keep Valentine’s Day sweet.


Planning to give sweets to your sweetie this Valentine’s Day? Sending the kids to school with candy for the class? Keep the planet in mind and shop for organic and fair trade candy! This will not only help prevent expensive dentist bills due to refined-sugar overload, but will also help create sustainable ecology and economies all over the world.

Look for these alternatives to the usual synthetic loot:

  1. Yummy-gummy goodness: Try Surf Sweets Gummy Worms or Organic Classic Gummi Bears from Surf Sweets or Let’s Do Organic, both made with organic natural sweeteners and sans artificial colours and flavours.
  2. The new chew: Look for Glee Gum, a natural gum (no synthetic plastics) in cinnamon, peppermint and tangerine flavors, made with sustainable harvested natural chicle from Central American rainforests.
  3. A smarter kind of Smarties®: Sun Drops by Sunspire- candy-coated chocolate or peanut bites with no artificial colours, flavours, or preservatives.
  4. Fruit Lollipops by Pure Fun or Yummy Earth: organic lollipops in both old and new flavours- lemon, green apple, watermelon, goji berry, tangerine, and pomegranate. No synthetic colours here; their colourings come from red beet, red cabbage, annatto extract, turmeric extract, purple carrots, and alfalfa extract!
  5. Fair trade eco-chocolate: Try organic chocolates from organicstyle.com — they’re delicious and stylish!
  6. Crystal Cuts: Colorful old-fashioned hard candies from Hammond’s in Grape, Orange, Lemon, and Cherry.
  7. Maple hard candies: Leaf-shaped candies flavored and colored with real maple syrup.
  8. Spicy Cinnamon Candy by Pure Fun: This certified organic, vegan, gluten-free, kosher candy actually contains red cabbage to get its colour!
  9. Organic dark-chocolate covered raisins by Sunspire: a much healthier version of Raisinettes®.
  10. Organic Jelly Beans by Surf Sweets
  11. More pep in your step: Honey Mint Patties by Honey Acres are an incredibly pure version of Pep® mint and chocolate patties- their ingredients are only honey, unsweetened chocolate, and peppermint.

Photograph by John Hritz.