Award-winning chocolate
handcrafted by one guy in Woodbridge, VA

Visit our new retail shop at 206 Union St, Occoquan, VA!

Potomac Chocolate is a small American craft chocolate maker in Woodbridge, Virginia.

In my absurdly small workshop, I transform ethically sourced raw cacao into award-winning craft chocolate. My process has one goal: to create delicious bean-to-bar chocolate that highlights the unique flavors of each cacao origin. Learn more about Potomac Chocolate or my chocolate making process.

-Ben Rasmussen
Chocolate Maker & Owner, Potomac Chocolate

Featured Products

More products are available in the Shop!

Recently, on Instagram:

The new shop is open! Come on by and say hi! 304

The new shop is open! Come on by and say hi!

304 Mill St, Occoquan, VA

Next week, I'll be starting work on getting the factory moved over.

#potomacchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #occoquan #occoquanva #ocq #newshop

We'll be open at our new location tomorrow! We've

We'll be open at our new location tomorrow!

We've been working hard to get the retail shop ready to go and will be moving over the counters, inventory, etc after we close tonight.

Stop by and check out the new location tomorrow! The address is 304 Mill St #102, Occoquan VA.

#potomacchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #occoquan #occoquanva #ocq #newlocation

The coming change that I mentioned in my post from

The coming change that I mentioned in my post from a few days ago is (obviously) that Potomac Chocolate is moving to a new location in Occoquan. It's about 3 times as much space as my current location and is on Mill Street just around the corner from my current space on Union Street.

The shop that was previously here decided to go online-only a few months ago. I took a look at it back then (and bought one of their display cases, which I'll now have to move back... 😀), but decided at the time that I'd just stick with my current location.

But I kept thinking about it over the next little while. I was able to get in and look around a few more times. I started thinking about how nice all that extra space would be for my factory and thinking about where stuff would go, etc. Even though my current location is more than double the space I had when my factory was entirely based out of my home, I'm somehow just busting at the seams.

Even more so, I kept thinking about how nice it would be to be on Mill Street. Mill St is the main road in Occoquan and gets a metric ton more foot traffic than Union St.

So, after much consideration, I decided to go for it. I had a few discussions with the landlords (who happen to also be my current landlords) and it became a done deal last Thursday. Since then, in addition to making chocolate, we've done a ton of work in there. My wife and I did a bunch of painting on Friday and Saturday and I ripped out the carpet in the front room where the retail shop will be.

If all continues to go according to plan, I'll have the new floor in that room installed tomorrow and hope to be ready to open the shop there in a semi-barebones state later this week. The factory portion will take more time as it will require more flooring and a couple sinks to be installed.

I'm really excited. It's going to be awesome.

#potomacchocolate #movingonup #craftchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #occoquan #occoquanva #ocq #madeinvirginia

Today is notable for two things. First, it's my mo

Today is notable for two things. First, it's my mom's birthday! Happy birthday Mom! Second, and probably somewhat more relevant to friends of Potomac Chocolate, today marks the 10 year anniversary of the release of our very first bar: Upala, Costa Rica 70%.

10 years ago, we* introduced that bar at the November Sample Day at Biagio Fine Chocolate (now @chochousedc). I remember being so nervous to have so many people try our chocolate--and right in front of us! Before that afternoon, only a couple handfuls of people had tried this bar. We thought it was good, but what did we know?

Thankfully, it was very well received at that Sample Day and we received many compliments. Also, I met some people at that tasting that are still friends and supporters of Potomac to this day.

3 days later, it was announced as a finalist in the inaugural Good Food Awards, alongside some of my all-time favorite chocolate makers, including Rogue and Patric. It didn't go on to win a Good Food Award that year, but just a few months later did win an Academy of Chocolate Award. It has gone on to be my most award-winning bar.

For the first few years making this bar, I worked with a couple different suppliers of cacao from Upala. For almost 7 years, though, I've been working with the amazing Nahua Cacao to source these beans. In addition to growing their own cacao, they also source wet cacao from other farms in Upala and expertly handle the post-harvest processing steps of fermenting and drying the cacao, steps that are critical to the quality of the final chocolate

I've been making this bar continuously ever since its release in 2010 and it has always been one of my best sellers. Earlier this year, however, covid interrupted my supply of this cacao, and I wasn't able to get any for months and months. I sold my last Upala 70% bar way back in March or April.

Instagram thinks this post is too long so this is continued in 2 comments.

A change is coming... It needs some work, but it'

A change is coming...

It needs some work, but it's going to be great.

#potomacchocolate #occoquan

I'm excited for my bars to be back at Dave's Fresh

I'm excited for my bars to be back at Dave's Fresh Pasta!

#Repost @davesfreshpasta
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Dave's Fresh Pasta

@potomacchocolate just arrived. These flavors are 🔥🔥🔥

Melting some blocks of chocolate! This will soon b

Melting some blocks of chocolate! This will soon be turned into a few hundred bars and bonbons. 🍫😀

#potomacchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #darkchocolate #melting #tempering #occoquan #occoquanva

Mixin' up the first peppermint bars of the season!

Mixin' up the first peppermint bars of the season! These are mostly going to some wholesale orders, but they'll be available for purchasing soon!

#potomacchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #darkchocolate #peppermint #chocolate #occoquan #ocq #occoquanva #simplyminttobe

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