Fair Trade Giveaway Hop Sponsor :: Fair Trade Foods from Alter Eco! {Review}

Truly inspiring, fair trade, sustainable food companies are sprouting up everywhere. But the ones that are making a big difference for small-scale farmers and produce delicious products are the most impressive and have my full support. Alter Eco fits the bill and exceeds my expectations. Through mutually beneficial partnerships with these small-scale farmers from around the world, Alter Eco is able to bring you exotic, sustainable food products while helping improve the quality of life and food for these farmers. Growing quinoa, rice, sugar, and chocolate using fair trade and organic practices, you get these amazing products I'm going to share with you now.

I received a mouth-watering assortment of products from Alter Eco to sample. (Mostly) Organic, Fair Trade and carbon neutral, you can be sure that you're getting high quality, all-natural ingredients from this socially and environmentally responsible company.

These three products are Fair Trade Certified and hand-cultivated. The quinoa and cane sugar are also USDA Certified Organic.

Thai Sticky Purple Rice - $4.79 - This is a native heirloom medley from Thailand. Colorful, sweet, high quality grains result in the perfect side of rice with dinner! They also have Hom Mali Jasmine Rice and Khao Deng Ruby Red Rice available.

Organic Royal Pearl Quinoa - $5.79 - I discovered quinoa earlier this year and love it! From Bolivia, this heirloom quinoa is wonderfully nutritious and a good source of protein. It tastes a bit nutty and earthy, and the texture is fluffy, almost like rice. They also carry a Rainbow Quinoa and a Red Quinoa too.

Organic Mascobado Cane Sugar - $4.39 - From the Phillipines, this is an un-refined cane sugar with a fine texture. It has beautifully sweet aroma reminiscent of a vanilla maple syrup and tastes a bit like refined brown sugar, but with it's nutrients intact and unrefined! It's wonderful for baking and can be used as a 1:1 ratio for recipes using refined sugar. It's great in my tea and bound to create incredible flavor in my favorite gluten-free recipes. I'll be trying it next time I make cookies!

Alter Eco organic chocolate bars are heavenly! I love the unique combinations they have created! I recently tried some "all-natural" chocolate bars from another company and I was not impressed by any means. There is literally no comparison to the REAL ingredients in these bars and the cacao beans they contain from countries like Peru and Ecuador. They are all USDA Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, vegan, GMO-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and contain no artificial flavors or emulsifiers. Each bar is 2.82 ounces and retails for $3.99.

Dark Blackout - 85% Cocoa - Classic dark chocolate bar with a creamy, smooth texture, and not too much of the typical bitterness of other brands. At 85% cocoa, this one holds the most health benefits with the highest antioxidant content of all the bars.

Dark Almond - 60% Cocoa -  Toasty almond goodness really stand out in this bar! The almond are tiny little pieces so don't expect much crunch as a result. The almonds do still manage to tone down the rich cocoa flavor of the cocoa, making this dark chocolate bar tolerable for my husband (who isn't a big fan of dark chocolate).

Dark Quinoa - 60% Cocoa - I love this bar. It's reminiscent of a Crunch bar, but with higher quality chocolate (and dark instead of milk) and quinoa instead of the typical rice crisps. It works out very well and I never would have guessed this was quinoa if no one had told me! The toasted quinoa, which makes this bar light and crunchy, doesn't taste nutty to me so the smooth dark chocolate really stands out.

Dark Coconut Toffee - 47% Cocoa - I never would have imagined putting coconut and toffee together! The coconut flavor is in the actual toffee only, but it comes out strong and rich, offering a very sweet, subtle coconut flavor throughout. The toffee offers a crunchy candy texture, but is definitely not tooth-breaking hard by any means. The cocoa content is the least of these four bars, and is actually a good middle ground for someone who doesn't like dark chocolate (again, like my husband! He enjoyed this bar!). This is probably my favorite bar of the four I tried, with the Dark Quinoa at a close second.

I'm definitely impressed with Alter Eco and will be buying their products at my local Whole Foods when I run out. A few days ago I saw that my store even carries more chocolate bar flavors that I am dying to try! If you get a chance to try Alter Eco, be sure to look at the packaging. They include statistics and information on the various co-ops that they partner with. For example, the Organic Mascobado Cane Sugar package says that for their partners at the Alter Eco co-op, that fair trade practices and organic farming means 652 families are building a better future, co-op members receive 100% medical benefits, and it results in 500 acres of reforested eco-reserves. I love seeing the impact of buying and supporting Alter Eco, and how it's protecting the environment through organic farming and helping families live better through fair trade practices. I encourage you to check out Alter Eco and make the choice to buy fair trade more often. You can even buy Alter Eco in their online store!

Want a chance to win your own? Come back to my blog from October 22-31 during the Fair Trade Giveaway Hop for your chance to win a prize package from Alter Eco!

 

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product(s) to facilitate this review for free. No other compensation was received. This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.