We just wrapped up an Earth Day sweepstakes on Facebook, Win a Feel Good Moment, where we offered a chance to win $1000 for the non-profit of the winner’s choice. Choosing an eco-charity to support is a difficult one – there are so many great ones out there! We know this firsthand. To fulfill our 10% GiveBack Promise, we scour stacks of applications and dig deep into each organization. Here are shortcuts we’ve learned along the way to help you narrow down your choices and match up with the perfect conservation org:

1. PINPOINT YOUR CAUSE. Whether you’re interested in wildlife preservation, land conservation or climate change, there are resources to help you find an environmental org that supports your interests. Spend some time with a search engine to get a sense of the organizations out there that share your environmental concerns.

2. CHECK THEIR PERFORMANCE. Once you have a handful of organizations that speak to your eco concerns, Charity Navigator (for larger charities) and Better Business Bureau Giving Alliance (for local giving) are great places to dig deeper. These sites offer free tools to evaluate the financials, accountability and transparency of non-profits. With a few simple clicks, you’ll know which charities are trustworthy.

3. GET TO KNOW THEM, THEN JOIN THEM. Now that you’ve honed in on groups that mesh with your ideals, visit their websites. Sign up for their newsletters. Follow them on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc). You’ll quickly gain an understanding of the scope of their work and involvement with their members. A good match will make you feel good, excited and involved in making an impact.

What advice would you give to someone who’s looking for a charity to support? Comment below and share your experiences.

March is national Nutrition Month; a great opportunity to assess your diet and get reacquainted with sound eating habits. So as you prep your plate with leafy greens and bright red fruits. don’t forget to add a touch of brown – chocolate brown, that is! We all have a need for something sweet and dark chocolate is a healthful way to indulge that desire.  Scientific research shows that dark chocolate in small amounts can promote heart health, help cells resist damage from free radicals, and even help you better cope with stress.

Want to reap the maximum benefits from chocolate? Keep these 3 things in mind when selecting chocolate:

1. Aim for chocolate that has a 70% cocoa content or higher.

2. Make sure the first ingredient listed is chocolate liquor or cocoa (not sugar).

3. Choose natural and organic chocolate for a healthier planet and healthier you!

Cocoa contents of our dark chocolate at Endangered Species Chocolate range from 70-88%, chocolate liquor is the first ingredient listed on the nutritonal panel, and we offer natural and certified organic chocolate selections. Healthful never tasted so good!

What’s your preferred cocoa content?

This recipe is one of my favorites! It’s easy, quick and most likely you already have all these ingredients on hand. These cookie bars travel well – a great way to pack a bit of homemade love on your next hike, picnic or packed lunch.

Oatmeal and Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal
• 1 bar (3oz.) Endangered Species Chocolate Dark Chocolate with Almonds & Cranberries, coarsely chopped into 1/4″ chunks
• 1/2 cup almonds, coarsely chopped (optional)

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.

CREAM together butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Add flour, salt and oats. Stir in chocolate and almonds.

SPRAY an 8″ square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pour mixture into baking dish and spread evenly.

BAKE for 35-40 minutes, until top is slightly browned. Let cool. Cut into twelve 2″ squares or 24 bars.

Want another on-the-go homemade chocolate snack? You’ll use three 3oz Endangered Species Chocolate bars in this recipe, Dark Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bark with Sea Salt.

What is your favorite dessert to take on outdoor adventures? Share by commenting below.

Over the years, I’ve managed to alienate boyfriends, good friends, my husband and (for shame) my 5-year old son with my die hard S’more beliefs. So be forewarned, I fear I may come off a tad pretentious in this post.

S’mores are seriously delicious and should be approached with as much culinary mastery as you can muster in the woods. Making a stellar S’more comes down to perfecting two things:  your chocolate choice and marshmallow roasting technique.

Chocolate Choice 

Be it bitter sweet or true blue milk, the key is to find a quality chocolate that has the perfect thickness – or should I say thinness. The chocolate needs to be thin enough to be able to melt under the fleeting heat of a marshmallow. I swear by bite-sized chocolate squares(like these from Endangered Species Chocolate).

Marshmallow Roasting

Repeat after me, “coals are key.” Unlike flames, coals slowly heat the marshmallow from the inside out, producing a hot gooey center under a toasty brown crust. For the love of the great outdoors, do not set deliberately set your marshmallow ablaze over the flames of the fire! As kids, we all experienced this camping faux pas, blew out the flame and ate the evidence. People that claim to love the taste of charred marshmallow, in my opinion, are confusing good taste with childhood nostalgia.

See, told you I would come across a tad persnickety. But surely there are others out there that hold strong opinions (aka love) for the S’more. I implore you – comment below and share your S’more techniques. Show my husband and child that I am not the only one that can kill a campfire kum ba yah vibe when S’mores aren’t taken seriously!

For ideas on dressing up your S’mores, throwing a S’more party and more, visit Endangered Species Chocolate’s S’mores photo album on Facebook.

Hypnotizing isn’t he?  Meet the Siau Island tarsier, the newest animal species to be designated as critically endangered on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species.  Inhabiting a small Indonesian island, this saucer-eyed primate has to keep its eyes on two big threats – an active volcano that could wipe our its habitat at any moment and islanders that have a keen taste for tarsiers (locals regularly serve “tola-tola” as a popular snack).  The Siau Island tarsier’s critically endangered status sounds an alarm…calling attention to the possibility to its imminent demise.

The world’s most comprehensive inventory of plant and animal conservation status, the Red List classifies species into seven categories, ranging from “least concern” to “extinct.”  As you can imagine there is a plethora of scientific data that goes into carefully  defining these categories – we’re talking endless pages of graphs, charts and confusing jargon.  Here’s my simple, layman’s language interpretation* of IUCN’s species categories.

*my status descriptions are in no way endorsed or approved by the smart volunteer force at IUCN. IUCN’s categories and criteria specs can be read in detail here.

LEAST CONCERN (LC) | Species in this category are widespread and abundant.  Let’s continue to take good care of these guys, everyone!

NEAR THREATENED (NT) | Watch out! Plant and animals included in this category are close to qualifying for a threatened category in the near future.

VULNERABLE (VU) | An observed or suspected population reduction means this species needs extreme care and support to protect it from becoming endangered.  Being vulnerable isn’t a good feeling, is it?

ENDANGERED (EN) | Facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.  It is time to muster up compassion and action RIGHT NOW to save these species!

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED (CR) | A species’ numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations.

EXTINCT IN THE WILD (EW) | Sadly, these species can only be found in captivity or naturalized populations outside their natural range.

EXTINCT (EX) | No longer in existence.  Gone.  Forever.

Halloween is right around the corner.  Time to start thinking about costumes!  Instead of buying, consider a more eek-o-minded approach.  Saturday, October 8th is National Costume Swap Day™ – a planet friendly way to get kids recycling in the funniest way possible – trading (reusing) princess gowns, witch’s hats and superhero capes!

Costume swaps or making your own costumes from materials you have on hand means less resources, less packaging and less waste.  Wrap your mind around this fact: swapping (aka reusing) just half the costumes kids wear at Halloween would reduce annual landfill waste by 6,250 tons!  It also means you can be original and decide exactly what you want to be for Halloween.  Imagine trying to find a tornado costume at a big box store!

DIY Tornado Costume

• black t-shirt and pants
• masking tape
• assorted small tornado victims (leaves, toy tractor, barnyard animal figures)

Wrap masking tape up one pant leg (crinkle tape a bit for authentic tornado texture!). Repeat with t-shirt, wrapping tape in a spiral up to neck.  Tie assorted toys and figures to short bits of fishing line.  Tie fishing lined tornado victims to random spots on t-shirt and pants. Muss up child’s hair and brush a bit of dusty brown eyeshadow across face to complete the transformation! 

Swaps can be as simple as getting together with a few neighbors or as large as a citywide event; check Costume Swap’s site to find local swaps you can attend.  No matter the size of your event, a costume swap is the perfect way to save the resources it takes to create new costumes.  Plus, trading costumes saves you money!  Check out this incredibly cute video; twin brothers, Tristin and Tyler, show you how it’s done.

Find more ways to green up your holiday at Green Halloween®.

I love going to The Apple Store!   No, not the one with the flashy iPhones.  The Apple Store is a seasonal fruit stand (+ tons of other tasty treats) in Fishers, Indiana – not too far from Endangered Species Chocolate’s factory.  Open for two precious months each year (Sept-Oct), this is a spot to fall in love with the tastes of fall.  Fresh, crip, locally grown apples – available by the bushel or peck – just imagine the smell that greets you when you walk in! 

Apples are the best.  But caramel apples are even better!  That’s why I make a bee line for the rows of apples enrobed in buttery rich caramel and artfully garnished with (yum) chocolate.  Speaking of my favorite topic, chocolate, this year my love affair of The Apple Store has deepened thanks to their new display of Endangered Species Chocolate bars!  Live in our area?  Plan your trip to Conner Prairie Interactive History Park here.

If you don’t have a place like this in your neck of the woods don’t fret.  Caramel apples can be made at home with ease.  And who couldn’t use a new family recipe/tradition that involves chocolate?

Chocolate Chunk Caramel Apples

Remove apple stems and insert wooden stick into each apple.

Cook caramels and water in saucepan on med-low heat until caramels are completely melted.  Stir frequently.

Dip apple or spoon caramel over apples to coat.  Roll caramel-coated apple in broken chocolate pieces, gently pressing chocolate into caramel to secure.

Place your apple masterpieces on a waxed paper covered baking sheet; let sit for at least 20 minutes or until caramel is firm.

Tip:  The only tricky part is coaxing the caramel to not slide off the apple as you are pressing on the chocolate chunks.  To make life easier, refrigerate the apples (while you are cooking the caramels) to cool them slightly – this helps the caramel adhere better.

Did you ever notice that when it comes to spreading awareness about endangered species, animals get the lion’s share of the attention?  Most anyone can easily rattle off five threatened animal species…but can you name a plant species in need of protection?

My 5-year old can.  Armed with knowledgement about his current obsession, carnivorous plants, he informed me that his favorite plant (the oh-so-amazing Venus flytrap) was a threatened species and needed our protection.  He’s right.  As I learned more, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of species in need.

According to the Encyclopedia of Earth, over 8,000 plant species worldwide are officially threatened or endangered – and that number grows daily.  Between one-fourth and one-half of all plants are at some risk.  In the United States alone, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists 795 plant species as threatened or endangered.  A disturbing matter because plants provide essential, life sustaining ecosystems with oxygen, food, medicines, building materials, textiles and habitats.  Not to mention their beauty.

Just as it would be deplorable and tragic if, say, chimpanzees became extinct during our lifetime (a loss that is a real possibility, researchers warn), our world wouldn’t be the same without species like the black bat flower, monkey puzzle tree…or the Venus Flytrap.

My carnivorous plant-loving son with his purple pitcher plant, another threatened species.

Want to become famiiar with endangered plants in your area?  Visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Threatened and Endangered List and select your state.

ARKive.org:  Bringing endangered species to life

Hello, We’re ARKive, the world’s only centralized digital library home to thousands of images and films of globally threatened species.  We’ve partnered up with Endangered Species Chocolate’s Involved blog to give you a glimpse into the world of ARKive and the amazing imagery and facts you can find on the planet’s rarest species.  From the diving feats of the osprey to the tiny baby thorny devil, you can learn about these species and over 13,000 more on ARKive.

Since any reader of this blog likely has a sweet tooth, we thought we’d highlight some of the sleepiest critters on ARKive who could have definitely used a few Endangered Species Chocolate bars to stay awake…let’s see if you’re not yawning by the end of it!

ARKive’s Top Ten Sleepiest Species

One Wiped Out Fellow!  I would be tired too if I were capable of impressive diving feats like the Gentoo penguin who can pursue prey up to 170 meters or 500 feet deep down in the ocean.

A Sweet Sleeper.  Although taking a moment to catch up on some sleep here, the arctic fox is usually always on the search for food and amazingly, can reduce its metabolism by half, while still being active, to help conserve energy while on the hunt.

Sprawled Out Slumber.  It’s well known that most bears hibernate through the winter months but sometimes it’s worth a reminder how truly unique this process is.  Once brown bears enter their hibernation period, they don’t eat, drink, urinate or defecate for up to six months!  Could you imagine not getting out of bed for anything for 6 months?

Chameleons Catch Forty Winks  It seems as though Parson’s chameleons start off as sleepy critters.  With one of the longest incubation periods in the reptile world, it takes a whopping 20 months for a Parson’s chameleon egg to hatch.  I guess if I had a nice safe place to sleep, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to hatch either!

Down for the Count.  It’s not surprising to catch all these big cats sleeping in the middle of the day.  Lions are inactive 20 out of 24 hours a day and reserve their energy for the cool and darker times of day, such as sunrise and sunset, to hunt.

Submerged Snoozer.  Manatees need to come up for air approximately every 20 minutes or less, making them the top napping species on the list.  Since manatees never leave the water, they don’t experience long periods of slumber like humans and so frequent, short bouts of sleep while resting on the ocean floor are enough for them.

Daytime Dozer.  Although most owls are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night and mostly inactive during the day, the little owl is actually diurnal and prefers to do most of its hunting during the day.  This little owl, however, seels to have taken the opportunity to catch a few winks before bedtime.

Curled Up to Catch Zzzs… The dormouse is such a sleepy creature that its name is thought to derive from the French word ‘dormir’ meaning ‘to sleep.’  When ready to begin hibernation, which can last up to 7 months, the dormouse enters a state of extreme torpor where its body processes slow to a fraction of their normal rate.

Cat-napping Koala.  Another sleepy species, the koala spends a vast majority of its time snoozing away and even when awake, it’s a very sedentary species.  you’ll find koalas often catching Z’s while balancing on branches in trees well out of harm’s way.

What a Yawn!  Although extinct, we still know some very interesting facts about this species and that while it yawned, the Thylacine could open its jaw wider than any mammal on the planet.  Are you yawning yet?

We hope you enjoyed this introduction to endangered species on ARKive.  To come face-to-face with more endangered species around the world, visit ARKive today!

Selecting Wrapping Paper

“So what species should we put on the wrapper?”  is the main thought that obsesses our minds after determining a flavor for a new Endangered Species Chocolate bar.  This packaging element is the first thing people notice about our chocolate bars.  The success of a flavor can often hinge on the appeal of the animal.  Case in point:  a boost in our Smooth Milk Chocolate Bar sales coincided with a cover art switch from the red salmon to the sea otter.  Coincidence?

Everyone can connect with the cute and cuddly.  But we don’t want to do a disservice to the rest of the world’s endangered species – you know, the ones that some consider a tad creepy.  So yes, the majority of our chocolates feature animal photography that is easy on the eyes but that doesn’t mean we neglect the weirder ones.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

Would a chocolate bar boasting a bat on the wrapper fly? 

We boldly assigned the bat as the ambassador of our Intense Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs bar in 2004.  Among the most endangered of wildlife, bats, as pollinators and controllers of insects, are vital to nature’s existence.  But they give many people the willies!  That’s why I’m pleased to report that “The Bat Bar” has been embraced by our consumers and enjoys a healthy sales ranking to this day.

An Iguana?  Really?!

It doesn’t always work though.  Take our long ago misguided notion to have a marine iguana grace the cover of the Organic Smooth Dark Chocolate Bar (view it here).  This flavor should have been a shoo in for top selling flavor but it languished.  After months of struggle, it was stuck being the least popular chocolate bar in our collection.  However, almost immediately after the wrapper art was morphed into a butterfly, this bar soared to the top sales spot and is still there today!

Ophiophobia (fear of snakes)

So would my debilitating fear of snakes keep me from grabbing a chocolate bar that had a serpent on the wrapper?  I’d like to think not.  Each creature holds its own important place here on Earth – and honestly, I think there is beauty to be found in the strange and unique (a sentiment shared by ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle).

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”  – Aristotle

What creatures do you find fascinating that others tend to shy away from?