Coco Jolie says Aloha!
An explosion of fruit ripe for the summertime
Happy Chocolate Friday, and Happy Fourth of July! This year’s holiday is a bit bittersweet, so we’ll avoid the politics and focus on celebrating a great American craft chocolate maker that has been a regular in the chocolate awards I judge.
Although, as you’ll see, there is a second reason this post is bittersweet. The business of craft chocolatemaking is no sugary walk down a rose garden path. Behind every swoon-worthy chocolate bar are hours and hours and more hours of back-breaking, saint-making labor, patience, and dedication. Not to speak of profit margins as thin as a cacao shell. If you’re up for it, here are some hard truths straight from the mouths of the makers.
And sometimes, two chocolate makers need to blend not just their chocolate but their businesses to survive. Ecco Coco Jolie.
Chocolate maker: Coco Jolie
The first time I tasted a Coco Jolie bar was in 2021, when I was judging the International Chocolate Salon’s Chocolate Bar Awards. The owner, Miriam Gitelman, had started by creating sweet delights for her friends and family, and later turned that passion into a business. Her chocolate is artisan, vegan, certified Kosher, and uses organic and fair trade ingredients; no GMOs.
Gitelman opened her doors in 2019… but just 4 short years later, the news broke that Coco Jolie and a fellow local chocolate shop had joined forces. With the price of cocoa skyrocketing, this is one of the tough choices that a craft chocolatemaker must make in today’s world if they want to survive.
So why review a bar that is no longer offered, by a chocolate maker that’s given up its name? Because Coco Jolie, like so many others, is a part of artisan chocolate history. They were a part of our culinary culture, and should be celebrated, not forgotten.
Location: Originally in Englewood, New Jersey
Awards: Coco Jolie was an entrant in the 2021 Chocolate Bar Awards, an annual competition hosted by the International Chocolate Salon. We, the judges, awarded the Aloha bar three honors:
A Silver Award in the Best Bar Design & Art category (this should come as no surprise, given the exquisite detail embedded in this bar—and by the way, the Gold went to Coco Jolie’s other bar in this competition, the Persian Paradise Bar which I’ll review in a future post).
An Honorable Mention in the Best Texture and Best Flavored Chocolate Bar categories
Photography: This tabletop was early on in my journey as a chocolate photographer, but it was definitely not the first. By this point I was experimenting with different camera angles and focal points. As you can see further below, I’m becoming enamored of the extreme close-up. I always buy the freshest ingredients for my shoots, and make sure my family “disposes” of them afterwards. Because, you know, sustainable living.
Aloha Bar
Cacao Muse review: This bar is one of the reasons I ramped up my tabletop photography of the bars I judge. It is far too beautiful, far too dressed up to be surrounded by anything except the most scrumptious ingredients. Judging it was really fun too—the chunks of dried mango and pineapple lend a nice counterpoint to the smooth white & dark chocolate blend. Overall the bar is too sweet for my taste, but for those of us with a serious sweet tooth, it hits the spot for sure.
Tasting Notes: Bold flavor of mango and pineapple compliments a silky smooth chocolate.
Percentage: 65%
Origin: Unknown
Ingredients: Organic, Fair Trade chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla), organic cocoa butter, coconut puree, dried organic mango, dried pineapple
Price: [no longer sold]
I could spend a thousand words waxing chocolatey poetic about the artistry that went into this bar, but that would make you scroll away from the photo. So I’ll stop here and let you sink into it. Can you smell the chocolate wafting off the page??
If you’re heading out for the long weekend, stay safe, keep your pets and other animals away from fireworks (if you’re an animal lover you know how much the loud noise spooks them), and please bring some craft chocolate with you to spread the love!
Next week’s chocolate is a real head spinner. :)
If you enjoyed this post, but can’t become a regular paid subscriber right now, I’m always down for a hot chocolate:
[direct link here if the giphy thingie doesn’t work]