Theo Chocolate

One of my addictions while travelling is buying exotic looking chocolate. This is somewhat ironic because, personally, I don't even like chocolate all that much.

Nonetheless, I gravitate towards the cocoa treats when I'm away from home, and I'm especially vulnerable to smart packaging and designs.

My latest discovery is Theo Chocolate. I saw these cool choco bars while perusing through my favorite grocery store, Whole Foods, in Houston.

Theo chocolate is the first and only organic and Fair Trade chocolate factory in the US. I had no clue that almost all US organic chocolate was manufactured in Europe.

It wasn't Theo's great organic and Fair Trade story that initially attracted me, it was their eclectic packaging design by Hungarian-American designer, 'KittenChops'. She has a very unique spin to design and collages, and her blog KittenChops is a great place to read about her inspirations and ideas. Clients and companies she's worked with include Starbucks, and The Seattle Times.

Theo Chocolates have a wide range of flavors, both traditional and exotic. I picked up two bars.
The first was the coconut curry bar. This was by far the most exotic flavor I saw. This was a milk chocolate bar made with 40% cacao.

Coconut Curry Bar

Both the coconut and curry flavors were prominent, and besides those two ingredients, this bar also contained fenugreek, paprika, and cardamom. This bar was really different, and I definitely enjoyed it.

Coconut Curry Chocolate

The second bar I picked up was the bread & chocolate. Made with 70% cacao, this dark chocolate bar adopts a traditional European food pairing. A real image of cat fur is used to fill out the cat in her design. Using real images with illustrations is characteristic of KittenChops designs.

Bread & Chocolate Bar

This bar reminds me of a refined version of Nestle's Crunch Chocolate bar. Bits of dehydrated French bread is mixed in with the chocolate, providing a distributed crunch with each bite. There is also a nice sea salt flavor to balance the sweetness of the chocolate.

Bread & Chocolate

Theo Chocolate

3400 Phinney Avenue N.

Seattle, Washington, USA

Telephone: 206-632-5100