How To Choose The Absolute Best Snacking Chocolate At The Grocery Store

If you haven't been introduced to the wonderful world of snacking chocolate, it's exactly what it sounds like: Chocolate you can eat at any time, any place — no added ingredients or utensils necessary. Finding chocolate that is good to eat on its own is not quite as easy as simply snacking on it. That's why we connected with Preston Stewart, the Director of Chocolate for Onyx Coffee Lab, to get his expert opinion on how to find the absolute best snacking chocolate at the grocery store.

Stewart has been working in craft chocolate for over a decade so he knows his stuff. According to Stewart, who is also a Certified Chocolatier and Chocolate Maker from Ecole Chocolat and a Certified Cacao Grader from the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI), you should treat your grocery store chocolate hunt as you would wine or coffee, meaning you should use the information on the label to guide your decision. Stewart states, "If you find a chocolate that specifies a country of origin and/or estate you can expect that the chocolate maker cares about the quality of the product and the source of the ingredients."

Before you run off to the grocery store to go chocolate label-comparing, Preston Stewart warns that it may not be so easy to find artisanal craft chocolate because grocery stores are still catching up to the high-end chocolate market. So when you're reviewing chocolate labels at the store, you might find it difficult to suss out where the cacao came from. According to Stewart, "Most large manufacturers don't specify the origin of their cocoa because they're typically using commodity cacao in which they're focused on quantity and price over quality ... If it's less than $4 for a chocolate bar, you can assume they're using low-grade cocoa and mass-producing their chocolate."

If you find yourself at the grocery store and you're still unable to pick out which chocolate is the best to snack on, you can always buy a bunch of bars that catch your eye and do a side-by-side taste test. Or, save your money and check out our chocolate brand's worst-to-best rankings.