Welcome to my Bar and Cocoa review! Bar and Cocoa was one of the first companies that I came across when I started learning more about artisan or craft chocolate in the United States. Essentially, Bar and Cocoa is the largest online craft chocolate marketplace in the United States. The Denver-based company started in 2015 with a popular chocolate subscription before eventually becoming a craft chocolate marketplace. They make it easier for everyday consumers to purchase high-quality, ethical bean-to-bar chocolate sourced from ethical chocolate makers all over the world.
The Ordering Process
The Bar and Cocoa website was easy to navigate and well-organized. The products can be filtered by type, maker, style, cacao percentage, cacao origin, and diet (vegan, gluten-free, keto, etc.). I was able to filter the products to be able to easily find what I was looking for. I ended up buying 17 milk and dark milk chocolate bars. A handful of these chocolate bars were mini bars. I love the mini bars because as a chocolate blogger, I am able to taste and try out many different bars without the commitment and cost of a full-size chocolate bar. The cost of shipping was free since Bar and Cocoa offers free US shipping for orders above $100. The check-out and payment process also went smoothly. Bar and Cocoa offered ShopPay, Paypal, and Google Pay as payment methods.
Suggested Improvements
One improvement I can think of is to add the āSort byā feature on any page where you can browse the products. It would be nice to be able to sort the products by popularity (best selling) or price (low to high or high to low). Right now, you can only do so when you look up something in the search bar. I also had an issue where I filled out theĀ āFree Mini Barā form that popped up when you first enter the website and never received an email with the code. I tried with my other emails and on other devices and never received the email. However, this was resolved quickly by their customer service.
Customer Service
Speaking of customer service, Bar and Cocoa have an outstanding customer service team. When I contacted customer service through the chat feature regarding the āFree Mini Barā issue, I was fully expecting a chatbot to reply but was glad to have a real person get back to me. They were friendly and resolved my issue quickly and efficiently. The humanness is much appreciated in this continuously digitized world. However, because they do rely on real people that work Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm, you cannot always get what you need immediately. For example, if you contact them on a weekend, you will probably have to wait until Monday for them to get back to you. In my opinion, this is not a big deal. I cannot think of any customer issue that would arise that would require immediate attention (What constitutes a chocolate emergency?).
Shipping
I was most impressed by the speed and quality of their shipping. My order was shipped in less than 24 hours and arrived on my doorstep just 2 days after. I was a little scared that some of the chocolate bars would be melted since it has happened to me before when I ordered from other places in the summer but this was not the case with Bar and Cocoa. The chocolate bars were carefully wrapped in orange tissue paper and placed inside an insulated aluminum bag along with a reusable ice pack. The way they packaged the chocolate bars ensured that they would arrive safely and securely.
Conclusion
Overall, my experience with the company was outstanding and I would recommend them to others interested in craft chocolate. I am excited to review all the chocolate bars I bought through them. This Bar and Cocoa review was not sponsored and I am not an affiliate with them. I do not receive any monetary benefits. However, I am signed up for their customer rewards program and so you will get 10% off your first order if you use this link. I will write more about their rewards program in a later post after I am more familiar with it.
Hope that you enjoy this Bar and Cocoa review! What do you think about Bar and Cacao? Is there a better place to buy craft chocolate in the United States? Iād love to hear more about it in the comment section below.
