OK, it’s not literally green chocolate, but Hudson Greens & Goods in Napa’s Oxbow Public Market carries a lot of good chocolate, much of it local, that’s “green” as in sustainable, fair trade, organic, etc., etc.
Oxbow Public Market is a fun, upscale indoor market that features local food, wine, and coffee for sale in a variety of cafes and vendor stalls, so you can grab a bite or something more substantial, then buy supplies to take home. In addition to Hudson Greens & Goods’ chocolate supply, there’s an Anette’s Chocolates store in the market if you can’t get to the one in downtown Napa.
But we were there to see what other local chocolate we could find, and Hudson Greens & Goods had enticing endcaps full of chocolate. We spotted bars by Yountville’s K+M Extravirgin Chocolate and Valentine’s Day themed truffles from St. Helena’s Woodhouse Chocolate.
Other local SFBA chocolate we saw on Hudson’s endcaps and under their counters:
- Recchiuti Confections (San Francisco)
- NeoCocoa (San Francisco)
- Feve Artisan Chocolatier (San Francisco)
- The Good Chocolate (San Francisco)
- 9th & Larkin (San Francisco)
- Coracao Confections (Berkeley)
- TCHO (Berkeley)
- Nuubia Chocolates (Pleasanton)
- Guittard (Burlingame): cocoa powder only
- Cacoco (Santa Cruz): drinking chocolate
- Navitas Organics (Novato): cacao nibs
Beyond local
There were also bars by well-known chocolate makers from across the country and beyond, and other chocolates and confections mixed into the displays. While it doesn’t have the range of SF’s Chocolate Covered and its 1000 bars from around the world, Hudson has a very nice curated chocolate collection, including far-flung Pump Street, Dick Taylor, Letterpress, and Theo.
So you will have lots of good options to choose from here, both local and exotic. My one complaint is that they do not carry enough of the small wine country chocolatiers and chocolate makers who don’t have their own retail space or enough outlets for their chocolate. I would hope they would reach out to small makers like Le Belge Chocolatier, Quail Point Chocolate, Rainy Day Chocolates, Fleur Sauvage Chocolates, Firefly Chocolate, Baci Chocolatier, and Volo Chocolate, to name a few. It would be so nice if there was a central location for all the great and interesting chocolate happening in our wine country.
Bonus chocolate spot
Hudson Greens & Goods is located in the Oxbow Public Market, which is open 7 days a week. It shares a parking lot with CIA at Copia, which is another fun, food-focused space with classes, a museum, events, restaurants, and a museum/kitchen store that carries chocolate by locals K+M Extravirgin Chocolate and Kollar Chocolates.
