How to Choose Chocolate at Cocoa Store

Cocoa Store (cocoastore.com) is a specialty chocolate retailer whose catalog is organized around bars, boxed chocolate, and featured maker collections. Choosing well comes down to four decisions: cocoa percentage and bar type, origin or maker, whether the purchase is for yourself or a gift, and budget. The site's own navigation supports all four — it splits bars into dark, 100%, >80%, milk, white, and alternative milks and sugars, and lists 37 maker collections with item counts.

Start with the bar type

The "All Bars" menu is the fastest filter, because it separates chocolate by style rather than by brand:

• 100% Chocolate Bars — no added sugar; the most intense, least sweet option.
• >80% Chocolate Bars — high cocoa, low sweetness.
• All Dark Chocolate — the broadest dark category.
• Milk Chocolate Bars and White Chocolate Bars — sweeter, creamier profiles.
• Alternative Milks and Sugars — for those avoiding standard dairy or cane sugar.
• Inclusion Chocolate Bars — bars with added pieces such as nuts, fruit, or crunch.

If you already know you want a specific cocoa level, go straight to that subcategory. If you are exploring, "All Dark Chocolate" plus "Inclusion Chocolate Bars" covers most of what a first-time buyer would want to compare.

Use cocoa percentage as a rough guide, not a quality score

Higher cocoa percentage means more cacao solids and less sugar, which usually means more bitterness and less sweetness. It does not automatically mean better chocolate. The catalog shows this clearly: Orfeve's Quillabamba 70% Dark Chocolate from Peru is $17.00, while Domori's Criollo Guasare, Criollo Chuao, and Criollo Canoabo — all 70% dark from Venezuela — are each $17.50. Same percentage, different origins and different prices.

A practical approach:

Choose by origin or by maker

Cocoa Store organizes a large part of its catalog by chocolate maker, and the item counts tell you how deep each selection runs. Some examples from the featured collections:

• Soma Chocolate — 72 items
• Bonnat — 37 items
• Goodnow Farms — 30 items
• Kasama Chocolate — 22 items
• Eigen — 22 items
• Castronovo Chocolate — 20 items
• Domori — 20 items
• Dandelion Chocolate — 19 items
• Argencove Chocolate — 16 items
• Michel Cluizel — 15 items
• chocoMe Atelier — 15 items
• Milz Chocolat — 15 items

Smaller, more focused collections include Éclat Chocolate (1 item), Chocomotions (2 items), Jangala (4 items), and Diego's Chocolate (5 items).

Origin matters too. The product names show single-origin sourcing — Peru for Orfeve's Quillabamba, Venezuela for the Domori Criollo line. If you have liked Venezuelan or Peruvian cacao before, that is a reasonable starting filter. If you have no preference, picking a maker with a deep collection (Soma, Bonnat, Goodnow Farms) gives you more to compare within one house style.

Separate self-purchase from gifting

The catalog has distinct sections for different purposes:

• Bars — best for personal tasting and comparison.
• Boxed Chocolate — includes items like Ruket "Marco Gruppioni" Crema di Nocciola hazelnut spread (190g) at $20.00, and Vestri candied orange slices and candied orange peels covered in dark chocolate, each at $27.00.
• Chocolate Covered Fruit and Nuts — a middle ground between bar and boxed.
• Drinking Chocolate — for a different format entirely.
• Seasonal Gifts and Corporate — the site's own gifting channels.
• Chocolate Tastings — listed under the shop menu, useful if you want to try before committing to full bars.

For a gift, boxed chocolate or a seasonal gift avoids the guesswork of cocoa percentage. For yourself, bars let you compare origins and makers at lower commitment per item.

Watch price and stock signals

Prices in the catalog range from $17.00 for a single 70% bar up to $27.00 for boxed candied fruit. The site also runs a Sale section — for example, Domori Roasted Cacao Beans (Exp. 8/31/26) are listed at $25.00, down from $35.00.

Two things to check before ordering:

• Expiration dates on sale items. The Domori cacao beans carry an explicit expiry of 8/31/26. If you buy slowly, that matters.
• Free shipping threshold. The site states free shipping on orders over $60, so a single $17 bar will not qualify. Grouping a few bars or adding a boxed item is the usual way to reach it.

Practical checklist

1. Decide the format: bar, boxed, drinking chocolate, or gift.
2. Pick a cocoa level or bar type from the "All Bars" subcategories.
3. Narrow by origin (Peru, Venezuela, etc.) or by a maker collection with enough items to compare.
4. Check the price against the $60 free-shipping threshold.
5. For sale items, confirm the expiration date.

The store is located at 873 Broadway (between 18th and 19th), #612, New York, NY 10003, and is open Monday–Saturday 11:30am–6:30pm and Sunday 11:30am–6:00pm if you prefer to shop in person.