Although cacao is incredibly rich in nutrition - it’s one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet - all confections available on the market made with cacao beans included unhealthy ingredients like sugar which undermined cacao’s healthful benefits. Because enjoying their new healthy diets was key to clients’ dietary changes, I began making chocolates using cacao beans focusing on both flavor and nutrition density, and I used low glycemic sweeteners rather than sugar.

Then, applying my training in herbal medicine, I also began including superfoods and medicinal herbs to the chocolate, making bars that with ingredients known to have a specific functionality, such as increasing stamina and cognitive function, or strengthening the immune system. As a result, my clients never "forgot to take" their supplements!  In doing so, I was listening to the words of Hippocrates who said, 2,500 year ago: “Let food be your medicine and let your medicine be food.”   

Over the last half-century (and thanks to David Wolfe), discoveries made by nutritional science are fueling awareness that certain foods perform health-related functions over and above the basic nutritional panel of calories, vitamins, and minerals. Some of these foods - goji and goldenberries, maca, and acai, to mention a very few - have been prized for thousands of years for their specific health benefits. As a result, foods naturally rich in such components as antioxidants, phytochemicals, and adaptogens are becoming staples on healthfood and supermarket shelves.  

Food manufacturers are increasingly blending these ingredients into their creations to create products that perform specific functions. Sales of these “functional foods - part of the broader health based/driven food market - are estimated to grow at 10% annually, as opposed to a projected 2% annual growth rate for the overall food and beverage market# .  

One example of “functional” food is our SuperChoc Bar.  We add maca, gingko bilboa, siberian ginseng, goji berries, and twelve other superfoods with targeted functionalities to create a chocolate bar specifically formulated to support cognitive function and stamina.  

Designing foods for specific purposes becomes even more important as more is learned about bio-individuality. People’s genetic backgrounds, metabolism, and blood types determine their nutritional needs, and the ability to create foods meeting almost infinitely diverse nutrient requirements may prove a real blessing.  The result is that functional food may become a major player in preventative health. 

Check it out! FOUR finalists in more than 40 categories go for the GOLD in this year's Best of Raw Awards. Honoring and Celebrating the People, Places, Products and Media of the Raw Foods Movement, Best of Raw is an action packed online contest designed to spread the word about raaawwww—The Sustainable Feast!

VOTE NOW at http://bestofrawfoods.com

You don't have to vote for every category if you aren't familiar with the name/company. But it would mean the world to us to gain your vote!!! <3

WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN: How do I know Gnosis is committed to ethical responsibility and fair wages for the farmers?”

 
Free Trade, Ethical Trade, Direct Trade.... and Beyond (GnosisTrade)

Free Trade and Ethical Trade provided the first socially responsible certifications of certain standards in the 80’s and 90’s.  At that time, they were groundbreaking steps in focusing people's attention on the fact that sustainable growth –  the very health of our planet – is impossible if trade depends on exploiting the marginalized.  Since then, challenges to sustainable growth have multiplied and become increasingly complex, making our insistence on high integrity standards even more crucial.

Our insistence on maintaining the highest ethical standards from bean to bar in these times requires Gnosis to define and verify our own high standards, and not look to (abdicate our responsibility to) third party certifiers that cannot know our industry as thoroughly as we do.  We apply these extremely high standards to our practices, products, suppliers, ingredients, and to everything that Gnosis is and does.

Since day one, Gnosis has donated 10% of all profits to the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and support dozens of local and international causes. By choosing suppliers based not on price but on alignment with our values and standards, Gnosis means to support a larger movement towards higher quality food, a more sustainable model for food production, and a more conscious model for business. I will continue to visit farms and facilities, work with industry leaders to develop new and ever more effective ways to assure raw integrity, and bend every effort to verify that my specifications are followed to the letter because nutritional and environmental integrity is the foundation of Gnosis. I would never put a product on a shelf that didn't embody these core values. These truths are embedded deep in my heart.

Call to Action

The health and environmental crises will only be solved when our collective individual efforts, including voting with our dollars, lead the food industry to follow our demands - and they will follow what you vote for.  I sincerely believe it is a partnership between farmers, manufacturers, suppliers, and consumers that will ultimately lead to a healthier society and planet. Let's work with intention and action to fill those shelves with only products that are high in their integrity:  I invite you to voice your concerns to merchants and their suppliers.

I hope that this blog effectively communicates Gnosis’s intensive quality assurance, dedication to transparency, and its overall mission and methods of honoring the planet and all of its inhabitants - present and future.  I’m sure you join me in looking forward to the day when all stakeholders are similarly - and passionately - so dedicated.

It started with the Cat Cooperation Club...
When I was seven, I started the Cat Cooperation Club to raise money for a local animal shelter, and then, four years later, started the Desk Company to raise money for children in Africa. My fun was to create businesses as vehicles for my social action.  The Cat Cooperation Club was the first and Gnosis Chocolate is the latest and, so far, the greatest.

...and grew out of my Holistic Health Practice
As a student at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York, I heard internationally-recognized raw food expert David Wolfe, extol the virtues of raw chocolate.  “Maybe this is a way,” I thought “to replace my clients' sweet, unhealthy indulgences with a nourishing, satisfying, alternative that would improve their health and well-being!”  I whipped up some bars (splattering chocolate all over my kitchen) and started giving them out. Did I have a clue it was the beginning of a chocolate company called “Gnosis?”  Never.

Gnosis Chocolate is now my vehicle for caring for the Earth and Earthlings as we seek to help create a shift the marketplace towards shelves filled with only high integrity products.  As a company we are inextricably married to ethical responsibility and fair wages for the farmers.









 

The 14th annual New York Chocolate Show is one of the largest shows completely dedicated to chocolate in the United States. Considered the chocolate hub of North America, this show will bring together more than 65 fine chocolate companies who will present a diverse array of fine chocolates and chocolate-inspired products. It will also feature book signings by award-winning authors; cooking demonstrations in two culinary theaters featuring renowned chocolatiers and pastry chefs who will share secrets of the trade; a Kids Zone dedicated to fun-filled activities for young chocolate lovers and more!

Founded in 1997 by Sylvie Douce and François Jeantet, two French entrepreneurs with a great passion for chocolate, The Chocolate Show was quickly adopted by New York City as one of its favorite shows, and has become the largest and one of the most popular events devoted to chocolate in the United States.   

Gnosis Founder and raw chocolate industry driving force, Vanessa Barg (“Chocolate Girl”),  chocolatier, Lauren Gockley (Ms. Truffle), and other members of Team Gnosis will there to serve up samples of Gnosis’s top-selling bars - SuperChoc, Aphrodisia, Pomegranate Acai, Coconut Almond, Fleur de Sel, Simplicity, and it’s 90% Dazzling Darkness.  Gnosis’s new Hot Chocolate Elixirs - Aphrodisia, Immune Boost, and Mayan Heat - will be there to be sampled and taken home.

Another new Gnosis delight - the Pumpkin Spice Truffle - will also be available for adoption! Hand-filled with smooth, stone-ground pumpkin creme, these raw vegan kosher truffles will entertain you with their warming cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.  They’re infused with superfoods & medicinal herbs for endurance - maca, ginseng, cordyceps - and packaged with love in a post-consumer recycled, veggie ink printed box and a beautiful gift tag and satin ribbon.

Come say hello to us at this extraordinary event!  We so much love meeting new and old friends!

Purchase tickets online or at the door.

Please join us on our Facebook Page for delicious updates, more coupon codes, giveaways, contests, and ChocoLove! Post your feedback - your warm words mean so much to us. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share our love-filled, superfood-infused treats with you... Here's to a healthy turn round the sun!    

    

 

Trick-or-Treat,
    
Vanessa aka Chocolate Girl
PS- It just started snowing in NYC - Perfect timing!!!

10% OFF ALL GNOSIS PRODUCTS! We've happily extended our celebration of National Chocolate Day (Oct 28) to the entire weekend! After all, we here at Team Gnosis celebrate & honor cacao every day of the year... and we want to share with you! Enter this Coupon Code:(SIGN UP FOR OUR CHOCOLETTER TO GET COUPON CODE) into your shopping cart on our website, or call to place your order on the phone (877) 4 GNOSIS / (646) 688-5549 & make sure to mention the code!  Expires 11:50p EST Oct 30th. Cannot be combined w/other codes.       RECEIVE A FREE BETACHOC BAR! What's a BetaChoc Bar you ask? It's the most exciting way to become a member of Team Gnosis! BetaChoc is a new flavor in development - taste it before it launches! We will add a FREE 2oz BetaChoc bar to every order over $100 this weekend! We are currently sending out versions of our current Gnosis flavors you've come to Gno & Love - but sweetened with Palm Nectar instead of Agave Nectar. We look forward to hearing how you love them! Available while supplies last. Email us if you're allergic to nuts.   10 GOLDEN TICKETS TO BE RELEASED! Place an order for $125+ this weekend and you will automatically be entered to win one of ten Golden Tickets! At random we will send these out with your order, and if you open your package and discover one of these Golden Tickets lovingly nestled within, please call us to receive your prize: 6 FREE CHOCOLATE BARS! Please call by Fri, Nov 11th to receive your prize!

Indulge your inner child and the children in your life with the pleasure and health-boosting experience that is the Pumpkin Spice Truffle. You'll without a doubt easily forget the less-than-healthy Trick-Or-Treat candies of your past forever... This truffle delights all palates! While keeping plenty for you and yours, we invite you to consider filling Holiday Party Goers' bags with Pumpkin Spice Truffles this year rather than with the usual sugar and chemical-filled "treats."   These raw vegan kosher truffles are hand-filled with a smooth stone-ground pumpkin creme, spiced with warming cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, and infused with superfoods & medicinal herbs for endurance; maca, ginseng, cordyceps. Each jem is packaged with love in a post-consumer recycled, veggie ink printed box and a beautiful gift tag and satin ribbon.        Pumpkin Spice Truffles: 3 piece box  $10.49       Pumpkin Spice Truffles: 16 piece box  $47.99     Pumpkin Spice Truffles: 24 piece box   $64.49

Aphrodisia Hot Chocolate Elixir

Net Weight 8oz (224g) $16    

 

Mayan Heat Hot Chocolate Elixir

Net Weight 8oz (224g) $16 

Ingredients: Cacao Powder*, Palm Nectar*, Lucuma*, Cinnamon*, Cayenne Pepper*, Love. *organic

 *CIRCULATION*


Immunity Hot Chocolate Elixir  Net Weight 8oz (224g) $16 

Ingredients: Cacao Powder*, Palm Nectar*, Lucuma*, Siberian Ginseng*, Echinacea*, Rose Hips*, Cinnamon*, Ginger*, Cardamom*, Cloves*, Love. *organic

*RESILIENCE*



Standing ovations are in store for Gnosis’s chocolates at the Chocolate World Expo on Sunday, November 6 at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY.

The tried-and-true cast of raw chocolate bars you’ve come to know and love opens the show: Aphrodisia, Immune Boost, Coconut Almond, Fleur de Sel, Simplicity, and, of course, Superchoc. These bars are made with respect for the origins of cacao, the well-being of our society, and the Earth’s natural majesty.  And, like all Gnosis products, they celebrate health, exquisite flavor, and integrity. Building on a base of ethically sourced Raw Cacao from Bali, Ecuador, and Peru, Gnosis adds superfoods, low glycemic sweeteners, nutrient dense fruits, nuts, and medicinal herbs sourced fastidiously from the Amazon to the Himalayas to make each bar a show in itself.

On another Westchester County Center stage, the curtain will rise on Gnosis’s new artisan raw hot chocolate elixirs as they make their world debut. Gnosis Found!r and raw chocolate industry driving force, Vanessa Barg (“Chocolate Girl”) and Gnosis’s chocolatier, Lauren Gockley (Ms. Truffle) will pour Aphrodisia, Immune Boost, and Mayan Heat elixirs into visitors’ cups, and the elixirs, themselves, will pour out their flavorful, nutritious, invigorating hearts in choruses that visitors can hum again and again as they take packets home for heart-warming encores.

Visitors will also want encores by another Gnosis’s star: its country-to-the-city Pumpkin Spice Truffle. Hand-filled with smooth, stone-ground pumpkin creme, these raw vegan kosher truffles will entertain you with their warming cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.  And, infused as they are with superfoods & medicinal herbs for endurance - maca, ginseng, cordyceps - they’ll have you singing and dancing (or hoofing and woofing?) up a storm before intermission!  Each of these gems is packaged with love in a post-consumer recycled, veggie ink printed box and a beautiful gift tag and satin ribbon. This scrumptious little starlet is sure to elicit call for encores.

The Westchester Chocolate World Expo started out as a small, local event in Rockland County with about 35 vendors , and has grown into the largest consumer chocolate show in America with over 65 vendor booths expected at the upcoming County Center event.  Although Chocolate World Expo is known for its emphasis on locally-produced foods, several European candy makers will also be represented.  Attendees will get to taste, purchase, celebrate and otherwise indulge in delicious gourmet chocolates, baked goods, specialty foods, gelato, cheeses, wines and much more. Chocolate World Expo places and emphasis on sustainable farming and showcases vendors who utilize locally sourced ingredients whenever possible.

The Westchester County Center is easily accessible from all major area highways and can also be reached via the Metro North Harlem Valley Line to the White Plains Train Station.  Express train service from Grand Central Terminal  is a short 35 minute ride through the beautiful fall foliage. The County Center is a five-minute walk across a shared parking lot from the train station or just a short cab ride away.

Admission to Chocolate World Expo is $15 for adults and $10 for children ages 5 through 11. Children under 5 years of age are free. Tickets can be purchased online at www.ChocolateWorldExpo.com until November 5th, the day before the show, using credit and debit cards. After that, cash-only ticket sales will be available at the Westchester County Center Box Office on the day of the show. For more information

Food Fête Food Fête is the industry’s premier media event focusing exclusively on food, beverage and kitchenware products.  If you’re responsible for promoting food and beverage products, you need to be at Food Fête.

A note from the founder of Food Fete, Jeff, about the Chocolat Event coming up:

One of the benefits of running a small company is the ability to act quickly, which makes it possible for me to shake up our 2011 event roster a bit by adding a new media event this fall focused exclusively on chocolate.

Called Food Fête Chocolat, this new event, scheduled for Nov. 10, 2011 in New York City, gives chocolate companies a singularly-focused opportunity to present their newest and most luxurious creations to an invited group of national food editors and bloggers.  Having produced our Food Fête media events for seven years now, we know what chocolate brands and media want, and see a unique opportunity to deliver it.

A couple of years ago, I helped a former client (who owns a chocolate company) staff his table at a regional, consumer chocolate show. Within minutes, I was stunned by the non-stop flow of consumers stopping by his booth, clamoring for samples. This went on eight hours a day for two days — and this was a relatively small, regional show.

Given what I do for a living, I quickly realized that even if a member of the media stopped by, my client would hardly have a minute to talk to them.  Since I hate missed opportunities, it got me thinking about producing a chocolate-only Food Fête event that eliminates that consumer component, which from a purely PR perspective, is a distraction.

Though too late for the holiday long leads, the timing is perfect for short-lead and online press/bloggers looking for chocolate gifts for the holidays.  With Valentine’s Day and Easter not that far away in 2012, this event also will be good for long-lead media for those holidays.

We’re limiting this event to 20 chocolate companies, to further reinforce the intimate nature and relationship-building aspect of our events.  We want to give media the time to meet every exhibitor and experience their creations.

Chocolate companies and agencies with interested clients can get more information, including pricing, by downloading the Food Fête Chocolat brochure by clicking here, and may apply online at this link: http://bit.ly/FFChocolat2011App.

Some 550 New Yorkers rushed from work to the Columbia Grammar and Prep School in Manhattan for the “nibbling and mingling” event, proceeds from which benefit city organizations promoting school wellness, namely The Ground Up Campaign. EAT NYC was the local version of FOOD DAY, a nation-wide mobilization of Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. FOOD DAY worked with people around the country to create thousands of events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and state capitals.  

Gnosis Chocolate’s vision of a healthier Earth and Earthlings is closely aligned with the goals of EAT NYC and FOOD DAY. So, too, were the visions of other participants, whose healthy, nutritious offerings had visitors’ jaws busily chewing, joyfully describing textures and flavors, asking for more...then repeating the process!

The most delicious feature of the EAT NY evening for us, though, was the camaraderie and “soul-mateness” that we shared with so many of the other purveyors.  Mixed with the aromas in the air was the undeniable presence of our vigorous, committed, and high-minded community of visionary and savvy nutrition-istas that's changing the world...one sip and one bite at a time.

We saw our friends from Sun in Bloom, Clean Plates, Candle Cafe, Raw IceCream Company, who all came to show their support of this event. Please check out their sites and taste their goodies!

The Gnosis table had been picked clean of both free samples and for-sale bars by the end of the evening as new friends and old stopped by to chat with Gnosis Founder and Owner, Vanessa Barg, and to energize themselves with such all-time favorite bars as Aphrodisia, Cashew Goji Berry, Coconut Almond, Fleur de Sel, Simplicity, and, of course, Superchoc.

They were also pleased to learn that Halloween - the Gnosis Way was available as a healthy - and delicious - alternative to traditional tricky sugar-laden ‘treats.” And, since we’re almost convinced that colder temperatures are here to stay, Vanessa was pleased to relate that  “the Gnosis kitchen is mixing up extraordinary hot chocolate blends to keep hearts, minds, and souls warm.  Here’s a great one to start with: Aphrodisiac Hot Chocolate Elixir!”

Gnosis continues to be the Chocolate-About-Town as Vanessa serves up these delights - and more - at such upcoming events as: Living Cinema Benefit at the Tibet House (October 29; Tibet House, 22 West 15th Street, NYC); Chocolate World Expo in Westchester (November 6; Westchester County Center, White Plains NY); NY Chocolate Show (November 10-13; Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, NYC); the Chocolate World Expo, (December 4; NJ Meadowlands Expo Center, Secaucus NJ).

We love bringing you a chocolate that’s not only delicious, but also one whose blend of ingredients acts as a template, a guide, for what to fold into your increasingly happy and healthy life.