An unsweetened chocolate drink that was never sweet to begin with
If you have been stirring unsweetened cocoa powder into hot milk to dodge the sugar, here is a version that starts where you are trying to end up. Roasted cacao beans, ground and brewed like coffee, strained the same way. It comes out dark and rounded, and most people find that after a week or two they stop reaching for the sweetener at all.
Sweeten it if you like. Plenty of people stop wanting to.
Why brewing beats a powder here
You get the whole bean instead of the remainder
Cocoa powder is what is left after most of the cacao butter has been pressed away. Ours is the roasted bean, ground coarse, so the natural fat and the flavanols both stay where the tree put them. More of the bean in the grind means more flavour in the water, which is how an unsweetened cup ends up tasting full rather than thin.
Extracted, so it pours clean
Powder has to be stirred in and settles at the bottom. Hot water pulls the flavour out of cacao grounds and you leave the grounds behind, so the cup has body without grit. Every batch is sorted and destoned after the roast, which is how we make sure the only thing you drink is cacao.
It takes milk and cream better than coffee does
The natural fat left in the bean carries dairy and oat milk beautifully, so a splash turns it rounded rather than watery. Steam it in if you want something closer to a latte — still with nothing added to the bag.
“I was afraid Choffy would taste bitter and I'd want to add sweetener. But I was delightfully surprised. No need for sweetener and leaves that satisfying flavor in my mouth like real coffee.”
Kathleen Thomas · verified buyer
Unsweetened hot chocolate, in four minutes
There is nothing to follow here beyond a brew and a couple of optional additions — no sugar anywhere in it. This is the version most people land on once they stop reaching for the sweetener.
- 2 tablespoons Ivory Coast Dark or Volta Dark grounds
- 6 oz water, just off the boil
- A splash of whole milk, cream or oat milk — optional
- A pinch of salt — optional
- A little vanilla or cinnamon — optional
- Two tablespoons of grounds per 6 oz of water, just off the boil, in a French press.
- Stir once, steep three minutes, then press slowly.
- Taste it black first. The fat still in the bean gives it body, which is the part cocoa powder cannot do.
- For something rounder, add a splash of milk or cream. A pinch of salt takes the edge off the bitterness without making it sweet.
- Vanilla or cinnamon reads as sweetness to most people, and neither one adds any.
None of this is in the bag — the bag is one ingredient. These are the additions customers tell us they settle on, and every one of them is optional.
Where people start
Darker roasts carry the deepest cocoa character. French, Dark, then Medium.
Volta Dark Choffy Brewed Cacao
Volta Dark, our most popular roast and the deepest of the three — bold and rich, with no sweetness at all.
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French Roast Variety Set Choffy Brewed Cacao
Ecuador, Nigeria and Ivory Coast at the same French roast, so you can taste what the origin changes.
Shop thisAbout the unsweetened cup
Is it really unsweetened?
Completely. The bag contains roasted cacao and nothing else. Add sugar, honey or milk if you want to - many people find they stop bothering after a week or two.
How is it different from cocoa powder?
Cocoa powder is the pressed, defatted remainder of the bean, usually alkalized. This is the whole roasted bean, ground coarse for brewing. One dissolves; the other is extracted and strained.
Is it sugar free?
There is no added sugar. Cacao beans contain a very small amount of naturally occurring sugar, as most plants do, so “no added sugar” is the accurate phrase rather than “sugar free”.
Can I make it creamy?
Yes. It takes milk, oat milk or cream better than coffee does. Steam it in if you want something closer to a latte.
Which roast is the most chocolatey?
The Dark roasts - Volta Dark is the most popular. French roasts lean smokier and more coffee-like; Medium roasts are gentler.
Does it have flavanols and antioxidants?
Cacao is one of the richer plant sources of flavanols — the polyphenol family that includes epicatechin — and they are water-soluble, so they carry into the brew rather than staying behind in the grounds. No number exists for our own cup, because nobody has assayed one. What is on the record is what alkalizing costs cocoa powder: total flavanols 34.6 mg per gram natural against 3.9 heavily treated, and antioxidant capacity 615–846 µmol TE per gram against 94–294. Those are powder figures from a 2008 study rather than ours — and our bean never goes near an alkali. Theobromine sits alongside them — cacao's own stimulant, a slower and gentler cousin of caffeine, and cacao carries more of it than caffeine. It is the reason the cup reads steady rather than sharp.
From people who gave up the sugar first
Google, Amazon and Walmart figures last checked 11 September 2026. The on-site figure updates itself.
“I've been drinking cacao for the last six years. Love it. But Choffy Ecuador Medium Roast is the best of the best.”
“Dark rich and creamy. My favorite! I make with a french press and healthy creamer.”
“Probably the most "chocolatey" of all the roasts, yet so earthy and good.”
Nothing to leave out
One ingredient, roasted by us, brewed in a press or a drip machine. The sweetening was always yours to decide.
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