Cocoa prices finally have started to fall from all-time highs, but Lehigh Valley chocolate makers say it may take some time before customers see prices go down.
Crop disease, El Nino and market speculation contributed to the spike that began in 2024, as reported by CNBC, when cocoa prices began around $4,200 per metric ton and shot to nearly $12,000 per metric ton in December 2024.
“[Customers] don’t recognize that cocoa is like the gas, going up and down every year,” said Mikael Khallouf, the owner of Choco B in Allentown.
The price has since decreased to a little over $3,400 per metric ton as of March 11, according to CNBC, but the impact of the high prices still are being felt.
“Hopefully they don’t spike again because I’ve been doing this about 35 years now and I don’t ever remember cocoa being so high, you know?” said Steve Bussenger, owner of Chocolates on Broadway in Bangor. “If they would just stabilize between … even, say, $2,500 to $5,000 per metric ton, that would be good for everybody.”
Barry Dobil Jr., who co-owns Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall and Bethlehem townships, said the company was certainly affected by the spring 2024 price increase. The business wrote the community a letter in September 2024, warning about the upcoming price increase due to the cocoa market — up 9% for primarily its chocolate products, Dobil told The Morning Call, instead of the average 2%-3% yearly increase.
“We had a lot of options to navigate it,” he said. “It’s not uncommon in the industry for people to dilute the cocoa percentages in their chocolate or to add additives or to thin out the chocolate, things like that. Something that we talked about internally — and it was, I can say, a very short conversation — we all agreed that … we stand here as a fifth-generation business because of our dedication to quality first and foremost. The last thing we were going to do was going to be to mess with that formula, to mess with our chocolate blend, to mess with our raw materials, our ingredients — any of that.”
Josh Early Candies co-owners and siblings Amy Barnett and Barry Dobil Jr. hold a pair of customer favorites — a 17-ounce gold gift box of assorted chocolates and a 1-pound box of peanut rolled eggs, respectively — Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in the Josh Early Candies retail shop in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Georgia Keim works on the production line making peanut butter cream eggs Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Georgia Keim works on the production line making peanut butter cream eggs Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Josh Early Candies’ 17-ounce gold gift box of assorted chocolates Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at the store in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Laura Ruggiero quickly marks peanut butter cream eggs with a line of chocolate with her gloved fingertip on the production line Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Vintage photographs of the Early family, including Josh Early V as a child making chocolates, are on display Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Hand-crafted peanut butter cream eggs are ready to be boxed and sold Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Tony Rothrock makes chocolate buttercream Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
A photograph shows Josh Early V and his wife, Marge, posing in front of their store circa 1984 on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Beth Smith, Monca Donati and Victoria Helvig work together on the production line boxing freshly made peanut butter cream eggs Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Laura Ruggiero quickly marks peanut butter cream eggs with a line of chocolate with her gloved fingertip on the production line Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Josh Early Candies on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Hand-crafted peanut butter cream eggs are ready to be boxed and sold Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Josh Early Candies’ retail store features a huge variety of handmade chocolates Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Laura Ruggiero quickly marks peanut butter cream eggs with a line of chocolate with her gloved fingertip on the production line Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Tony Rothrock makes chocolate buttercream Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Beth Smith, Monca Donati and Victoria Helvig work together on the production line boxing freshly made peanut butter cream eggs Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Hand-crafted peanut butter cream eggs are ready to be boxed and sold Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Beth Smith, Monca Donati and Victoria Helvig work together on the production line boxing freshly made peanut butter cream eggs Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Tony Rothrock makes chocolate buttercream Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at Josh Early Candies in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
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Josh Early Candies co-owners and siblings Amy Barnett and Barry Dobil Jr. hold a pair of customer favorites — a 17-ounce gold gift box of assorted chocolates and a 1-pound box of peanut rolled eggs, respectively — Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in the Josh Early Candies retail shop in South Whitehall Township. The fifth-generation family business continues to use the same batch recipes developed in the early 1900s. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Dobil said that after speaking with one of the company’s suppliers, he expects that Josh Early Candies will see some relief this summer or fall if current cocoa prices maintain — it only increased prices for customers by 3% going into 2026, he said.
“Some of this stuff does take time for it to catch up,” Dobil said, adding that there are other variables to consider like the increasing prices of sugar, labor and electricity.
Dobil hopes that its prices for next year will be a small increase or no increase at all, but other cocoa price factors like weather and crop disease are difficult to predict.
“I wish I knew,” he said of future cocoa prices.
Brooke Dietrick, the owner of Truffle Bar in Upper Macungie Township, said she’s holding off on a price increase for her goods, even as the chocolate she purchases for her store has become more expensive.
“I definitely feel like prices will need to increase, but I’m not there yet at that point where I want to make the increase,” she said. “I’m trying to see if potentially prices can drop a little. I’m very conscious about not wanting to pass on … higher prices to my customers, so I’m watching it carefully.”
When she opened the storefront in 2023, she could get 35 pounds of the chocolate she uses for a little under $200. When she went to purchase the same amount in January to prepare for Valentine’s Day, the price was $412.
“It definitely is a huge hit as far as the profit that you’re going to make, if you’re not raising your prices,” she said.
When asked about using less expensive alternatives, Dietrick said compliments and positive reviews for the chocolate she uses keep her from changing it, and that she’s still in a place “to kind of keep that profit loss margin where I’m still making money and still benefiting without changing the chocolate. … If you know what our product is, if I go and change the product, and then you come back into the store and the product is not the same … as an owner, I feel like I’m kind of failing you. You’re always looking for consistency and if the consistency is not there, then you might not come back again because you’re never going to know what you’re going to get.”
Customers seem to recognize that — even though Dietrick increased prices when she opened the storefront in 2023 and then again about a year ago, her Valentine’s Day sales were still up from the previous year.
“I think with holidays, people are still going to go out there and they’re still going to kind of spend the money on that certain holiday,” she said.
For Chocodiem at Easton Public Market, however, the cocoa prices did in part cause sales to go down in 2025, owner Jean-Paul Hepp said, alongside factors like customers’ increased cost of living. he saw chocolates prices he pays go up by 41% that year, and that his prices for customers went up by 20%.
Rather than diluting the chocolate, however, he said Chocodiem found solutions such as focusing on puddings, mousses and smaller chocolate rabbits for Easter.
“It’s not an easy game anymore,” Hepp said, adding that he expects cocoa prices to go back up, thanks to labor costs and the effects of climate change.