Last Friday, The New York Times put out a recommendation called “The Only Chocolate Bars Worth Buying.” We gasped! As professional chocolate tasters, we know there’s no such thing as a definitive list of the “best” chocolate. From the most complex and flavorful single-origin bar to toffee-spiked milk chocolate, everyone’s definition of “best” is personal to them—and their palate.
But what really dismayed us was the list of people they consulted: Mostly chefs. We love them—they’re masters of their crafts. But chocolate is a whole different ballgame. On the NYT’s list, Cadbury Fruit & Nut—a candy bar with more sugar and milk than chocolate—came in fourth out of 12 in their contest. (No shade to anyone who loves Cadbury, but to include it on a list of “best of”—when there’s an entire universe of delicious artisan options, crafted with expertise and love— just doesn’t make sense.)
Valrhona won the contest, probably because many of the best restaurants use Valrhona for their pastry programs, so it's a brand these chefs know as premium. While Valrhona makes good chocolate, there are many more small companies producing balanced, flavorful and complex chocolate. (And all of them with a much higher cocoa content than Cadbury.)
I asked some of my chocolate friends to give me a favorite bar recommendation. You'll find their choices, below. At the bottom is my recommendation—which is going to surprise those of you who know me & my palate!
This is by no means an exhaustive list— it’s merely a starting point for exploration. There are hundreds of great craft chocolates available in the US.
You can find more specialty chocolate artisans at the links listed under each recommendation and here. And next time you visit your local specialty food store, check out the chocolate aisle and let us know what you find!
- Lauren Adler, Chief Chocophile, The Chocolate Explorers Club
Castronovo Arhuacos 66% Dark Milk w/ Cacao Nibs
- Lu Liu, co-owner of The Chocolate House DC, @chochousedc
This is the kind of chocolate that surprises people — in the best way. It’s a dark milk bar, so you get the richness of dark chocolate with just enough creaminess to make it smooth and easy to enjoy. What really makes it fun is the texture: crunchy cacao nibs add a toasty, slightly nutty bite, so every piece feels layered and satisfying. The cacao comes from the Arhuaco people of Colombia, helping preserve their ancestral traditions — so it’s a bar that’s as meaningful as it is delicious.
Cacao Origin: Colombia (Arhuaco community)
% Cacao: 66%
Type: Dark milk chocolate
Price: $15.50
Find it Here: DC Chocolate House
The Organic House Salted Cream & Onion 55% Mylk
- Kala Maxym, Owner and Chief Chocolate Officer of The Chocolate Dispensary & Tasting Room, @chocolatedispensary
Picture a Pringle meeting an Onion Ring while an Everything Bagel and schmear sits and watches. Even then you’re nowhere close to the weirdly wonderful flavors in the surprising and delightful Salted Cream & Onion bar by Deanna at The Organic House. One of the most innovative flavor artists in the craft chocolate world, Deanna is a whiz at putting flavors into chocolate you wouldn’t think would work – Tomato & Basil, Dill, Soursop – and making you question everything you ever thought about chocolate.
This is a bar that goes great on a cheese plate, as a side dish to a Sunday night football game — or when you want to make sure your date doesn’t kiss you at the end of the night.
Cacao Origin: Maya Mountain, Belize
% Cacao: 55%
Type: Alternative milk (Cashew, Vegan)
Price: $14.00
Find it Here: Chocolate Dispensary
Moka Origins 72% Dark Chocolate with Cherries
- Estelle Tracy, Founder of 37 Chocolates, @37chocolates
This direct-trade chocolate maker has elevated the classic combination of cherries and dark chocolate by combining a super fruity dark chocolate with the juiciest dried cherries. The chocolate is so creamy with not a whiff of bitterness. It’s perfect for people who want to move up from milk chocolate, but who shy away from intense bars. Try it with an Oregon Pinot Noir.
Cacao origin: Tanzania
% Cacao: 72%
Type: Dark chocolate
Price: $10.95
Find it Here: Moka Origins
Pump Street Cookie Chip 60%
- Jessica Henderson, Founder of Chocolate Monkey Fine Chocolate Tastings, @chocolatemonkeync
This chocolate bar from award-winning British craft chocolate maker Pump Street Chocolate, flips the script and adds crispy, buttery cookies to creamy milk chocolate for a decadent tasting experience. A rich, round chocolate made from Heirloom Cacao Preservation (HCP)-certified Hacienda Limon (Ecuador) cocoa beans balances the buttery, caramelized sweetness of the cookies to create an indulgent yet comforting chocolate bar. It's the newest in their bakery series, which continues to impress me with its innovative and delicious combinations.
Cacao origin: Hacienda Victoria, Ecuador
% Cacao: 60%
Type: Dark milk chocolate
Price: $9.99
Find it Here: Caputo's Market
Boho 51% Dark Milk Chocolate With Potato Chips
- Barb Genuario, Co-Founder DC Chocolate Society & Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival, @chocochaser
Thick, salty potato chips are packed into a smooth, creamy chocolate that satisfies every craving all at once. The sweet-salty balance keeps you going back for "just one more bite".
The fun twist? Most milk chocolate bars in the US only have around 10% cacao. This hand-crafted Boho bar is 51% cacao, which means you get real chocolate flavor without a trace of bitterness. It's more like a creamy chocolate milkshake than a candy bar, just with a seriously satisfying crunch.
Cacao origin: Bolivia
% Cacao: 51%
Type: Milk chocolate
Price: $9.00
Find it Here: Boho Chocolate
Mānoa Kealakekua, Hawaiʻi Island Bar 70%
- Earnie Glazener, chocolate guide, @eglazener
Hawaii is the only state in the US where cacao is grown commercially. Mānoa's Kealakekua, Hawaiʻi Island Bar 70% uses cacao from a single farm on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Its craft roasting process allows the cacao's unique flavors to shine through. The result is delightful blended fruit flavors, warm and slightly piquant spice notes, a faint wisp of lemon, and an undercurrent of nuts, honey, and creamed lightly browned butter— all with decadently creamy, fudgy chocolate by their side—and all from just the cacao and its terroir. Made in small quantities due to the small cacao harvest, but definitely worth seeking.
Cacao origin: Hawaii
% Cacao: 70%
Type: Dark chocolate
Price: $12.00
Find it Here: Manoa Chocolate
Sisters A Chocolate Raspberry 50%
- David Nilsen, Host of Bean to Barstool, author of Pairing Beer & Chocolate, @beantobarstool
The eponymous sisters of Sisters A Chocolate in Ukraine are crafting beauty in the midst of violence and uncertainty. Their Raspberry 50% bar with Peruvian cacao tastes like the birth of spring in chocolate form, with bright, warm raspberry and a hint of shady green undergrowth. Don't worry about the details though, just take a bite of this chocolate, feel the sun of the first warm day on your face, and be grateful you live in a world that has both.
Cacao Origin: San Martin, Peru
% Cacao: 50%
Type: Alternative milk (Oat, Vegan)
Price: $17.00
Find it Here: Chocolate Dispensary
Castronovo Chocolate Jaguar Cacao Nibs 68% Arhuacos Dark Chocolate
- Jessica Ferraro, Craft Chocolate Specialist & Broker, @barcacao
I love nothing more than the kind of chocolate that carries me away with its compelling story. I avoid the kind of chocolate with more-ish bits that breaks my restraint to savor slowly, instead too quickly munching away my beautiful bars.
Denise Castronovo artfully engages these tendencies with her Jaguar Cacao Nibs bar, a blend of subtly symphonic 68% Colombia Arhuacos dark chocolate with gently roasted Peruvian “jaguar cacao,” a cashew-like cousin of cacao. I only wish this bar lasted longer.
Cacao Origin: Colombia (Arhuaco Community)
% Cacao: 68%
Type: Dark chocolate
Price: $16.00
Find it Here: Castronovo Chocolate
Ritual Chocolate/Caputo's Wild Tranquilidad 75%
- Barbie Van Horn, chocolate explorer, Finding Fine Chocolate, @findingfinechocolate
An amazing bar with so many flavors that relate to foods we know and love. There’s a bit of coffee flavor, cherry and berry notes, even a touch of a deep caramel note. As it melts on your tongue you know you’ll enjoy finding the next flavor.
Cacao Origin: Bolivia
% Cacao: 75%
Type: Dark chocolate
Price: $17.99
Find it Here: Caputo's
Amano Chocolate Dos Rios 70%
- Karla Schade, chocolate educator, @openingchocolate
You think you know what chocolate should taste like until you take an unexpected but simply delightful flavor journey with Amano Dos Rios 70% dark chocolate bar. Made with beans from the Dominican Republic, and only a pinch of vanilla, you find delicate notes of blueberry, bergamot and lavender mingled with the chocolatey base. This bar is not at all bitter, like many people would expect a 70% to be. Imagine what you could pair this bar with, considering those tasting notes!
Cacao Origin: Dominican Republic
% Cacao: 70%
Type: Dark chocolate
Price: $14.95
Find it Here: Amano Chocolate
Castronovo Sierra Nevada Colombia 63% Dark Milk
- Victoria Kichuk, Chocolate Tastings Experience Provider, Tour Guide, Speaker & Founder, Cocoa Beantown Chocolate Tasting Events & Tours, @CocoaBeantown
Far too often the chocolate world can divide itself into opposing tribes, with dark chocolate lovers attempting to claim the title of "True Chocholics" — with their fondness for bold flavors and assertive amounts of cacao content — the milk chocolate lovers, less inclined to put pesky percentages on their bars, proclaim their interest in chocolate to align with more creamier and sweeter flavors, leaving little room for agreement between the two camps. Enter: Dark Milk chocolate. A "best of the both worlds" situation in every sense, this hybrid category has high levels of cacao content, but still leaves enough room for the dairy fat, resulting in bars with both bold flavors and an indulgent mouthfeel. Chocolate lovers new to this category would be wise to prioritize the Sierra Nevada Colombia Dark Milk by Castronovo Chocolate. This 2019 Golden Bean Award winner never fails to bring tasters on a journey through the lush biome of Colombia, touching on flavor notes of red fruit, golden caramel, and roasted nut. Much easier way to travel than going through TSA.
Cacao origin: Sierra Nevada, Colombia
% Cacao: 63%
Type: Dark milk chocolate
Price: $13.00
Find it Here: Castronovo Chocolate
Potomac Chocolate You Bread My Mind 70%
- Marisol Slater, Co-founder DC Chocolate Festival, Events Director at The Chocolate House
Sometimes you just have to push a chocolate maker and Ben Rasmussen of Potomac Chocolate delivered big! When Ben mentioned he was starting to bake sourdough, I told him he had to put it in one of his dark chocolate bars. To my surprise - he heeded my demands! "You Bread My Mind" is his award-winning 70% Dominican Republic dark chocolate loaded with lightly toasted homemade sourdough breadcrumbs and a hint of sea salt. Perfect for those who put bread and chocolate at the top of their own personal food pyramid.
Cacao Origin: Duarte, Dominican Republic
% Cacao: 70%
Type: Dark chocolate
Price: $10.00
Find it Here: Potomac Chocolate
Cacaosuyo Piura 70%
- Nettie Atkisson, Author, chocolate educator, speaker and founder, The Chocolate Connection, @smallbatcheducation
This is one of the most welcoming dark chocolates for people who believe they “don’t like dark chocolate.” Piura cacao is naturally low in tannins, which means it avoids the bitterness and astringency that some people associate with dark chocolate. Instead, this bar offers a clean, bright flavor profile with fruity and caramel notes, and a smooth melt that feels approachable even to first‑time dark‑chocolate tasters. Its balance, clarity, and gentle fruitiness make it an ideal bridge for anyone curious about exploring higher‑percentage cacao without overwhelming intensity.
Cacao Origin: Piura, Peru
% Cacao: 70%
Type: Dark chocolate
Price: $14.50
Find it Here: DCChocolate House
Eldora Chocolate Toffee & Almond 70%
- Lauren Adler, founder & Chief Chocophile, The Chocolate Explorers Club, @chiefchocophile and @chocoexplorersclub
Almonds, toffee and chocolate are a classic combination. Get the balance wrong, and you end up in the overly-sweet end of the pool. That’s not the case with this dark chocolate-forward bar by Albuquerque craft chocolate maker, Eldora Chocolate. The fruity notes of Dominican Republic cacao peek through tiny bits of toffee and almond which are generously folded into rich dark chocolate, ensuring every bite is filled with flavor — and just the right amount of crunch. If you’re not sure about dark chocolate this bar may turn you into a believer.
Cacao origin: Dominican Republic (cacao origin may change from time to time)
% Cacao: 70%
Price: $10.00
Type: Dark chocolate
Find it Here: Eldora Chocolate
Thanks to the panelists: co-owner of DC Chocolate House, Lu Liu; owner of The Chocolate Dispensary and Tasting Room, Kala Maxym; founder of 37 Chocolates, Estelle Tracy; founder of Chocolate Monkey Fine Chocolate Tastings, Jessica Henderson; co-founder DC Chocolate Society & Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival, Barb Genuario; chocolate guide, Earnie Glazener; host of Bean to Barstool, David Nilsen; craft chocolate specialist & broker, Jessica Ferraro; always Finding Fine Chocolate, Barbie Van Horn; chocolate taster, Karla Schade; founder Cocoa Beantown Tasting Events & Tours, Victoria Kichuk, and me, founder of The Chocolate Explorers Club, Lauren Adler. Special thanks to Liza Boyd.
