Dr. Bronner’s, the family-owned natural brand of personal care and food products, has gained Regenerative Organic Certified status for its Salted Dark flavor of chocolate. The company said its product is the first-ever chocolate product in the world to achieve this certification.
 
Dr. Bronner’s Salted Dark Chocolate is made with a unique blend of Regenerative Organic Certified ingredients, including cocoa from Ghana and Ivory Coast, coconut sugar from Indonesia, cocoa butter from Congo, and bourbon vanilla from Madagascar.
 
In 2017, Rodale Institute, Dr. Bronner’s, and Patagonia joined together to establish the Regenerative Organic Certified standard, a certification encompassing robust requirements for soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. The certification is managed by the Regenerative Organic Alliance, an organization driven by the idea that the adoption of  regenerative organic practices on more farms around the world, can create long-term solutions to the climate crisis, factory farming, and fractured rural economies.
 
“The conventional chocolate trade has a well-documented history of  social and environmental abuse. The industry is built on destructive industrial farming practices and extensive use of pesticides, which result in low cocoa yields and low wages for farmers,” said Mike Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s.
 
“Regenerative Organic Certified seeks to promote and ensure practices that protect soil health, animal welfare, and fairness for farmers and workers,” he added. “We are eager to demonstrate to the world that chocolate can be made to the highest possible social and ecological criteria and we call on all chocolate makers to rise to the Regenerative Organic Certified standard in their supply chains.”

Dr. Bronner’s said its Regenerative Organic Certified Salted Dark Magic All-One Chocolate goes beyond USDA Organic and Fair Trade standards, demonstrating that regenerative organic agriculture can be practiced at the scale needed to meet global market demands. In addition to piloting Regenerative Organic Certified standards in its cocoa supply chain, Dr. Bronner’s has achieved this standard in its coconut oil supply chain, launching the first-ever Regenerative Organic Certified Virgin Coconut Oil in 2020. 

Dr. Bronner’s Salted Dark Chocolate is available at retailers nationwide and online, with the suggested retail price of $5.99 each, or $32.94 for a six-pack, alongside six additional flavors of Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Dark Chocolate, and three flavors of Oat Milk Chocolate, which launched in the fall of 2023.

Dr. Bronner’s launched its line of Magic All-One Chocolate in 2021, as a result of the company’s work to partner with farmers to improve the health and productivity of existing palm and cocoa trees in eastern Ghana that supply ingredients for Dr. Bronner’s soaps. These farmers, as well as fair trade and organic farmers in Ivory Coast who grow cocoa crops used to produce Dr. Bronner’s chocolate, utilize dynamic agroforestry—a model of farming based on the integration of complementary trees and other crops, which boosts biodiversity, increases yields, diversifies income streams, and avoids the use of toxic chemicals.