Hello to all of my fans. (scroll for bird pics) Today is plus3’s last day in Amsterdam. Truly a sad day indeed. What you all may not know is that my family had planned to meet me here in Amsterdam and we were gonna spend a couple days here before going to Belgium. They actually just arrived in the city earlier this morning. So, I caught a tram to go meet up with them. I may have read the number on the first tram wrong though and took it a stop in the wrong direction. I had to walk back and wait 10 more minutes. That was a bit of a blow to my ego but I will recover.

We met up and I got food from a cafe then we walked back to Oosterpark so I could show them around. By that time, it was around 2 so I made my way back to the generator and left them to fend for themselves. Now, it was finally time to learn about Tony’s Chocolonely. First of all, I finally learned it was chocolonely. This entire time I have thought it was Tony’s Chocoloney and that’s a little rough. I actually really enjoyed the presentation. The woman from the company who glady came on her day off was a really great presenter. I have heard about all the good things the company has done but now it has finally all come together. I have never really conceptualized how cocoa farming actually works so I am really glad I finally got to put it all together. 

For example, the work with co-ops in Ghana and the Côte D’Ivoire. Co-ops are groups of farmers that work and organize together. It is much easier than trying to connect with each farmer individually. This also gives the farmers more control over their business. I also thought it was interesting how in regards to sustainability, most of the emissions come specifically from the farming process. Therefore, they focus much more on the social impact and responsibility with farming than other factors like the way they transport their chocolate. However, they do have a very simple supply chain where the cocoa gets processed in the country it was farmed. From there, the products get sent to their factory in Antwerp to be made into chocolate. I feel like this simple supply chain helps the company be more sustainable and efficient as well.

I also really like the idea of their open chain program. This allows other businesses and companies to follow how Tony’s works with cocoa farmers. This way, other companies can collaborate and work together to help fight child labor while they can still compete with their products on the market.

After the presentation, we then got to go to their giant superstore. I got 4 bars: 70% dark, dark hazelnut, pretzel toffee, and the everything bar. This should keep me satisfied for a while. Then, we made our way over to our dinner. We hung out in the nearby park for a bit because we were early. I am still so incredibly impressed by all of the city’s greenspace. I absolutely love all of the parks here and I wish we had the same back home in Pittsburgh. Our farewell dinner tonight was a self-serve Indonesian food. The flavors of Indonesian food are not necessarily my vibe especially because I am still scarred by the peanut soup so the peanut dish was not a fav. I am glad I got to try it though especially because I don’t think there is anything like this at home. 

All of the farewell speeches were very sweet. I had a great time on this trip and I am really grateful that I got to go. I met a lot of cool people and I got to do and see a lot of really cool things. Thank you for following along my trip to nethyland <3