What does A Streetcar Named Desire have to do with chocolate? Both the play and this month's featured maker share their names with New Orleans streets. Piety Street runs parallel to Desire Street, and founder Christopher Nobles felt the two names together perfectly captured cacao's history as a prized currency and beverage — rooted in the city he loves, with an appeal that reaches far beyond it.
While many chocolates I taste are enjoyable, few genuinely wow me — Piety & Desire was an unexpected exception. Demonstrating remarkable self control, my husband’s nephew saved two squares of chocolate from bars he purchased while visiting New Orleans and schlepped them to Seattle on a visit from his home in Texas. These were two well-traveled morsels waiting to be tasted! I fell in love immediately: one a micro-batch single origin, the other a beer-infused bar. When I began curating our May 2025 member box featuring International Chocolate Award medalists, I discovered that the beer bar I'd tasted was among the winners.
I reached out to Christopher to see if he'd be interested in working with us. It turned out he had visited my Seattle shop years ago and had set a goal of someday getting his chocolate on our shelves. We were honored that he was eager to make it happen. Today he sells most of his chocolate through the Piety & Desire café on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District — a destination worth knowing about, with an extensive menu of drinking chocolate, colorful bonbons, ice cream, coffee, and inventive combinations of all three.
Art, Science and a Lifelong Love of Chocolate
Growing up in New Orleans, Christopher cooked throughout high school and college. While he loved to cook, restaurant work never felt like his calling. A former musician and psychologist, he's always been drawn to the intersection of art and science — and when he began making chocolate, those threads came together beautifully. The craft united his analytical mind, his artistic sensibility, and a lifelong love of chocolate.
Rare Cacao, New Orleans Flavor
Christopher and I spent a year talking about collaborating on a member box. The timing didn't align until now — as a small-batch maker, it's challenging to meet our needs during the busy season that runs from Christmas through Mother's Day. I’m excited to introduce you to chocolates that showcase great single-origin cacao — some of it new to Christopher— alongside chocolates that represent the flavors of New Orleans and Christopher’s creativity. We’re the first to taste TWO new origins that Christopher is really excited about.
Almendra Blanca de Finca Frida, Soconusco, Mexico, 77%
We’re fortunate to be tasting the first batch of this origin that Christopher describes as a “stunner”. A single varietal from a single estate in the Chiapas region of Mexico, this criollo-esque bean is light in color and offers complex flavors. I taste notes of green bell pepper, tropical fruit, orange and chocolate.
Cusco, Peru 73%
Grown in Peru’s Sacred Valley near Machu Picchu, Chuncho cacao is a native varietal of Cusco and was recently designated as a unique genetic cluster. Known for its high fat content and absence of tannins, it grew in the isolated Urubamba Valley and remained genetically unadulterated during the region’s predominance as the main Peruvian cacao producer in pre-Columbian times. Researchers have identified 10 different varietals of Chuncho, resulting in some variety of flavors and aromas even within the genetic group. This is an exciting cacao that we’ve seen from a number of makers. I’m having trouble describing the tasting notes for this bar. The beginning note is savory, almost like a wood or spice, but I can’t quite put my finger on the flavor. There’s a fruity note as well, and maybe cream. Christopher says of this cacao, "It's got some herbal notes while also being a little bit softer than spicy, and it ends fudgy. A lot of times you sacrifice brut cocoa flavor for fruit flavor, and floral flavors are hard to find in something that's not a delicate chocolate. I love that it's got a little bit of everything. It's got a little bit of fruit on the front end. A little bit of dried fruit, a little floral, but at the end, you know it's a chocolate."
Bonus Tasting Square (Chuncho de Ayacucho 73%)
We’re among the first to taste this inaugural batch of chocolate made with Chuncho cacao from the Ayacucho area of Peru. While this is made with cacao from the same genetic group as the Cusco bar, it is grown in Ayacucho, which is located 250km from Cusco. Here’s what Christopher had to say about this cacao, “I just received a half ton of this bean I fell for recently, which took me quite by surprise, seeing as I was already a big fan of this same varietal just next-door in Cusco! The Chuncho varietal is the umbrella varietal, so there are quite a few different phenotypes floating around, making it a fun varietal to explore. Despite still sitting on some neighboring bags of Chuncho from Cusco, these beans really won me over.” He describes the flavor profile as buttery graham cracker, speculoos cookie, very mild orange notes, and candied pecan. I have to agree!
Strawberry Feels 70%
A nod to chocolate-covered strawberries, this 70% dark chocolate is made with Tanzania-origin cacao from Kokoa Kamili, which Christopher describes as “the most consistent producer ever.” The back is sprinkled with dried strawberries grown in Louisiana, a local crop that reached its peak in the 1930s. Christopher calls out the history of the strawberry industry in Louisiana on the chocolate box. He told us, "We have strawberries in Ponchatoula, and a lot of the folks out there have Italian last names, so I just assumed that a lot of the Sicilian immigrants left the city for greener pastures, and started growing strawberries. But when I started doing my line of inclusion bars and wanted to connect it to the history of where these ingredients came from and their significance to the culture, I was surprised to find that these families were not just Sicilian, but also Hungarian." He notes that this chocolate is, "One of my faves. I just love it for the strawberry, because it's got that nice really bright cherry note mixed with lemon. When you pair it with strawberries, it really complements it."
Café au Lait et Beignet 45%
We’re fortunate to be able to taste this bar that is only available directly through Piety & Desire. A New Orleans classic, Louisiana-style beignets are a deep-fried yeast dough dusted in powdered sugar and traditionally served with chicory coffee for breakfast or dessert. P&D blends coffee and chicory with milk chocolate before spiking it with pieces of fried beignet, resulting in a crispy chocolate treat with a lot of crunch and a hint of chicory. Christopher notes that this chocolate has very little cacao in it, "My first thought was, 'it should be a milk chocolate,.' But then I knew it wasn't gonna be your typical milk chocolate that would be a 40-something percent cocoa. We wanted the chocolate itself to taste like Cafe au lait — more like the beverage than a chocolate bar. So in that sense, we actually ended up making it closer to white chocolate. There's very little cocoa in there. The cocoa nibs are there for color more than anything, to be honest. I find that the cocoa beans soften the coffee and chicory a little bit so it really just rounds out the flavor."
Piety & Desire is a craft chocolate maker with a strong sense of place — Louisiana strawberries in one bar, chicory coffee and fried beignet in another. Christopher's chocolate successfully weaves the flavors and traditions of Bayou culture into delicious chocolate crafted with rare cacao.
