Joe Chocolates Midnight Coconut

It doesn’t get much more Seattle: coffee and chocolate together with a University of Washington origin story.In 2015 while attending UW, Sam Tanner and Peter Keckemet started a class project that would eventually become a local entrepreneurial success, Joe Chocolates.

Joe Chocolates offers the timeless combination of chocolate and coffee in a simple broken-bar package with certain other hand-prepared ingredients. Joe Chocolates uses a rich dark chocolate from Guittard Chocolate Company, a venerated family chocolate company out of San Francisco, and coffee beans from Lighthouse Roasters of Seattle.

True to their tagline printed on every bag of Joe Chocolates, “Bits of buzz in every bite,” each 2.5-ounce bag of Joe Chocolates is equal to two cups of strong coffee, two cups “o’ joe,” which is in keeping with the founders’ original goal when they started their class project, providing fellow students with a delicious source of energy for classes and test season.

Joe Chocolates offers several renditions of their coffee laden chocolate: Holy Cacao, Salted Caramel, Honeyed Almond, Midnight Coconut, and Frosted Peppermint.

We sampled Joe Chocolates’ Midnight Coconut, and it certainly lived up to the founders’ vision to provide a high-quality treat with ingredients you can identify in every bite. As mentioned, Joe Chocolates uses only dark chocolate from Guittard, and it proves the perfect vehicle for Lighthouse’s ground roasted coffee beans and that hint of coconut from toasted coconut flakes. The chocolate is at once both delicate and decadent—creamy without being cloying, rich without overpowering your taste buds or the other flavors. And the Lighthouse-roasted coffee gives a deft compliment the chocolate, with its perfect level of roast and adding just a bit more bitterness. The toasted coconut is not dominant but comes in around the edges, accenting the whole with a touch of sweetness.

Other characteristics to Joe Chocolates’ Midnight Coconut are a crisp graininess, letting you know there truly is unadulterated ground coffee in your confection, and a pleasing chalkiness, similar to certain Italian red wines.

And if the deliciousness of Joe Chocolates’ products isn’t enough, consider the chocolate Joe Chocolate’s receives from Guittard is certified as GMO free and comes from farmer-owned co-ops in Central and South America and Joe Chocolates is working with suppliers toward insuring all their ingredients are GMO free, as well as working toward full Fair Trade certification. All of Joe Chocolates’ chocolates are gluten free, and Frosted Peppermint and Midnight Coconut are vegan!

Whether you need a light-weight snack for your next camping or hiking trip or something to keep in your drawer at work for a quick, indulgent pick-me-up, Joe Chocolates has you covered, with the right flavor for everybody.

Joe Chocolates chocolate is available at many locations around Seattle and online and, as always, at Seven Coffee Roasters Market and Caféon Ravenna.