FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Until recently, KOKOMI was available at select retailers in the Dallas metroplex. Now, however, we’re focusing our energies on moving from artisanal, small-scale production to manufacturing much larger quantities of a shelf-stable formulation that will be sold nationwide — initially via the Internet. We chose this distribution strategy primarily for reasons pertaining to ensuring quality and freshness, though we are also able to save our customers money by selling direct.

Starting Oct. 1, KOKOMI will be available for pre-order, exclusively on Kickstarter. Click here to learn more or place your order.

KOKOMI is drinkable dark chocolate — the healthy chocolate counterpart to today’s high-end iced coffee beverages.  Brewed in Dallas, Texas with the same farm-sourced, roasted cacao that artisanal chocolatiers use for “bean-to-bar” chocolate confections, it’s a rich, chocolatey, cold beverage that has the pin-point flavor specificity of a fine coffee of origin, with no dairy, no corn syrup, no caffeine, no fat, no cholesterol, and far fewer calories than typical chocolate drinks or candy bars.  It’s 100% organic and/or fair trade, vegan, non-GMO, and utilizes just three ingredients — cacao, cane sugar, and filtered water — to deliver its powerful chocolate punch.  It’s also incredibly good for you, while providing a gentle mood and energy lift that keeps customers coming back for more.  To the best of our knowledge, it is the only beverage of its kind in the world.

Yes! No animal products of any kind are used to make KOKOMI.

Yes indeed! KOKOMI uses just three ingredients: filtered water, organic cane sugar, and organic and/or fair trade cacao.

KOKOMI has no caffeine. What it does have is something called theobromine, which provides a similar, but much less harsh, energy boost. Caffeine is a “spike-and-crash” stimulant — which is why when the effects wear off, coffee/soda addicts feel like they have to drink more to avoid “coming down” from the caffeine high. But the caffeine crash is inevitable, and usually unpleasant. In contrast, theobromine provides a gentle, long-lasting energy boost, and an equally calm, gradual “landing.” While everybody’s reactions to compounds like caffeine and theobromine are different, we’ve yet to meet any KOKOMI drinkers who say it gives them the jitters, or makes them nervous, like caffeine can. For the scientifically inclined, here’s a link that explains the differences between caffeine and theobromine.

Yes, KOKOMI is manufactured without animal ingredients or testing of any kind. KOKOMI uses just three ingredients: filtered water, organic cane sugar, and organic and/or fair trade cacao.

KOKOMI is not certified organic. However, we use ingredients that are certified organic and/or fair trade wherever possible. Our cane sugar (we never use corn syrup!) is certified organic, our water is filtered to remove most municipal water supply additives, and our cacao is sourced from small-scale farmers who are paid fairly for their beans. Often, organic certification is impossible to achieve in the remote rain forest locations where our producers are farming. Nevertheless, all KOKOMI suppliers are scrutinized carefully to make sure they farm with minimal environmental impact.

No, for reasons pertaining to taste and product safety, our cacao is roasted prior to incorporation into our beverages. Many health-conscious consumers are unaware of the fact that raw cacao, while nutrient-rich, is a potentially dangerous vector for food-borne illness. This is because all cacao beans are fermented with wild yeasts prior to roasting and/or consumption. Roasting the beans kills the pathogens that can grow during the fermentation process — and it makes the cacao bean taste like chocolate!

Theobromine, the gentle energy booster found in cacao, is also present in KOKOMI. Our customers say KOKOMI provides them with a gentler and more long-lasting energy boost than the “spike and crash” one experiences with caffeine. (As the NIH says: “…theobromine is safe for humans and has fewer unwanted effects than caffeine.”)

In addition to the energy-boosting theobromine, cacao has a number of natural mood-lifting compounds that can assist in counteracting depressive mood cycles, including:

• Phenethylamine, or PEA: triggers the release of endorphins, and potentiates dopamine release in the brain
• Anandamide, a cannabinoid psychoactive substance that binds to the same receptors as THC
• Cacao also increases levels of serotonin in the brain — one of the reasons chocolate is recommended to women during their menstrual cycles

One of the dirty secrets of the chocolate industry is that many large-scale cacao producers turn to child labor — and even modern variants of indentured servitude/near-slavery — to offset losses when the price for commodity cacao drops. KOKOMI does not buy cacao from large-scale industrial cacao farms. All our cacao suppliers are small-scale producers who cater to the emerging, artisanal “bean to bar” chocolate-making industry, all follow ethical management procedures, and all are paid a fair price for their produce.

In 2013, we examined the lengthy ingredient list on a tin of hot chocolate mix, and asked ourselves the question: if coffee is made by roasting coffee beans and steeping them in hot water, can’t you make brewed chocolate the same way? Why is all this fat required? What purpose do the dairy ingredients, alkaline additives, and emulsifiers serve? Why all the preservatives? People love coffee without all that stuff — why not chocolate?

To answer those questions, we spent nearly two years working with dozens of cacao beans, from every cacao-producing region, as well as multiple methods of brewing, through hundreds of recipes. It took a long time, but we eventually locked down a replicable formula that reliably produces delicious brewed chocolate of surprising richness — but only when brewed at very precise temperatures, for very specific periods. When we cooled it to refrigerated temperatures — voila! — KOKOMI was born.

In 2018, we moved out of our small commercial kitchen and began working towards large-scale production with co-manufacturers who believed in the good-for-you/good-for-the-planet KOKOMI philosophy. We will soon be relaunching KOKOMI, making it available throughout the United States and Canada via the internet, and eventually through bricks-and-mortar retailers.

Our small-batch product was a beverage that required constant refrigeration — but our new iteration will be shelf-stable for many months at room temperature. Of course, everything lasts longer under refrigeration, so if you’ve got the fridge space, keep it in there. Added benefit: you’ll always have a cold can of KOKOMI at arm’s length!

There are 386 mg of theobromine in each 250 ml can of Tanzania Dark Roast and Madagascar Sparkling KOKOMI. You’d have to eat four Hershey’s milk chocolate bars, or about one bar of 80% cacao dark chocolate, to get the same amount of theobromine. You’d have to drink six cups of Swiss Miss hot cocoa!

Though chocolate is essentially harmless to humans, it can make dogs and cats very sick — so keep your pets away from your KOKOMI! We have yet to hear of any dog or cat expressing an interest in KOKOMI, but we’re dog and cat owners and lovers, and we don’t want anybody to take that chance.

No. KOKOMI is made differently from Mexican drinking chocolate, which typically involves melting and whisking bar chocolate into water or milk, frequently with additional ingredients like vanilla or chiles. KOKOMI is brewed using a proprietary combination of time and temperature, using very specific quantities of roasted cacao, filtered water, and organic cane sugar.

Yes! We particularly find it matches well with rum and coffee liqueurs — but go ahead and experiment. Just make sure you have a designated driver!