Theo Chocolates are forging a new path for delicious treats with a social conscience

Seattle Weekly is not the only one who thinks this to be true

Dark chocolate ravioli with pumpkin ricotta filling, one of the surprising dishes at Theo Chocolate's Chocolate University dinner

Organic, Fair Trade, And Chocolate Vinaigrette

A good chocolate showroom has a few samples for inquisitive tastebuds.  Theo Chocolate has mounds of samples in its retail shop/reception area where the lucky people taking a factory tour can get a taste of what is to come.

Seattle is known worldwide as a city of innovation, and that ingenuity extends into the realm of food as well.  One company manages to provide a new product in a field crowded with competitors.  Theo Chocolate, based in Seattle's funky Fremont neighbourhood, is a bean-to-bar chocolatemaker, meaning it controls the entire chocolatemaking process from start to finish.  There are only a few companies doing this in the world; Theo is the only one using organic, fair-trade beans, a fact that sets it apart from everyone else—just as its chocolate does.

Theo (the name comes not from a guy named Theodore, but rather from theobroma cacao, the scientific name for cocoa) is the brainchild of Joe Whinney, a committed cocoaphile who has worked with chocolate for more than two decades.  Now occupying a former brewery, Theo Chocolate sends its brown love out across the US from its charming headquarters in Fremont, which is also the home of a famous Sunday market that brings together a colourful array of vendors, including several food vendors offering the best of Washington foods from farm cheeses and just-picked produce to honeys infused with local flavours.  Fremont is a freespirited kind of place; the local supermarket is an adventure in food, with an array of organic and unusual items rarely seen elsewhere.