7 Best Chocolate-Covered Coffee Beans (Real Reviews)

The best chocolate covered espresso beans have a ratio of 2:1, chocolate to coffee beans— in my eyes that makes the chocolate twice as important as the coffee. So I won't be singing the praises of crappy chocolate covered coffee beans just because there's an affiliate program. I have personally tasted, photographed, and reviewed every brand of chocolate coffee beans on this list.

I'm a fanatic for coffee; making chocolate-covered espresso beans was one of my favorite treats when I was making my own chocolate and roasting my own coffee. I actually started this blog just before I went off to work on a coffee & cacao farm in Ecuador for several months in 2015, but that's another story.

I wrote this because literally every comparison I found of the best chocolate-covered espresso beans to buy were from people who'd never even tried the products themselves, much less compared them to each other.

This sounded like just the way-overboard kind of project I need right now, so I set about to find the best chocolate-covered coffee beans money could buy— by actually trying all the options out there, one at a time. This is an ever-expanding article, so please drop recommendations for your favorites below!

Best Chocolate-Covered Espresso Beans

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Espresso Beans

These are simply a delight. I'm not sure why I never noticed them before this year, but I plan to buy 10 bags before they stop stocking them, as this is a seasonal item. Much like the infamous PSL that Trader Joe's pays homage to every fall, these beans are a sweet treat with a spiced aftertaste and the mildest hint of bitterness.

I've actually never ordered a pumpkin spiced latte, but after trying these, I'm definitely going to. They're pretty addictive and easy to down a lot of at once, so definitely keep them away from the kiddos.

Size: 2.5 ounces/71g (2 servings)
Price: $0.99 from Trader Joe's (also available on amazon)
Cost Per Ounce: $0.40
Types of Chocolate: white chocolate
Caffeine per Serving: not listed

Taza Organic Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans

These organic chocolate covered coffee beans have a beautifully complex & balanced flavor. Made only with plant-based ingredients and direct trade cacao, Taza is actually one of the few large chocolate companies which launched with ethical sourcing at the heart of their company values. The brand goes beyond Fair Trade standards, and even made sure to certify their products gluten-free— now that's commitment to inclusivity!

The chocolate coffee beans themselves are pretty uniform in size and have more like a 1:1 ratio of chocolate to coffee beans, but with a very smooth chocolate coating. This tells me that not only do they carefully sort and clean their coffee beans, but they've taken the time to match them with a balanced chocolate.

I was also thrilled to see that they post the caffeine content of chocolate covered espresso beans on their label, which even if it isn't accurate for all companies' beans, will at least give you a starting point.

Size: 3.5 ounces/100g (3.5 servings)
Price: $8.99 from Amazon
Cost Per Ounce: $2.57
Type of Chocolate: dark chocolate
Caffeine per Serving: 135mg caffeine

Domori Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans (Dragees)

These Italian chocolate-covered coffee beans come from Domori Chocolate, a company based in the heart of Italian cuisine: Turin. Also the capital of the famous hazelnut-growing region of Piedmont, Turin is widely known as one of the best chocolate cities in the world. These chocolate covered beans reflect those decades of quality, coated in a rich 67% chocolate made with ethically-sourced cacao.

Relative to most chocolate covered coffee beans, these are on the smaller side, with less of the glossy stuff to make them stand out. But the flavor is exquisite, with each crunch revealing more of the rich, melty chocolate coating each espresso bean.

Size: 1.41 ounces/40g (2 servings)
Price: $5.00 from Bar & Cocoa
Cost Per Ounce: $3.55 per oz.
Types of Chocolate: dark chocolate
Caffeine per Serving: not listed

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

If you like your coffee strong and bitter with a hint of sugar, these are the best chocolate-covered espresso beans for you. While the sizes vary wildly— and they have a lot of shellac to make them so shiny— the overall flavor is moderately bitter and pretty sweet. Unfortunately they have just a mild chocolatey flavor relative to the other chocolate coffee beans reviewed here, thanks to the alkalization process.

Trader Joe's has actually been selling these for at least 8 years, with my earliest memory of them being around 2015 or 2016. The smallest beans are the most bitter and astringent, with the largest ones featuring multiple dark chocolate espresso beans each.

Size: 14 ounces/397g (13 servings)
Price: $5.00 from Trader Joe's (also available on amazon)
Cost Per Ounce: $0.36 per oz.
Types of Chocolate: dark chocolate
Caffeine per Serving: not listed

Decaf Chocolate-Covered Espresso Beans

These decaf chocolate coffee beans have a nice crunch at first, but there's a slightly fake flavor to them. If you're using them in a trail mix, this would be a great option, because the coffee beans inside are very small. Every other one I tried had a bean so brittle that it turned powdery as I bit down.

They're very sweet— sugar is the first ingredient— but that also makes it easier to overlook their flat affect and munch into the next one. Insofar as decaf chocolate espresso beans go, they're probably one of your best bets (aside from making your own).

Size: 16 ounces/454g (15 servings)
Price: $13.99 from Nuts.com
Cost Per Ounce: $0.88 per oz.
Types of Chocolate: dark chocolate
Caffeine per Serving: not listed

Trader Joe’s Flavored Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans (1oz.)

While most of the coffee drinks represented in these flavored chocolate covered espresso beans from Trader Joe's are a guess at best, the flavors truly end up speaking for themselves. If I had to pick, I'd choose these as the overall best chocolate-covered espresso beans insofar as value for money.

They taste a bit like java chips and way better than the big container of chocolate covered coffee beans from Trader Joe's. Plus, math says that in the end they only cost 12% more per ounce. But I'd also like to note that there's no mention on the packaging or the company's website as to how, from where, or how much they pay for the coffee & cacao used in this product.

So I can't speak to the ethics of how they sourced their ingredients, but I'll say unequivocally that the balance of fats and sugars is delicious. These are also the best for sharing, because with 5 flavors, there's bound to be one for every coffee lover in your life (or at least in the room!).

Three of the flavors actually have relatively less caffeine, as well; neither white chocolate nor blonde chocolate contain caffeine. Since I have a sweet tooth, I adore the white chocolate ones the most. The coffee beans they use in all of the flavors are mildly bitter, so you can mix & match the flavors to come up with your ideal coffee drink— no brewing required.

Size: 2.5 ounces/71g (2 servings)
Price: $0.99 from Trader Joe's (also available on amazon)
Cost Per Ounce: $0.40
Types of Chocolate: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate
Caffeine per Serving: not listed

The NY Espresso Mix

This blend of different flavored chocolate covered coffee beans has quite the one-two-punch of sweet and then coffee, but the chocolate flavor isn't very strong. This is likely because three of the five flavors of beans in the blend are covered in white chocolate. That means that as long as the coffee beans inside aren't burnt to a crisp, they're never going to be bitter enough to overpower the sweetness of the coatings.

If you like sweet chocolate espresso beans, then this would be my pick for you. However, if you like being able to differentiate the flavors and textures between the different options, then the Trader Joe's blend would be a better buy. I honestly had great difficulty distinguishing the milk and dark chocolate covered coffee beans, even in bright sunlight, and the flavor was almost imperceptibly different.

Size: 16 ounces/454g (15 servings)
Price: $12.99 from Nuts.com
Cost Per Ounce: $0.81 per oz.
Types of Chocolate: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate
Caffeine per Serving: not listed

Chocolate Espresso Beans FAQ