Deep Dive Verdict
✅ Who’s behind this? Founded by siblings Mark and Sarah in Neosho, Wisconsin. Mark is a former Alaskan fisherman; Sarah runs the business side. Four generations of family are actively involved in daily operations, from Sarah’s parents down to her granddaughter who helps pack bars and manages social content.
✅ Do their claims hold up? Supply chain involvement is well-documented through social media and farm visit records. Mark has built processing equipment, drying sheds, and housing in Costa Rica alongside the farmers. Sarah makes annual trips to support the local community. The on-the-ground relationship with farmers like Sam is evidenced, not just claimed.
✅ How transparent are they? Captain’s publishes heavy metal test results. No detectable lead was found, which is rare in this category. Cadmium levels are disclosed and run slightly above average for the industry, particularly at higher cacao percentages.
✅ Worth your money? The cadmium figures are worth knowing before buying in bulk. At 60% cacao the per-bar exposure is manageable; at 90% and above it climbs. The no-detectable-lead result is a meaningful differentiator in a category where lead contamination is essentially universal. Costa Rican cacao represents less than 1% of global supply, so the origin alone is uncommon.
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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. 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 leap of faith is Captain’s Chocolate.
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 worth pausing on. 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 products they can sell to tourists as a supplementary income stream. This isn’t arm’s-length charity work. The Captain’s family is on the ground, in the community, doing the work alongside the people they source from.
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.
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.
The chocolate bars were rich and smooth with the cacao flavor coming through clearly underneath any added ingredients. Everything in Captain’s product line is worth trying, but the cacao brew and nibs are the clear winners.
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.
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.