“Kapetan Koko” chocolate – First and only in Serbia to be made by grinding cocoa beans and sweetened by ground dates

It was love for chocolate that motivated Tamara Gorjup to start her own business in her forties – a craft production of precisely this treat. According to her, previously, it didn’t fit into her life. She graduated from the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, worked as a trainer and competed in taekwondo. However, several years ago, she realized that she could make chocolate in her own, healthy variety. Since then, she has been experimenting with recipes.

– I attended my first course in Italy, then in Slovenia, then in Belgrade and learned a bit about how it all functions and how it is made. I bought my first machine, that is, a cocoa bean mill, and started with my first recipes. Then I decided for it not to be a hobby, but to change my job. I rented an outlet for my workshop, designed the recipes, the name of the chocolate, and my friend Marko, a designer by trade, drew the kind of packaging I had in mind, and I was on my way. That’s how “Kapetan Koko” chocolate was created, which is named after my Bull Terrier, and life’s an adventure with her every day, so we transferred that to the packaging – Tamara Gorjup says for eKapija.

She adds that, although she started her business in her forties, age doesn’t matter. What matters instead is for a person to do what they truly like:

– Of course, I also loved sports and my job as a trainer, but chocolate has prevailed after all.



“Kapetan Koko” is the first and only chocolate in Serbia to be produced by the grinding of cocoa beans and sweetened by ground dates. According to our interviewee, there are plenty of quality producers in Serbia, which also make excellent, quality chocolates, so this is her variety of a healthy, non-fat, vegan version.

– I believe that dates are the best, that is, the most natural, sweetener, because they are the least processed, so that’s what I chose, and with a hazelnut paste made from 100% hazelnuts and cocoa beans, I came up with a nice nougat flavor, with as few ingredients as possible, in order to make it healthy, good and tasty – points out Gorjup.



Three flavors are on offer – nougat, black and hazelnut chocolate, and our interviewee reveals how she chose them:

– I have to admit that I started with what I love to eat, those kinds of hazelnut-Ferrero-Bajadera flavors. The other important criterion in selecting the flavors was that there were no such chocolates in our market. It is difficult to make something that doesn’t already exist, but that combination is mine, it has not been copied, and I am very happy for that, because people like it.

She adds that new flavors, bigger packaging, and maybe a slight expansion, are planned. As she says herself – “we’ll see.”

You can view how “Kapetan Koko” chocolate is made HERE.

Aleksandra Kekic

TAMARA GORJUP PR, KAPETAN KOKO

Tamara Gorjup

Kapetan Koko chocolate

production of chocolate

healthy chocolate

healthy treats

craft chocolate

date sweetened chocolate

non fat chocolate

vegan chocolate