What You're Getting When You Buy Euphoria Chocolate

April 24, 2026 Jillian Novak

You may already be aware that between 2023 and 2025, the global cost of cocoa rose approximately 400%, resulting in the highest-recorded price of chocolate in 60 years. While a number of factors contributed to this cost increase, the fact remains that many major players in the chocolate industry have developed a variety of responses to combat the rising cost of cocoa—and not all of them are savory.

How Has Euphoria Chocolate Company Responded?

Here at Euphoria Chocolate Company, we believe that chocolate is a moment, not a commodity. And that means we won't skimp on what makes good chocolate great: quality cocoa, treated with impeccable technique and respect for the craft.

We still purchase cocoa from the same suppliers we've been partnered with since we started in 1980. We aren't changing our recipes. We don't fill our chocolate with imitation flavors, and we don't use additives to stretch the high-quality chocolate we use.

Comparing us to other chocolate companies or their products thus becomes an apples-to-oranges comparison: we're small, we're centered in our community, and our chocolates show our hand-made, personal approach to everything we do. And that's something you'll just never get with a chocolate bar you buy on a whim in a store check-out line.

With us, you're still getting the chocolate experience you've come to expect from Euphoria: unrestrained, unfiltered, and utterly indulgent.

How are Other Chocolate Companies Responding?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, cost increases have been an obvious solution for some companies. Others have reduced product sizes. Others still have reformulated recipes, hoping that no one would notice (Brad Reese certainly did!), while some companies have reduced cocoa percentages or attempted to eliminate it from their "chocolate flavored" products altogether.

As of November 2025, three US confectionary giants responded to the rise in cocoa prices in the following ways:¹

Mondelez (Cadbury, Oreo, etc.) initially increased prices, which led to "significant" losses in gross profit. Their CEO proposed reducing prices or shrinking product size to make their products "more acceptable to the consumer" once more.
Hershey (Hershey's, Reese's, etc.) raised and kept prices high, despite net income falling around 38%.
Nestle (Butterfinger, Crunch, etc.) hiked prices and cut 16,000 jobs

What are the Challenges in Replicating Chocolate's Flavor?

Replacing or replicating cocoa is a complex challenge. Cocoa isn't just a taste; rather, it contributes flavor, texture, viscosity, and other sensory experiences.² In order to successfully gain "consumer acceptance" of cocoa substitutes, food additive manufacturers must consider how

[t]he bulking and texture functionalities from cocoa solids add viscosity and moisture absorption. But cocoa also carries aromatic diversity, as it contains more than 400 aromatic compounds that contribute to its distinctive aroma and flavor. The rich sensory eating experience of finished chocolate derives from how its fat content influences mouthfeel and flowability. Most specifically, cocoa butter has a melting point similar to human body temperature. These qualities give it an almost addictive mouthfeel.

Companies attempting to replace or replicate the texture and flavor of chocolate are experimenting with various types of fermented, roasted, and blended products. Others are venturing into the laboratory, and some sustainable approaches are attempting to "upcycle" other types of plant streams "to replicate cocoa's various qualities."

What are Cocoa Reduction Strategies?

Cocoa reduction strategies are methods of reducing cocoa content in finished products without consumer objection. One recommendation is reducing cocoa by substituting milk or white chocolate; the same article points out that many global cuisines use acorns for coffee-like drinks and desserts, proposing that "acorns can be used to create cocoa powder substitutes" that would work in baked goods.²

Another possible additive to reduce cocoa use is carob powder, which is made from the pods of the locust bean. While rich in antioxidants and minerals, the "flavor has not proven sufficiently close" to cocoa "for it to have wide consumer acceptance" as a replacement.

Cupuaçu, or Theobroma Grandiflora, is a relative of Theobroma Cacao, the plant responsible for giving us cacao pods. While it can create "an excellent chocolate-like substance," the flavor is closer to a mocha-style coffee. In terms of texture and mouthfeel, bars made from cupuaçu "are virtually identical to true chocolate" but with a lighter brown hue. Regardless of the color difference, however, "this chocolate substitute has high acceptance among consumers," but like cacao, it is expensive and difficult to cultivate.

Another type of proposed filler to help with cocoa reduction are dark malted flours, which can "bring both [the] richness of flavor and color into a chocolate formulation to replace up to 25% of cocoa." Dark syrups made from domestically-grown "sorghum, corn, rice, barley, and even dark caramel can add sweetness, color, and depth of flavor that can fill in for smaller percentages of cocoa," although these "require careful incorporation, as consumers will be unforgiving if a formulation deviates more than the slightest from expected cocoa and chocolate flavors."

Some companies have been more overt, creating "cocoa powder extenders" that allow up to "50% cocoa powder reduction" in food and beverage products "without compromising on taste."³ Other companies are creating "cocoa enhancers"⁴ that are made by

directly extracting the aromatic compounds from the agricultural raw material. The cocoa extracts can help to replace up to 30% of cocoa powder and remove certain undesirable properties of the original raw material.

More About Fillers and Additives

American firm Ardent Mills has developed a cocoa substitute from wheat, which it calls Cocoa Replace. The key selling point for Cocoa Replace is its ability to hold more moisture than cocoa powder;⁵ their website states

Results from both sensory screening trials by highly trained sensory experts and from consumers demonstrated that Cocoa Replace closely matches cocoa powder in sensory experience and acceptability, making it a viable alternative to cocoa in baking applications up to 25%.

Other additives aim to reduce the dryness that some cocoa alternatives create. One such example, Citri-Fi, is made from citrus fiber and designed to improve "the quality of cocoa-reduced food products" like baked goods, frozen goods, and refrigerated desserts:

"Since Citri-Fi binds water and oil at low usage levels, it can be used alongside these other cocoa-reducing ingredients to improve the moisture retention of bakery items. As a result, bakery items maintain their freshness over time on the shelf."

Some additive manufacturing companies are focused less on flavor and more on the behavior of chocolate. European company Bunge creates cocoa butter alternatives using alternative natural fats (like shea butter and palm oil) for coatings and fillings in chocolate products. Bunge says that the behavior of these fats "is exactly the same as cocoa butter" and helps release the fat-soluble flavors of chocolate.⁶

Cocoa Bioengineering Strategies

Some companies are looking to the laboratory to create cocoa analogs that are using the genes of cacao plants themselves.^{1, 7}

California Cultured, Inc. extracts and grows cells from cacao in condition-controlled tanks that replicate their natural ‘rainforest’ environments in just three days vs. months for cacao harvesting—but without the precariousness, carbon footprint, or reliance on deforestation.
Nukoko, Ltd. uses a scalable biotransformation technology replicating the fermentation process that typically is used to transform cocoa beans into chocolate but with fava beans native to the U.K. instead of cocoa beans. The technology could be adapted to other regional raw materials globally, eliminating the need to ship ingredients between countries.
Planet A Foods, GmbH uses precision fermentation with yeast, oats, and sunflower seeds to emulate cocoa flavor and functionality and produce cocoa-free chocolate, plus cocoa-free/palm-free lipid to replace cocoa butter in chocolate applications.
WNWN Food Labs, Ltd. applies traditional fermentation techniques to spent barley and carob to produce vegan, caffeine-, palm-, gluten-, and cocoa-free analogs of chocolate bars and chocolate chips for consumers. The products also are lower in sugar and manufactured more sustainably than their true chocolate counterparts, generating significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions.
Other companies, such as the Israeli biotech enterprises Circe Bioscience, Ltd. and Kokomodo, Ltd., are leveraging synthetic biology to convert gases such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide into cocoa-like ingredients (Circe) and employing microbes in cellular agriculture (Kokomodo) to make cocoa isolates, presenting a sustainable and scalable solution. Another Israeli biotech, Celleste-Bio, Ltd., is “using a three-pronged model” of biotech, agritech, and AI to produce 100% natural cocoa ingredients at scale.

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