Nine years after its launch in 2012, jcoco, a woman-owned chocolate company under the Seattle Chocolate Company umbrella, today unveils its new, single-origin dark and dark milk chocolate bars made from ancestral Peruvian beans. Jean Thompson, CEO and Owner of Seattle Chocolate Company, launched jcoco as a sister brand to Seattle Chocolate to elevate how people experience chocolate, while donating 10% of net profits to its national food security partners (Northwest Harvest, Food Bank for New York City, and San Francisco-Marin Food Bank) with every purchase.
jcoco’s fan-favorite flavors have been reformulated with 100% Peruvian origin cacao blends carefully tailored to each bar’s unique recipe. The team worked with a small craft chocolate maker who sourced the fine aroma beans from local Peruvian farms to create four uniquely crafted chocolates, resulting in bars with 47%, 61%, 72% and 85% cacao. The cacao beans for each variety are meticulously processed after harvesting and lightly roasted to bring out the cacao’s subtleties, resulting in a more complex-tasting chocolate with layers of depth and dimension that are discovered with each bite.
Notably, the dark milk chocolate (47% cacao; dark chocolate is typically defined as 50%-90% cacao) will replace the original milk chocolate bars in the collection; the higher cacao content in dark milk chocolate lends itself to a well-balanced bar with a more intense cacao flavor and burnt caramel undertones that perfectly complements ingredients like quinoa/sesame, edamame, toffee, and mango/plantain.
The new jcoco line includes the following: Single Varietal Contamana Cacao – 85% cacao; Peruvian Dark with Cacao Nibs – 72% cacao; Black Fig Pistachio – 72% cacao; Alaskan Smoked Sea Salt – 61% cacao; Boharat Spice – 61% cacao; Orange Blossom Espresso – 61% cacao; Himalayan Salt + Toffee – 47% cacao; Edamame Sea Salt – 47% cacao; Crisp Quinoa Sesame – 47% cacao; Mango Plantain – 47% cacao. The bars are available in one-ounce bars ($3.50) and three-ounce envelopes ($10.50), and jcoco will debut updated versions of its signature Prism and Dark Collections before the end of the year.
“We chose Peru for its fine aroma beans, traceability, and sustainable farming practices that support farm workers and their communities,” says Jean Thompson. “Like with coffee and wine, origin, terroir, and processes like fermentation and roasting impart unique flavor qualities to chocolate. We’re so excited to showcase some of the finest chocolate in the world with this updated collection, and we hope it inspires people to reset their expectations of chocolate, understand the impact of origin, and appreciate the complexities in the flavor profiles that come along with each bite. Chocolate is a lot more than just candy or dessert, chocolate is food.”
jcoco worked with Peruvian designer Monica Reyes to reimagine the bars’ packaging with an updated color palette, reminiscent of bright and bold Peruvian textiles, as well as new graphics showcasing tasting notes, pairing suggestions, and educational elements like maps of Peru (showcasing which regions the cacao was sourced from) and infographic outlining the chocolate making process.
Coinciding with the relaunch of jcoco and its ongoing giving mission, September marks Hunger Action Month. On Hunger Action Day (September 17), jcoco will release a limited edition, three-ounce envelope that will donate three fresh meals to jcoco’s food security partners with every purchase. Each of the three, one-ounce bars represents the signature colors of the respective food security partner: Edamame Sea Salt (green; San Francisco-Marin Food Bank), Cayenne Veracruz Orange (orange; Food Bank for New York City), and Single Varietal Contamana Cacao (blue; Northwest Harvest).
