In the world of chocolate bars, Kallari Chocolate Bars are a definite do-gooder.

All profits from the sales of these premium chocolate bars (available at Whole Foods) is returned to the Kallari Association, a cooperative of more than 850 Quichua families in Napo Province in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The association touts itself as the only farmers cooperative in the world that harvests, markets, and receives all profits from its line of organic chocolates. With this revenue, the Quichua families are able to make a viable living without succumbing to the temptation to make quick money from logging their rainforests or from extracting petroleum from their lands.

The chocolate-making venture was established with expertise and start-up funds from Stephen McDonnell, founder and CEO of Applegate Farms in Bridgewater, NJ, which produces natural and organic deli meats and cheeses. Visitors can even tour the cacao farms in Ecuador now to watch the harvest and the fermentation process.

The bars do good. But do they also taste good?

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money” far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some” middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” supreme ranking.

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