Fortunato Chocolate

Seriously the best chocolate turtles I've had in my life! This family-owned shop is worth the visit. Free hot chocolate is always a plus. Ingredients used are made with clean ingredients and none of the icky stuff. All natural.

It's so rare to see 5 star reviews on YELP but it's understandable that Fortunato has 5 stars because the chocolate tastes THAT good and the in-store experience is that pleasant! I highly recommend this place for all sorts of gourmet chocolate for all tastes!

For the last couple years I have been visiting and I love this place. The workers are so kind and engage a lot with the customers and if we ever have any questions they're very helpful. The chocolates are real great quality I love the chocolate mangoes the most.

We stopped on our way to rei, curious of the place and my daughter attracted by the free hot chocolate. The latino music is very welcoming and choices are amazing. We bought a chocolate nut bar, my daughter had her free chocolate drink. Simple and unique and excellent chocolate taste ! We really hope every chocolate lover stopped there. Thank you. We will be back soon

Turns out Fortunato Chocolate has been in business for 15 years selling exquisite Peruvian chocolate to restaurant wholesale accounts. They pivoted to include retail and online access since the pandemic. I had not heard of them until seeing them featured on KING5 Evening two days ago. So late this foggy morning I headed from Shoreline to a non-descript building off a main arterial in Issaquah...a long drive but easy peasy using Google GPS and travelling during off peak hours (1/27/22). Oh darn, I coincidentally just finished my last bar of dark chocolate. Yeah twist my arm when it comes to rare sources of chocolate, lol.First thing upon entering is that scent of chocolate and the retail area. Various items available to sample, for purchase, and of course, say yes to the kind offer of free hot chocolate with marshmallows!There is also active production from cacao bean to bar going on, seeing staff members busy at work. I can tell there is a huge market for their product after seeing the boxes all wrapped and palletized ready for shipment. Definitely check out their website, www.fortunatochocolate.com for additional detailed information about their company, product line, and recipes.Full disclosure as a former assistant pastry chef, one featured recipe, please they are called macaRONs, not macaROONs. Sorry, I digress with this PSA.I had a pleasant convo with one of the owners, Adam, while onsite. Very welcoming and personable. But more folks were stopping in, so I kept my convo brief.I did purchase a 500 gram bar of their Fortunato Number 4, 68% dark chocolate ($20) and an 8 ounce bag of Javier's Hot Chocolate Mix ($10). I am sipping this delicious sample as I am writing this post.Detour off Exit 17 on I-90 East while in Issaquah, and support a family run, single origin chocolate company. Delicious!

Visited Fortunato Chocolate in Issaquah today, sampling some of their chocolates, drinking hot cocoa and purchasing some house roasted chocolate almonds. Everything we tasted was delicious and creamy. The chocolate covered almonds are truly the best I've had. (We took our samples and cocoa outside to eat/drink, for Covid safety.Highly recommend, if you're in Issaquah or want to treat yourself to some delicious chocolate, from the rare Fortunato farm Pure Nacional cacao trees in Peru. This is apparently one of the best cacao sources in the world.The gentleman who helped us was super nice.

Great tasting chocolate.. very happy with purchase.. will definitely be buying more in the years to come .. only request would be to make an even higher percentage dark chocolate. 75-85%

A total fan! The factory store is humble, but the staff are incredibly friendly and helpful and you can watch them package various products and get a personalized explanation of how they make the chocolate and decide what new products to offer. And you can taste free samples of a host of products to your heart's content!As important, the chocolate is one of the best in the world, and yet very reasonably priced. Anthony Bourdain traveled to the origin of this specific chocolate in Peru in his No Reservations show several years ago, to find and taste the once thought extinct, genetically pure and still rare white cocoa beans which are the basis for Fortunato. The company pays its farmers ten times Fair Trade prices and created an ethical, no compromises on quality production chain from Peru to Switzerland to Issaquah (of all places!) where it packages and sends the product out globally. We have been a fan of its smooth rich taste for years; you can tell the huge difference from larger industry chains which have none of the care in their process.Needless to say when we visited from Denver we loaded up on many of the products, as well as the free samples!

Amazing chocolate with an incredible story! I love how they found a cacao plant in Peru thought to be extinct for over 100 years and now propagated it into thousands of new plants to produce the purest chocolate!

It's the kitchen. You go here to see the Fortunato confections being made. And to get a cup of free hot chocolate. This is not a chocolate maker. It's a chocolatier.Fortunato chocolate uses cacao from the Marañón river canyon of Peru. Brian Horsley & Dan Pearson (owners along with other family members) discovered cacao from this region with a large percentage of white cacao beans. Genetic testing revealed it to be a unique variety of Nacional cacao long thought extinct & related to the Nacional cacao of Ecuador. It's not the rarest cacao in the world, but it is remarkable.Fortunato send the cacao to Switzerland and has Felchlin make chocolate from it for Fortunato. The chocolate has an exceptionally smooth texture & a thick & luxuriously creamy mouthfeel. Flavors are primarily floral, with a strong hint of slightly citrusy fruits & caramel. There's also an underlying current of earthy & nutty flavors hinting at coffee. But the floral notes sing here so much that you would swear (too much) vanilla is added. None is added.The overall effect is a rich, barely bitter, & profoundly dark chocolate that brings different flavor notes almost every time you taste it. This palate & soul-satisfying chocolate keeps you coming back for more.And then they make confections--many, many, many of them--here at this small commercial kitchen and sell them.Worth a visit.