Visit to Pieni Suklaatehdas in Porvoo, Finland
On a sunny autumn day, Karlina and Laura, from the EKOenergy team, went to visit Pieni Suklaatehdas (“The Little Chocolate Factory”) in Porvoo. This artisanal chocolate factory is not only making bean-to-bar chocolate without any additives or preservatives but also using renewable EKOenergy-certified electricity for their production.
Owners Miia and Peter Westerlund gave us a warm welcome in the Art Factory, where they moved in 2017, after 12 years of successfully managing a café in Old Town Porvoo. Peter explained that they meant to keep the café quite small, but on the first day they opened, everything was already sold out by one o’clock. After some busy years, Peter and Miia seem to be happy now with a quieter workplace, and more time to concentrate on chocolate production. Even if life is calmer now in The Chocolate Art Factory, its success has not dwindled: in 2017, their Madagascar 40% chocolate won the bronze medal in the International Chocolate Award competition!
While visiting the factory, we had the opportunity to taste some of their famous products. Peter and Miia let us try their well-known Vegan Brownie Cake, made out of chocolate and black beans, and their new tea, made of liquorice and cocoa shell. Peter is very creative in making new products and proudly presented his newest idea: chocolate decorated with insects. But for consumers who would prefer something a little less adventurous, they also offer a large variety of products: from milk chocolate to salt liquorice white chocolate and vegan 70% dark Brazilian chocolate. There is something for every taste.
Chocolate and sustainability
While tasting all the different kinds of chocolate, we had an interesting chat about the sustainability of their production, the attitude of their consumers, renewable energies and climate change in general. Miia explained, that they are trying to live as ecologically as possible. This applies to their private lives, where for example they have bought most of their furniture second-hand, but also to their business, where the cocoa beans come from sustainable sources.
For Peter, using EKOenergy-labelled renewable energies in his working space and his home was a logical step: “I am happy with the choice to have switched to EKOenergy. It was really easy. We told our energy provider, Porvoon Energia, what we want and they made us the contract”. Pieni Suklaatehdas communicates about their choice to use renewable energies through the EKOenergy ecolabel, which they integrate into their chocolate packaging.
Thanks to companies like Pieni Suklaatehdas, the first step towards a more sustainable future is taken, in which not only the production but also consumption is done in a more responsible way. EKOenergy is happy to be a part of this!
We thank Pieni Suklaatehdas for using EKOenergy and for sharing this great day with us!
Text & Photos: Laura Marie Kothe
Posted on 15 December 2017
