Shirley's original recipe can still be found in her hand-written cookbook, though it's carefully locked away at Goupie HQ, so no luck in making your own - very hush hush! This is the recipe that saw the Noble/Simpson family through 50 years of Goupie making. It was enjoyed at many a family event, car drive and even in extra-special packed lunches!
They’ve searched high and wide to find the best quality ingredients for their products. Where possible, they source locally.
Where they can’t source locally, they always look to source quality and as sustainably as possible (for example our cocoa is fairtrade and their coffee is triple certified (Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade & Social Association). They also tend to use local distributors to reduce the miles put on the products, but also to support those businesses. It can be slightly more expensive, but they feel it's important to build those relationships. Hopefully one day they'll be in the position where they can go straight to the source to have full control of their supply chain!
Chocolate is obviously one of the most important ingredients in their supply chain. They've always been determined to use the best quality, that tastes delicious (taste testing chocolate really is a horrible job, but someone's got to do it). They've made sure to contact their supplier's directly to make sure that they are doing everything they can to not only eradicate child slavery from their supply chain, but actively pursue change in the industry. They think it's important to acknowledge that it isn't always an easy fix of simply not doing something, but that there are usually underlying issues at the core of these symptoms which should be tackled.
Their palm oil is another ingredient which is victim to this. They looked high and low to find a more sustainable solution to the fat element of their product. In the end, they returned to palm oil. Though this is fairly controversial, they hope to at least explain their rationale here, for you to make up your own mind. Firstly, it's important to note that they do not just use any palm oil, but an RSPO certified palm oil which is sourced from the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. This means that, not only can they pinpoint where every batch came from to ensure that no deforestation has occurred, but also that they won't be anywhere near those lovely Orangutans!
Secondly, palm oil has one of the highest yields per square kilometre, beating all other edible oils. This makes it a much more viable option for sustainable growth than say coconut, or sunflower (in their opinion). They're of the mind that if everyone stops using palm oil, and switches to these alternative oils, they're going to have the same (if not worse) issues later down the line. It makes much more sense to them, that we support accreditation systems which look to protect the environment and local populations and help to build upon these.
