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DEEPDIVE10Captain’s Chocolate is based in Neosho, Wisconsin, a small rural town most people have never heard of. The company was founded in 2018 by siblings Mark and Sarah, with Mark being the titular captain. Today, Sarah is the face of the company and runs the retail location in Neosho. Mark spends most of his time in Costa Rica, handling the cacao and processing it before it comes to the U.S.
By trade, Mark is an Alaskan fisherman who grew physically and mentally exhausted by the industry. Neither he nor Sarah had a business background, but they shared one non-negotiable condition for whatever came next: it had to improve someone’s life. After vacationing in Costa Rica and gaining a passing familiarity with the chocolate world, they decided to meet with local farmers and build something from scratch. That’s how Captain’s Chocolate was born.
Four Generations of Family in Neosho
One of the more appealing things about Captain’s is how genuinely family-run the operation is. Follow their social media for five minutes and you’ll see it: four generations of family are involved in day-to-day operations. Sarah’s parents, who are approaching their centennial years, are part of it. So is Sarah’s granddaughter, who helps pack bars and manages social content. As large corporations continue absorbing mid-size independent brands, a four-generation family business is worth acknowledging. Captain’s earns real credit here.
Closer to the Farmers Than Most Will Ever Get
Captain’s does not work through a cooperative. They work directly with the farmers themselves, which is genuinely uncommon and not easy to do. Mark and Sarah don’t just know the farmers by name; Mark has built houses, rehabilitation centers, and cacao processing equipment during extended stays in Costa Rica. Sarah travels down each year to help locals develop sewing skills so they can sell souvenirs to tourists as a supplementary income stream. This harks back to Captain’s mission that their business should help someone. The Captain’s family is on the ground, in the community, doing the work alongside the people they source from.
Full Supply Chain, Down to the Drying Sheds
Captain’s controls their supply chain further than nearly any company reviewed here. The drying sheds were built with their involvement. The winnowing equipment in Costa Rica operates with their participation. Most brands reviewed on this blog offload processing to local handlers; Captain’s works alongside those handlers to do it themselves. The only link in the chain they don’t own is the freight transport, which is, to be fair, a reasonable place to draw the line.
No Detectable Lead; A Rare Quality of Cacao Companies
Captain’s cacao is hand-harvested by indigenous communities in Costa Rica, and the company specifically uses unleaded vehicles to transport beans rather than diesel tractors. That sourcing decision has a measurable outcome: no traceable lead was detected in their test results. That is rare. Every chocolate bar reviewed to date on this blog, including those covered in Consumer Reports, has contained detectable lead. Captain’s is the first exception found.
The cadmium picture is less clean. Cadmium enters cacao through soil absorption, and hand-harvesting doesn’t mitigate that the way unleaded transport mitigates lead. Without extensive soil testing and agronomic intervention, this is a hard variable to control. That said, the math across their product range is worth walking through.
Captain’s bars are 40g total. At 60% cacao, 16g is added sugar, leaving 24g of cacao. At 0.2mcg cadmium per gram, that works out to 4.8mcg per bar. At 75% cacao, 30g of cacao and 10g of sugar puts the figure at 6mcg per bar. The 90% bar comes in at 7.2mcg, and the 100% bar delivers the full 8mcg. These numbers are within the range of what most reputable chocolate companies produce, if slightly on the higher end. Paired with undetectable lead, the overall heavy metals profile clears the bar set by most of the competition.
Note: These calculations are based on reported cacao content ratios and the company’s stated cadmium figure of 0.2mcg per gram. Independent third-party verification of the test results has not been confirmed at time of publication.
Sampling the Cacao Products
I grabbed a variety of products from Captain’s Chocolate: cacao nibs, cacao brew, and a few chocolate bars. The cacao products are the standouts for me, both for their health benefits and versatility.
For those unfamiliar, cacao brew is winnowed cacao nibs that can be steeped like coffee. Once cacao has been roasted, it undergoes winnowing: the method of separating the shell from the fruit. The result is coarsely ground cacao that steeps in hot water to create a rich, chocolate-forward coffee alternative.
I brewed two tablespoons in a French Press with 250ml of water for about 20 minutes, the same ratio and method used for coffee. The aromatics were immediately noticeable. After plunging, the brew poured a deep, rich brown with visible oils shimmering on the surface, a good indicator of freshness. The flavor is unsweetened dark chocolate in a lighter body; not watery, but not heavy either. Pleasant mouthfeel and genuinely enjoyable to drink.
Cacao contains theobromine, an alkaloid that promotes cardiovascular health by relaxing blood vessels and improving circulation. Unlike caffeine, which is a central nervous system stimulant and vasoconstrictor (a compound that narrows blood vessels, reducing blood flow in certain areas of the body), theobromine offers a gentler, more sustained energy without the jitters or crash. Both have their place (coffee is still great), but the contrast is worth understanding. Captain’s cacao brew is a strong product and an easy recommendation.
However, there is one very important distinction that the science doesn’t confirm. Steeping the cacao will not release all the fiber and nutritional value in the cacao. So by steeping it, you’ll certainly get some benefits of the cacao, but unlike many drinking cacaos, you are drinking this like a tea, not the bean. So I’d expect the health benefits to be much lower than a traditionally frothed cacao beverage. But, the benefit to this brewed cacao is it’s much easier to drink. Ground cacao can be extremely rich and overwhelming to the point of being unpalatable, so if this is how you like to drink it, then that’s how you should! It beats not drinking it at all.
The cacao nibs go straight into my morning protein smoothie. They add a satisfying texture when pulverized, a subtle chocolate flavor without sweetness, and pair well with peanut butter and protein powder. Cacao nibs are one of the highest dietary sources of polyphenols, rich in minerals, and contain healthy fats. A word of caution: as noted above, Captain’s cadmium levels sit slightly above industry average, so factoring nibs into daily heavy metal intake is worth keeping in mind, especially since nibs are pure cacao with no sugar dilution.
Logo and Branding Update
Since I started covering Captain’s Chocolate, they recently had a logo and brand refresh. To celebrate, I grabbed a few more goodies to check out the new packaging and share more of their products. Before the company started taking off with their cacao brew, they originally sold chocolate bars and bark, and then started introducing chocolate covered goodies, like pecans, hazelnuts, and berries.
As you can see below, the new packaging has elevated the company significantly in terms of brand identity. The anchor fits the aesthetics very well and the color is very easy on the eyes. This is something I’d expect to see on the shelves of TJ Maxx, a place I love grabbing niche snacks.
Candidly, I’m not a fan of chocolate covered fruit, but I wanted to try some. Everything is organic so you know it’s at least sourced with intention to provide quality fruit and chocolate for you, despite the criticism of organic products. I am a big fan of the chocolate covered nuts though. Can’t recommend them enough.
For me, the real winner was the chocolate covered cacao nibs. Captain’s Chocolate always has consistently good quality chocolate, and coupled with the cacao nibs it’s a killer combination. What I like about the cacao nibs specifically is they are sourced from Costa Rica, which has a low yield of cacao in the global market. It has a wonderfully fruity flavor so when you bite into one of the chocolate covered cacao nibs, you get the fruity flavor of the cacao that satisfyingly blends with the sweetness of the chocolate. I highly recommend.
The Use of AI
It’s impossible to find any company today that doesn’t use AI in some capacity, or person for that matter. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Captain’s Chocolate using AI for many of their designs. However, they did use a real paid graphic designer for the new logo refresh *phew*.
I’m not as critical about AI when it’s a truly microbusiness since smaller companies really feel like they need outsource their work, but I won’t lie that when I see an AI I immediately recoil. So I’m going to give this a neutral to slightly negative observation because I just don’t like seeing AI for creative uses.
The Verdict
Captain’s Chocolate is a legitimate small-batch family operation with supply chain access and social accountability that most companies in this category can’t match. The cadmium levels are worth knowing about; limiting consumption to roughly half a bar per day is a reasonable precaution for anyone tracking heavy metals intake. But no detectable lead is a meaningful distinction in a category where lead contamination is essentially universal.
Beyond the numbers: the cacao brew is worth seeking out, and the chocolate-covered hazelnut products offer a lower-cacao option for those who want to enjoy more volume with less metal exposure. Captain’s is not a brand to overlook.