Alexeeva & Jones is a ‘salon du chocolat’ where you can buy an exclusive selection of luxury handmade chocolates from some of the world’s best artisan chocolatiers – all in one place.

www.alexeevajones.com

To make Original Beans products 100% pure & natural, we use packaging that grows 100% on trees. And decomposes 100% again within weeks.

Although it looks silver, the foil in which we wrap our chocolates since 2012 is made of wood. More precisely, from FSC certified wood cellulose forests. A super-thin, silver aluminum layer guarantees the good barrier properties (smell, light, heat) of aluminum foil. But without the chemicals and wasted energy of aluminum. Instead, our new foil is renewable, nearly carbon-neutral, and – as you can read below – completely biocompostable. In one word: 100% pure & natural.
On a small piece of overgrown pasture, we put a mixed layer of green waste and one shovel of both, earth and wood chips. Four pieces of foil – two printed and two unprinted – were placed and covered with a second level of the mixture and green waste on top. Finally, the pile was moistened with five liters of water and fixated with a transparent plastic film covering. For comparison, another set of unprinted and printed foil was directly fixed to the ground with no composting arrangement.
We had planned to come back after one, two and three months to check on what had happened to the different foils. But already after 30 days the results were striking. The foils which had been left uncovered were both weathered. In comparison, the unprinted foil showed more signs of weathering and was almost transparent. Picture: Left the plain foil, right the printed foil, both as a reference without any covering
But the real surprise came, when we opened the compost stack. We expected to spot the foils quickly but all we could find were isolated traces of aluminum coloured foil particles. Picture: The last traces of organic foils, there is no difference between the two foils. The remaining silver aluminium is very fragile and almost not collectable.
After a 2 months trial period, we can state our conclusion with certainty: Original Beans’ chocolate foil can be decomposed at home under simple conditions within 30 days. After 60 days the process will be almost completed. Click here to download the complete report Picture: Uncovered compost pile with the last traces of organic foil (red boxes) after two months.

Original Beans’ woodfoil makes our consumer packaging entirely bio-compostable.

If you want to compost your ORIGINAL BEANS´ foils by yourself, make sure that the foil is not too crumpled up. Also mixing the green waste with some earth and covering the heap will stimulate a higher microclimate and consequently faster decomposing. After such heavy work, please enjoy your favourite ORIGINAL BEANS chocolate with even more pleasure.

Picture: Sudi Pigott receives Academy of Chocolate 2013 award for Original Beans

“The world of fine chocolate has seen some major change in the past few years, much of it focused on the rise of so-called “bean to bar” chocolate made by smallish producers with an eye on the distinctive qualities of different cacao beans. One company that’s been making a name for itself is Original Beans, which markets a package that tells “The story of cacao in four bars” that recently won a silver medal for packaging at the Academy of Chocolate awards in London. Last summer, I was lucky enough to sit down with Sudi Pigott, a consultant to Original Beans, and taste a couple of them.”

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