My Ice and an Apology to Green & Blacks

I owe Green & Black’s a huge apology, and I am not ashamed to put my hand up and admit this.

The reason I am apologising is that a few months ago I was asked to test a new website called My Ice, in return I would be sent free chocolate.     Well, I will do quite a bit for free chocolate so had a quick surf.  Ice is another customer rewards site, but one that only deals with sustainable products and services.   Ice “partners” currently include companies such as Green & Black’s, Foodari Direct, Sacred Spirits, Eurostar, Eat Sleep Live Etc, and a myriad of companies that are “coming soon”.  It is a laudable idea, which I really hope will succeed.  However,  it is not that straightforward in how it works.    Levels of earning and redeeming points vary enormously according to the retailer, there are currently too few retailers and I found using the site somewhat confusing and clunky.

To buy from an Ice Partner you buy direct, but via the Ice website with a Ice information bar showing in your browser, this way you get offers available to anyone shopping at the partner’s site.

For trying Ice I was given enough IceCredits to buy a Green & Black’s Chocolate Lovers Mini Selection pack valued at £10 (and £4.95 P&P), but due to the fact that the value of points are tiered (for G&B: Spend rate: Up to 260 Ice credits = 2p per Ice credit, and over 260 Ice credits = 1p per Ice credit), it was not immediately clear which gift I could order with enough points for free P&P.    Confused?  Yes, I was too.   I also had also been given a discount code for my purchase which the Green & Black’s checkout would not accept.   In the end I left the code off and it all went through.     In reality this is at least partially the fault of the PR that contacted me, for not explaining exactly what I could order (update: they did – see note below)  and that a portion of my Ice Credits would be doubled to get the free P&P.

Having waded through and successfully ordered, the chocolate promptly arrived two days later, beautifully wrapped and presented.    A great present, easy to send for a special occasion or birthday.

But back to Green & Black’s.     Founded in 1991 by Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley (also of Beauty Bible fame).   The brand is organic and in 1994 began purchasing Fairtrade cocoa and the same year won the Worldaware Business Award for Good Business Practice.   All the Maya Gold Range is Fairtrade certified, as is the cocoa powder.     The rest of the range is ethically traded according to Green & Black’s business practices with them buying Trinitario-type cocoa beans that command a substantial price premium.

Green & Black’s was bought by Cadbury Schweppes in May 2005, which this year was bought by Kraft.  It will be interesting to see what happens under Kraft.   Cadbury treated them as a separate business, I hope Kraft continue to do so.   Over the years I have come to realise that honey is better than vinegar in persuading people to see your point of view, so I hope that by buying Green & Black’s it will send a clear message to Kraft that their customers care about Green & Black’s ethics, and that Kraft will not put pressure on Green & Black’s to lower their standards to increase profits.

I used to buy and enjoy Green & Black’s, and then read the ingredients list on a bar of plain chocolate and saw that milk was now a listed ingredient, so I stopped buying them, as IMO milk has no place in a bar of plain chocolate.  (I possibly may have also managed to think that their parent company was not Cadbury Schweppes,  but an altogether different and not so nice multinational.)  So I stopped buying them.     When I opened my free chocolate I was reminded about all of this, a quick twitter conversation later and all was sorted out.

Yes – Milk is listed as an ingredient on the plain chocolate.     BUT it is only on the ingredient list as an allegen warning as a possible cross contaminate.     For those not in the know, plain and milk chocolate are often made on the same production line.      When switching from one product to another; ie milk to plain chocolate, the plain is run straight after the milk, then a quantity at the start of the batch is discarded.  Running the new product through is a highly effective way of flushing the old from the system, but obviously it cannot guarantee that all traces of milk are removed.

Green & Blacks have listed milk as an ingredient to provide a clearer warning to milk allergy sufferers, despite the fact that they are only required to list it as a “may contain” as an allergy warning.       Very responsible of them, considering it must have lost them customers; myself included.    Green & Black’s plain chocolate meets all the requirements of the Vegan Society to be labelled as vegan, but the inclusion of milk in the ingredients and a vegan label would cause a mind boggle to most consumers.

So, thanks to My Ice for getting me back to Green & Black’s.   And thanks to the Green & Black’s PR for being helpful and explaining it all to me on twitter.   And sorry again Green & Black’s.    And let’s have a great chomp of delicious chocolate to round off.

Update: I just received an e-mail from the PR, who, I am slightly embarrassed to say did specify exactly what I could order, so that was my mistake (again), it was a while between getting the e-mail and me testing the site.  A number of other bloggers that tested the site had the same problems as I did, but Ice are working on the feedback and are improving the “signposting” on the ordering process so hopefully it will all run more smoothly in the future.    As I originally said, I really hope it works, it is such a good and laudable idea.   I’m making a note in my diary to have another look in 3 months time to see how many more companies have signed up.

Thank you to MyIce for the points the free Green & Black’s gift box in return for testing the site.