Tony is the English equivalent of the Dutch name Teun, and Teun van de Keuken is our founder. Teun is a Dutch TV journalist who kicked off the crusade against (child) slavery within the chocolate industry on the consumer report TV show Keuringsdienst van Waarde. Teun was shocked when he read that slavery still existed in the cocoa sector. He tried to discuss the problem with the large chocolate makers, but they completely ignored him. He stepped up and took action. Teun decided to lead by example and make 5,000 Fairtrade chocolate bars himself. Tony’s Chocolonely was born.

And because he felt like he was the only guy in the chocolate industry that cared about eradicating slavery from the industry, he named his chocolate “Chocolonely”. Get it? The chocolate industry was a lonely place for 100% exploitation free crusaders!

Of course! We expect farmers to treat the environment with respect. And we actively encourage the farmers who supply our beans to implement more environmentally friendly production methods. The cooperatives we work with receive training. This helps minimize the use of pesticides and ensures appropriate and economical use of chemical fertilizer. Deforestation is strictly prohibited. Climate change is an increasingly important issue for Tony's, particularly since cocoa farmers are directly affected. Drought and extreme heat increase the likelihood of failed harvests and affect the quality of cocoa beans. Yet this is a trend that is expected to increase. At the moment, we offset our emissions through Justdiggit. We'll also be taking steps to reduce our emissions over the next few years. Ultimately, we want to ensure that whenever someone eats a bar of Tony's they're making a positive contribution to the environment.

In 2012, we also changed the wrappers on our bars. We now use uncoated, recycled FSC-certified paper. What?! Believe us, it's better for the environment. It means the wrappers on our bars are not coated with porcelain or kaolin. The paper is made from a mixture of recycled and FSC-certified paper. So, in a past life, the wrapper on your bar might have been the label on a jar of peanut butter or box of sprinkles! FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? And it is. It means the paper originates from sustainably managed forests. The foil we use contains as much recycled material as possible and we've also made it as thin as possible.

To us it doesn't make sense for chocolate bars to be divided into chunks of equal sizes when there is so much inequality in the chocolate industry! The unevenly sized chunks of our 6oz bars are a palatable way of reminding our choco friends that the profits in the chocolate industry are unfairly divided.

And in case you haven't noticed, the bottom of our bars represents the Equator. The chunks above are the Gulf of Guinea. From left to right you have Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin (terribly politically incorrect, we know, but we had to combine them to create enough space for a hazelnut), Nigeria and part of Cameroon.

There are all kinds of labels on chocolate packaging. This is because there are several certification systems that operate under different names. Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance (previously Rainforest Alliance and UTZ before they merged in 2018) are independent certificates that follow ISEAL's Codes of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards, and there are also brands that have created their own certification systems such as Mondelez’s Cocoa Life and Nestle’s Cocoa Plan.

Certifications are third party checks on an external set of standards, a kind of compliance check on sustainability for companies. They are however not all the same. There are some fundamental differences between Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance. Fairtrade guarantees a minimum price for their cocoa to protect against market volatilities. Fairtrade believes that farmers are stronger when they join forces, so Fairtrade farmers must be united in a cooperative. Rainforest Alliance places strong emphasis on conservation of the environment and farmers receive a variable premium on top of the market price. They work with cooperatives, as well as independent farmers.

As far as we're concerned, certification is a starting point and the proliferation of certification models makes it harder for consumers to understand what they represent. Euromonitor International’s research in 2018 revealed own labels, such as Cadbury’s Cocoa Life or Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan, could create consumer confusion - ‘Many in-house schemes have yet to resonate; and consumers may be unclear about the changing working relationships between certifiers and brands.’ To create a fairer supply chain we believe that companies have to go further than certification and take full responsibility, that's why we have developed our 5 sourcing principles. We invite any other organisation that sources cocoa to come round for coffee (and chocolate) to learn more about how they can adopt these principles through Tony’s Open Chain.

For the 6oz wrappers (that's all of our large bars) we use 100 g Cocoon Offset paper.

It's 100% recycled, uncoated offset paper with excellent whiteness (CIE 150). It's also FSC® Recycled and EU Ecolabel certified.

Almost 11 years ago the Dutch investigative reporter Teun (Tony) van de Keuken launched an investigation about the use of slavery within the cocoa industry on the consumer report show 'Keuringsdienst van Waarde'. He was literally shocked to discover that most of the chocolate on supermarket shelves was harvested by slaves—worse, by child slaves. He decided to do something about it. He first approached some of the world’s largest chocolate makers, but they completely ignored him.

So he decided to roll up his sleeves and do it himself. He ate a couple of chocolate bars and then turned himself in to the authorities as a chocolate criminal. By eating chocolate, he was complicit in slavery. But the public prosecutor wouldn’t prosecute him. Teun didn’t give up and went looking for witnesses; victims of chocolate consumption. He found 4 boys who had worked as slaves on a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast. They provided evidence against Teun and the 2,136 other chocolate consumers who in the meantime had joined Teun in his stride. On November 29th 2005, still awaiting the judge’s decision, Teun decided to lead by example and make 5,000 Fairtrade chocolate bars. Tony’s Chocolonely was born.

The very first Fair Trade Tony’s Chocolonely bars hit the supermarket shelves in 2005. In 2006 we became legit by registering with the Chamber of Commerce. We’ve been high-flying ever since, but today our number one priority remains the same as it was on day 1: eradicating slavery from the global chocolate industry.

We’ve adapted our mission messaging to help us express the scope of impact work we do today. When Tony’s started, we were laser-focused on one issue in the cocoa industry, but as we’ve grown our areas of impact have grown too. Our mission statement needs to be inclusive of all the work we do today – from addressing multi-dimensional poverty to remediating child labor and everything in between.  

Shipping costs for personalized bar orders are the same as for our standard orders, though they do ship separately, and are as follows: 

Unfortunately, at the moment that’s not possible. 

*Important message, choco fans: our webshop is currently closed for the summer. Find out more here. Read on for answers applicable to the rest of the shipping season…

Lucky you!

When you're done shopping, you'll see an overview of your order in your basket and during the checkout process. At the bottom, there's a box where you can enter your discount code. 

As a wholesaler you can, as a consumer you can't. 

If you have another question about our payment methods, please reach out to us at mailus@tonyschocolonely.com.

Click here to register and create an account for our chocoshop. 

If you need our help creating an account, please use our contact form to send us an email. We're happy to help you out!

To access your profile page you have to log in first, by clicking on the person icon in the top right of the screen. Once you're on your profile page, you can change your details, see your order history and saved addresses. 

If you have any other question, please use our contact form to send us an email. We're happy to help you out!

Yes, it can't get to you fast enough, we know! 

We use UPS ground to ship your orders Monday through Friday. Depending on your location in the US, delivery varies between 2 to 5 business days. 

If you really can't wait a moment longer, send an email to mailus@tonyschocolonely.com noting your order number. Your order number is on the email confirmation we sent you. You can also find it in the 'my orders' section of your account. 

• Any questions? Please send us an e-mail: mailus@tonyschocolonely.com. We can make chocolate out of (almost) anything! 

At the moment, our chocolate postman only delivers our bars within the US. We think it's important that you know exactly what's in our bars (the ingredients are listed in English...). And this way, we can also guarantee that your bars arrive when we say they will..

If you have questions about any other country, please send an email to: export@tonyschocolonely.com

No, unfortunately not. 

Our chocolate postman can only deliver bars and other things to one address per order.