Life is like a box of chocolates- you never know what you will get until you try it
Hello,
We are Nik and Boyana- a young couple who love animals as much as we love chocolate.
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We want to change the world for better by offering you plant-based choices with excelent taste.
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Our products are for people, who want to do good to the planet and animals, feel good and indulge a great food.
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Boyana is a graduated nutritionist with high interests in food sustainability, food science and technology and plant-based diet.
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Nik has graduated Sport Science and has been following vegan diet for 6 years so far.
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How Bolicious was born?
Chocolate has become an every-day food for the majority of the world`s population. Chocolate has become a symbol of love but it is often considered as bad food. In 2020, I conducted my first scientific study (a systematic review) where I investigated "the chocolate between the culinary and medicine". I found out how healthy the chocolate actually is, how daily consumption can actually benefit our health, how versatile the cacao is, and , sandly, how our food system convert such a healthy ingredient into a junk food. My research was focused on developing a new technological process for chocolate making considering the type of cacao beans used, the origin of the cacao beans and the type of chocolate. I was comparing the effects of different methods used in each process (fermentation, drying, roasting, conching), in order to find which method is most preserving for the micronutrients. I was then investigating chocolate fortification as a solution to replace the nutrients lost during processing, as well as to achieve a food that can be used as supplement (probiotic chocolate for example).
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This was the moment when I realised how broken our food system is. We have everything to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We have available food, we have machines, we have knowledge in all the possible fields (agriculture, nutrition, environmental health, human health, marketing) and the population and planet is getting sicker day by day.
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This is when I decided to create Bolicious. The name combines my personal name (BOyana) and the word "delicious".
Our Goals:
STOP Child Labour
The chocolate industry is rife with child labor with children enslaved or kidnapped on cocoa plantations, working long hours with dangerous tools. Poverty is the main root cause of child labour. By byuing our bonbons, which are made with Fair Trade chocolate, you and me are enabling farmers to prosper. The fair Trade Chocolate brands pay the farmers a cash premium, which helps farmers increase their income and life standard, and invest in activities, which help the farmers to improve the health and productivity of their farms and the quality of their crops.The chocolate brand we are using aims to stop any child labour by 2025 by implementing traceability and transparency systems in their cacao crops.
Happy Cows
Believe it or not, cows are highly intelegent and social animals. Cows make different noises to address different cows in the herd- similar to people when we use different names for different individuals. ​Although they are too big, cows like to play hide-and-seek , just like every happy child. Cows have strong family bonds and grieve for days when they lose a partner in the herd.
Unfortunatelly, the biggest misconception about dairy industry is how the milk is produced by the cows. Very litte percentage of the population understand that cows, similar to humans, needs to first be pregnant and then to give a birth. The way these natural things happen in the dairy industry is far away from "natural".
At age of 15-months old, cows are artificially inseminated with semen mechanically drawn from a beef breed. This is very painful and traumatic for the cows. The insemination with beef breed results in bigger, bulkier calves, which leads to birthing difficulties and permanent nerve damage, resulting in cow`s unability to stand. Few days or hours after birth, the calves are separated from their mother, so all the cow’s milk can be taken for human consumption. Unfortunatelly, mother cow experience enormous amount of physical and emotional pain during this. Cows even get sick and die from depression because their babies are taken away from them soo early. The saddest thing is that this is repeatedly caused to cows every year in order to meet the demand for dairy product. The milk meant to be used for calve breed is now used in almost every product found at the supermarket, and chocolate product are one example for this. We truly love any kind of animals, which is the reason that drives us to produce mostly vegan chocolate products.
Chocolate suitable for everyone
As a graduated nutritionist, I cannot be ignorant on the increasing rates of food intolerances and allergy, especially among children. I have always had a deep connection with the chocolate (I will share in my blog soon), and knowing that there are kids, who cannot have soo many chocolate products due to their allergy is just hearbreaking. I want to create chocolate products suitable for everyone independetly of their food intolerance/allergy. This is the another reason that motivates us to create plant-based products.
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