Jamaican Chocolate Brands for Real Chocolate Lovers
by Stephanie Koathes Mar 16, 2020
The island may be famous for the flavours of jerk, escovitch and rum, but Jamaica was once also known for delicious chocolate.
These days locally produced, top-tier chocolate is seeing a resurgence, with a growing number of brands doing amazing things.
If you’re a real chocolate lover and want to support local brands, here are four Jamaican chocolate brands to try. Enjoy!
The Pure Chocolate Company is doing dark chocolate right. They work directly with the cacao bean farmers to ethically produce single-origin, farm-to-bar Jamaican chocolate. Pure Chocolate Company’s bars are hand-made using only Jamaican cocoa, sugar, and spices. Their eye-catching wrappers are designed by upcoming local artists and serve as space for the artist to showcase their talent. Pure Chocolate Company currently produces four types of chocolate: 68% chocolate with cacao nibs, 75% dark chocolate, 85% dark chocolate, and 75% dark chocolate with jerk seasoning.
“Dark chocolate is what we’re currently doing. If you’re trying to get accustomed to the taste of dark chocolate, I’d recommend the 68% chocolate with cacao nibs. It’s crunchy, it’s fruity, and it’s a bit sweeter. For the true connoisseur, I’d recommend trying our 75%,” said Rennae of Pure.
As the company grows, there are new flavours in the works like lemongrass, cinnamon, and coffee.
Pure Chocolate Company bars are available in Things Jamaica (Devon House), Fontana (Waterloo), and the AC Hotel. It’s also available to visitors at multiple resorts such as Strawberry Hill, GoldenEye, Half Moon, and Jamaica Inn.
Not in Jamaica? If you happen to be in the Netherlands, you can pick up a bar at Chocolátl.
One One Cacao is an Academy of Chocolate Bronze and Silver award winner based in downtown Kingston. The small-batch tree-to-bar chocolate company produces chocolate bars and drinking chocolate using Grade A Jamaican cacao beans. You won’t find a host of strange ingredients in your One One Cacao bars: just 70% cacao, cane sugar, and natural flavourings. Their 70% bar with Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is absolutely delicious. One One Cacao products are available at Toyota Café upstairs the Toyota Showroom on Old Hope Road.
Not a dark chocolate fan? If you’re looking for something a little sweeter, then the chocolate line by local coffee shop chain Café Blue might be up your street. These bean-to-bar chocolates come in milk chocolate with caramelised peanuts, white chocolate with caramelised peanuts, and plain milk chocolate varieties. For dark chocolate lovers, there are also 57% dark chocolate with coffee and 70% dark chocolate bars. Café Blue’s chocolates are available island-wide in major retail outlets and supermarkets including Megamart, Loshusan, HiLo, Fontana, General Food, Progressive, and Brooklyn.
Chocollor Chocolate is the brainchild of retired mechanical engineer Carl Sharpe. In 2012, after being diagnosed with cancer, Sharpe was determined to realise his long-held idea of chocolate making. Chocollor, named after his daughter, a top-ranked cyclist, uses cacao beans primarily from farmers in Clarendon and St Mary. The small chocolate enterprise produces premium milk, white, and 60% and 70% dark chocolate bars. The bars are available in the Liguanea and Ocho Rios branches of General Food supermarket and Things Jamaica in Devon House.
Chocollor Chocolate, One One Cacao and the Pure Chocolate Company represented Jamaican chocolate at the recent Salon du Chocolat in Brussels, Belgium. The Salon du Chocolat is one of the largest chocolate festivals in the world, held in Brussels, Paris, and Lyon, France.
We hope you go out and grab a bar of one of these amazing Jamaican chocolate brands! If you liked this article, you might want to check out Jamaican food bloggers to follow, where to go for happy hour and Jamaica’s best food festivals.