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:

Support The Chocolate House! They're getting ready

Support The Chocolate House! They're getting ready to reopen and need some help. This tiny store is one of the best chocolate shops in the country with a real dedication to carrying and supporting craft/bean-to-bar chocolate. They also help educate people about chocolate through their classes and the herculean task of organizing and running the awesome DC Chocolate Festival.

The Chocolate House has been a friend of Potomac Chocolate since the beginning and has been incredibly supportive for the past 10 years. As Biagio Fine Chocolate, they were the first shop to carry my bars, and have (until covid) hosted a tasting to introduce each new bar I've made.

And on a personal note, they're good people and good friends.

Please consider supporting this great shop!

#Repost @chochousedc (@get_repost)
・・・
We’re so close to re-opening and honestly cannot wait to see some chocolate loving people back in our store! The last 6 months have been hard, though, and we could use some help from our community to open up strong, stock our shelves, and safely get ready for the holiday season. You can help by donating to our Indiegogo campaign (LINK in BIO) ❤️ purchasing chocolate 🍫 and sharing our store with others! See you soon!!

All stocked up on bonbons! #potomacchocolate #cra

All stocked up on bonbons!

#potomacchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #bonbons #truffles #occoquan #occoquanva #ocq #caramel #saltedcaramel #rosemarycaramel #speculoos

Flowers on my cacao tree! It's never flowered befo

Flowers on my cacao tree! It's never flowered before, so this is pretty exciting.

I'm excited to announce two new bars, both made wi

I'm excited to announce two new bars, both made with cacao from Ucayali River, Peru! One is a 70% dark chocolate and the other is a 65% dark milk chocolate.

As those who have followed Potomac for a long time may know, I've worked with cacao from San Martín, Peru for a long time. It was actually Potomac's second-ever origin. Earlier this year, I used up the last of my San Martín cacao and decided to make the switch to Ucayali.

I was introduced to this cacao several years ago when I met a couple of the owners of Ucayali River Cacao, who explained their meticulous post-harvest fermentation and drying processes. The results of their efforts is just a fantastic cacao with perfect preparation. I'm really excited to be working with it.

The 70% dark chocolate has fruit notes of banana, fig, and cherry, with a subtle woody cedar note. The 65% dark milk has similar fruit notes with added notes of cream.

Both are now available in my online shop and retail store in Occoquan, VA!

#potomacchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #craftchocolate #darkchocolate #darkmilkchocolate #milkchocolate #ucayaliriverperu #ucayali #peru #chocolate #occoquan #ocq #occoquanva @ucayali_river_cacao

I'm excited to be part of the Dallas Chocolate Fes

I'm excited to be part of the Dallas Chocolate Festival this weekend! This will be my 9th year!

It's virtual this year, of course, so I'm bummed that I won't be actually traveling down to Dallas and hanging out with all my chocolate friends and meeting a bunch of chocolate loving Texans, but it's still going to be great. The platform has a lot of ways to connect with all the vendors, attend classes and demos (including one by me), and get some great deals on a lot of great chocolate.

#Repost @dallaschocolate (@get_repost)
・・・
The Dallas Chocolate Festival is going VIRTUAL! We are bringing “The World of Chocolate – In a Box” to you with virtual classes, guided tastings, and a box of chocolate samples from chocolate companies across the globe. Sept. 12-13, 11AM– 5PM. Tickets are on sale now at https://buff.ly/2WbSMPu!

Cookie Butter Bonbons and both of my caramels (sal

Cookie Butter Bonbons and both of my caramels (salted and rosemary) are back in stock!

These are available on my site and at my Occoquan shop, which is open 11-3 today and tomorrow, and 11-4 on Saturday.

#potomacchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobar #beantobonbon #handcrafted #bonbons #truffles #madeinvirginia #occoquan #occoquanva #ocq #caramel #speculoos #speculaas

#Repost @chocolateuplift • • • • • Happy

#Repost @chocolateuplift
• • • • •
Happy new week! Look what arrived: phenomenal chocolate bars from @potomacchocolate, available for distribution!

New bars include the marvelous Oat Milk vegan chocolate bar, made with just 3 ingredients, all organic: cacao, sugar, and oats! Dear Ben is a master craftsman and knows what he's doing: he doesn't use commercial oat milk, which poses as healthful on the outside but contains industrial chemicals on the inside. He just uses oats! You can taste the difference instantly: radical simplicity for astoundingly delicious flavor from Mother Earth!

Then there's the 2-ingredient (cacao and sugar, all you need, both organic!) Semuliki Forest, Uganda, bar, where Ben draws exquisite berry notes from this exciting cacao. The taste of late summer!

And, a bar whose name calls to me as much as the fabulous flavor: Being Nuts is its Own Reward! So true, haha! Again, instead of using industrially processed hazelnuts or hazelnut paste, Ben roasts the hazelnuts in-house and grinds them into the chocolate, for purity and deliciousness, creating a clean and super smooth vegan gianduja.

I'll share more soon, and for now I'll add: don't be deceived by the charmingly rustic kraft paper and letterpress packaging; the chocolate inside is elegant and sophisticated, smooth and balanced, and full of beautiful and artistic nuance. These bars encourage you to breathe deeply, taste thoughtfully, and enjoy fully!

And of course they meet my 5 Ss of first-class craft chocolate:
#slaveryfree
#soyfree and industrial additive-free
#sustainable
#smallbatch
#scrumptious!

Do you see any favorites, or which would you try first?

Onward and upward!

#chocolatedistributor
#chocolateconsultant

Spice Spice Baby! Continuing with the ridiculous

Spice Spice Baby!

Continuing with the ridiculous naming of bars, my spiced bar has been renamed. This was suggested by my wife, Cyndi.

This is one of my favorite bars. It's spiced with cinnamon, sea salt, and aleppo chili pepper. When I taste it, I get salt right at the start which quickly gives way to cinnamon through the melt, and then, a touch of heat from the aleppo at the end, which lingers for a couple minutes. So good!

This bar actually started its life as a drinking chocolate, but I had so many requests for a bar version. So, I reworked the recipe and process to make this bar.

It's available on my site and in my Occoquan shop, which is open today from 11 to 4. If you haven't tried it yet, you're in for a treat. 😀🍫🌶️

#potomacchocolate #craftchocolate #beantobar #handcrafted #darkchocolate #spiced #spicychocolate #spicespicebaby #madeinvirginia #va #occoquan #occoquanva #ocq #shopsmall

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