 43% of the world’s cocoa is likely to have come from farms where children have been trafficked and forced to work against their will. I did a bit of investigating and discovered that one sure-fire way of ensuring that I only eat slavery- free chocolate was by sticking to the fair-trade variety.

“Brilliant.” I thought to myself “Now that I’m restricted with my chocolate choices I will consume far less and be a beacon of health.”

Wrong.

Now, every time I see a bar of Divine or Dairy Milk I think “If I eat this I’ll be supporting local, slave-free farmers. I’ll be saving the world one piece of choc at a time. It’s my duty to both God and society to buy this chocolate bar, darn it.” I won’t divulge how bad it’s got but let’s just say that a direct choc drip to my arm wouldn’t be a far cry from the current situation. I clearly need some kind of intervention.

Thankfully there are other options to direct my energy into this year. Please consider giving me moral support on my choc-detox by getting involved too.

The first is Stop the Traffik’s Have a heart Nestle campaign. Click here to join me in asking Nestle to ensure that all their chocolate is traffic free.

The second option involves sending a Valentine’s card to someone who I very much doubt either you or I were planning to this year. Curious? Details will be posted tomorrow…