Bulgarian Craft Chocolate: Small Batches, Big Flavours

Somewhere between the rose fields of the Thracian Valley and the granite grinders of a Sofia workshop, a quiet transformation is underway. Bulgaria, a country better known for yogurt and rakia, has become home to a small but serious community of bean-to-bar chocolate makers. Their bars have started appearing on international award lists, in specialty shops across Europe, and in the hands of people who care about where their chocolate comes from.

The scene remains intimate. Four or five producers, each with a distinct approach, each working in small batches. But what they lack in scale, they make up for in precision and personality.

From Norway to Ovcha Kupel

Pavel Pavlov spent over a decade in Norwegian fine dining before returning to Sofia in 2021. His company, La Fève, started in Oslo as a side project, making bonbons for clients who wanted something beyond the usual praline box. The chocolates won awards. Then the pandemic hit, and Pavlov saw an opening.

According to the America for Bulgaria Foundation, Pavlov relocated La Fève to Sofia's Ovcha Kupel neighbourhood, partnering with pastry chef Daria Rusanova. The workshop now produces bonbons and chocolate bars that have earned multiple Gold and Silver medals from the Academy of Chocolate in London.

The flavour combinations lean playful: rose geranium, juniper, salted caramel. A box of six bonbons runs around €15. The bars, at €11 for 80 grams, sit at the upper end of the local market but remain accessible for anyone curious about what craft chocolate actually tastes like.

Drinking Chocolate as a Ritual

Flow Cacao Roasters takes a different path. This family-owned operation focuses almost entirely on drinking chocolate, sourcing single-origin beans from Honduras and Nicaragua and roasting them in small batches in Sofia.

The result is drinking chocolate that behaves more like specialty coffee than the powdered cocoa most people grew up with. Their 70% Nicaragua with salted caramel earned a Bronze at the Academy of Chocolate in 2024. The ceremonial cacao, at 100%, is designed for those who want the full, uncut experience: bitter, earthy, and surprisingly energising.

Flow Cacao supplies several Sofia cafés and has built a wholesale business with coffee shops that want to offer something beyond the standard hot chocolate. For home use, their drinking chocolate blends range from 44% to 100% cacao content, with prices starting around €8 for a 200-gram pouch.

Organic, Vegan, and Unapologetically Bold

Benjamissimo, the brand behind Bio Benjamin OOD, was founded in 2014 by brothers Krassimir and Martin Benjamin. Their mission statement reads like a manifesto: organic, vegan, gluten-free, no refined sugar. The bars use cacao from small farms in Nicaragua, Peru, and Congo, combined with superfoods like maca, spirulina, and chia.

The company has reached over 30 countries, including, improbably, Antarctica. Their Bulgarian Rose Water bar, made with 70% cacao and actual rose water from the Valley of Roses in central Bulgaria, won Silver at the International Chocolate Awards in 2024.

Benjamissimo bars are widely available in Sofia's organic shops and supermarkets, typically priced between €4 and €5 for a 70-gram bar. The accessibility is intentional: the Benjamin brothers want craft chocolate to be an everyday option, not a luxury reserved for special occasions.

Plovdiv's Bean-to-Bar Pioneer

Casa Kakau, based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city, began in 2016 when a young couple needed to make chocolate safe for their son's severe dairy allergy. What started as a family necessity became a business built on radical simplicity: their Original 70% bar contains only two ingredients.

The company uses granite stone mills throughout the entire grinding and conching process, a traditional method that avoids the metal residue left by modern steel ball mills. Their Chocolate with Bulgarian Rose Water and Cardamom, made with Ecuadorian Trinitario beans, won Bronze at the Academy of Chocolate in 2019 and Silver at the European Bean-to-Bar Competition in Copenhagen the same year.

Casa Kakau bars run around €7 for 70 grams and can be found in specialty shops in Plovdiv and Sofia, as well as through their online store.

Why This Matters

Eastern Europe has become an increasingly interesting destination for cacao exporters, according to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries. Bulgaria, in particular, has seen dramatic growth in direct cacao imports, from 8 tonnes in 2015 to nearly 18,000 tonnes by 2019.

Most of that volume feeds industrial production. But the craft makers are carving out a different space: one where the origin of the bean matters, where the process takes time, and where a chocolate bar can tell a story about a farm in Ecuador or a family in Plovdiv.

The International Chocolate Awards now runs a dedicated Eastern European competition, with Bulgarian makers regularly appearing among the winners. The scene is small, but it is no longer invisible.

Where to start: La Fève bonbons at their Ovcha Kupel shop or online; Flow Cacao drinking chocolate at specialty cafés across Sofia; Benjamissimo bars at Zoya organic shops; Casa Kakau at Plovdiv specialty stores.