She says the majority of the work’s chocolate is harvested by slave labor. The U.S. Dept. of Labor reports that two areas where 60 percent of the world’s chocolates are produced — Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana — engage in child labor on cocoa farms. Its most-current statistics show 1.56 million children are working there with agro-chemical exposure and using sharp tools.
“You shouldn’t have to worry that the chocolate you eat might contain cocoa cultivated or harvested by a child,” the USDOL website states.
Coe agrees.
“If you want to change the world, the easiest way to do that is to change your chocolate,” she said.
Credit: Bill Franz
Credit: Bill Franz
Throughout the year, Peace on Fifth features nearly 60 makers from more than 20 origins.
“This is the rarest form of chocolate,” Coe said. “Even now, it’s less than two percent of what’s harvested in the world.”
It all goes back to human trafficking
Coe started Peace on Fifth about 15 years ago when she was researching anti-human trafficking trends and becoming more aware of her participation. It took about eight years to find products that she could trace back to its original source to guarantee the products were slave-free.
At the time, Coe was managing a gift store for a local nonprofit and started to change the items they were selling to match what she was discovering.
“I want to do things that connect people to their participation in ethical goods,” Coe said.
She opened a shop for the holidays and “took full advantage of that new opportunity and I haven’t looked back.”
Peace on Fifth was previously located in the Oregon District offering other products, in addition to chocolate.
“When I came to 2nd Street Market, that’s when the focus changed to only chocolate,” Coe said.
From bean to bar
Peace on Fifth has active relationships with the farmers and makers of the chocolate that the business sells.
“Most of my chocolate isn’t anywhere else other than with me or the maker,” Coe said.
All of the chocolate she has is shade grown, which is a rare thing in the chocolate world. The cacao tree produces flowers that are then pollinated and in three to five years produces pods.
The pods are harvested when they are ripe and then hacked opened where the beans are covered in a white pulp.
The beans are then fermented, dried, roasted, picked through and then crushed before they can be used to make chocolate.
The chocolate will then be tempered and ready to mold — depending on what the farmer or the maker offers.
What to expect at 2nd Street Market
For those that visit her table at 2nd Street Market, she encourages questions and a curious mind.
Customers can expect chocolate from places like Ghana, Thailand, India, Columbia, Guatemala, Venezuela, Haiti and several other countries.
“Most of my returning customers are interested in 3 things,” Coe said.
They are either looking for a maker or origin they already know, wanting to try something weird or hoping to connect with something outside of what they already know.
Modeling the way
The Dayton Daily News stopped by Coe’s table and she took Reporter Natalie Jones through her method of tasting chocolate.
“When most people think of chocolate, what they are actually thinking of is candy, and this is not what that is,” Coe said.
She had Jones pull the peanut curry chocolate made by Siamaya Chocolate in Thailand to her nose and inhale with her eyes close. She was then instructed to put the chocolate on her tongue and then to the roof of her mouth to let it warm up.
As her eyes continued to stay close, she smelled from her nose and in her moth. Once the chocolate was slightly soft, she could rub it around.
This type of chocolate in particular was designed to taste like peanut curry soup, so the peanuts were not sweet. There was a pepper taste to the chocolate.
“This humbles you in a way that makes you interested in the chocolate,” Coe said. “If you spend even more time with it what will happen is it will start to feel like you can tell whose hands were touching this.”
Coe uses this approach to tasting chocolate to encourage people to slow down, disconnect to their nostalgic memories and focus on being in the moment.
“I take this work very seriously and to be able to have a conversation with people about chocolate is the most exciting thing to me,” Coe said. “When you think about Dayton being this small, little town, in this space, this 10 by 10 space, is the most global space you can imagine.”
MORE DETAILS
Peace on Fifth is hosting a Meditation in Chocolate class from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at Dayton Metro Library‘s main library on East Third Street. This will be followed by a Meet the Maker Night with Neil Ransom of Siamaya Chocolate in Thailand. Details are to be announced.
For more information, visit peaceonfifth.com or the business’s Facebook (@peaceonfifth) or Instagram (@peaceonfifth1) pages.
CONTACT US
Have a food tip or local dining question? Email Reporter Natalie Jones at natalie.jones@coxinc.com.
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