Camas couple that launched DownLow Chocolate in 2024 are tasting sweet success

It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when Jeff and Lee Huth went on their first date in October 2020, but that didn’t stop the now-married Camas couple from donning face masks, meeting outside at the Grains of Wrath brewpub in downtown Camas and exploring their common interests.

They would quickly discover a shared appreciation for swing dancing, pickleball and adhering to a healthy, low-carb diet. Lee, the founder of Peace Yourself Together, a downtown Camas wellness center, had already been experimenting with low-carb, sugar-free baking when she met Jeff, who was prediabetic and trying to avoid sugar-laden foods.

Over the next couple of years, the couple dabbled in creating low- and no-sugar desserts, eventually finding a hit with a sugar-free, low-carb chocolate they created in their home kitchen. They didn’t know it then, but those chocolates would eventually launch the Huths’ low-carb, artisan chocolate making business, DownLow Chocolate.

Before their entrepreneurial launch in 2024, though, the couple was simply trying to create a tasty, sugar-free chocolate that avoided the strange aftertaste and odd mouth-feel plaguing many of the low-carb chocolates they’d tried in the past.

“We had been spending $100 a month on mediocre, low-carb chocolate,” Jeff said. “We learned more about it and thought, ‘We can do this.’ ”

Lee had been using a 1-to-1 sugar replacement produced by Wholesome Yum in her baking and liked the taste and ease of the product — just swap 1 cup of sugar for 1 cup of the natural, sugar-free sweetener.

In late 2022, the couple gave a few of those homemade, low-carb sweets to neighbors and friends. The sugar-free chocolates were a hit, and Jeff and Lee were hooked on what they call the bean-to-bar chocolate-making process. They attended the Northwest Chocolate Festival, an annual Seattle-area gathering of artisan chocolate makers. And they connected with regional chocolate makers who were more than happy to share a few chocolate-making tips.

“It’s such a noncompetitive world,” Jeff said of the artisan chocolate-making industry. “They really encouraged us.”

Eventually, the couple would take their chocolate-making hobby to the next level by investing more than $6,000 in equipment, obtaining permits to build a commercial kitchen in their Camas home, getting their cottage business license and, in 2024, launching their own low-carb, sugar-free, diabetic-friendly chocolate company, DownLow Chocolate.

The Huths say their vision is to be “the leading provider of delicious, low-carb, craft chocolate” and they are well on their way.

It has been less than a year since they launched DownLow Chocolate and the Huths’ artisan chocolate-making business is already growing. The sugar-free DownLow Chocolate bars come in a wide range of dark, milk and white chocolates. They feature Prohibition Era themes and designs created by Jeff’s son, Asher, a 3D animation student at DePaul University in Chicago. The chocolates are now sold nationwide through the DownLow Chocolate website and are available in several regional retailers and wellness clinics, including Sweet Intention Gift Boutique and Peace Yourself Together in downtown Camas and A Natural Path to Health naturopathic clinic and The Soul Ascension Studio in Vancouver.

“I love the creamy texture and flavor and potency of the chocolate,” Vancouver naturopathic doctor Michael Conway, head of A Natural Path to Health clinic, said in a review of DownLow Chocolate. He said the company’s Getaway Bar, a sugar-free, vegan, 60 percent dark chocolate bar made from organic, fair-trade Dominican Republic cacao beans, is “probably the best tasting dark chocolate” he’s ever had.

Best-selling DownLow chocolate bars include the Razzmatazz, a 60 percent dark chocolate, low-carb bar that mixes sustainably sourced cacao beans from Peru with freeze-dried raspberry powder; the Strawberry Blonde, a low-carb, dairy-free white chocolate bar that blends Peruvian cacao butter, coconut flour and freeze-dried strawberry powder; and the Cuppa Joe Latte, a bar billed as “the ultimate coffee lover’s dream” that incorporates dark roast coffee roasted by Caffe Umbria in Portland.

Other DownLow customer favorites include The Real McCoy, a 60 percent dark chocolate that combines fair-trade, single-origin Dominican Republic cacao beans with bourbon whiskey crafted by The Aimsir Distilling Company in Portland, cherry and orange bitters and handcrafted candied orange peels; and The Mayan Queen, a dark chocolate bar infused with cinnamon, sea salt and a blend of chile powders described as “a tribute to the women who inspire creativity, adventure and wisdom” that the Huths created to honor Jeff’s late mother, Kathy Huth, who had a fondness for Mexico and its Mayan roots as well as a pug dog, Maya, who is featured on The Mayan Queen chocolate bar’s wrapper.

Like The Mayan Queen with its tiara-wearing pug, all DownLow chocolate bars feature characters and imagery inspired by the bar’s flavor profile and the Huths’ love of 1920s and 1930s American culture — especially the Jazz Age, Roaring ’20s and Prohibition Era. The Huths even offer a DownLow Chocolate Radio playlist on their company’s website for customers who want to fully submerge themselves in the era by listening to a blend of jazz, swing, and ragtime music while eating their low-carb chocolate bars.

Since the Huths launched DownLow last summer, the business has continued to grow. During the 2024 Christmas holiday season, the Huths garnered large corporate orders from across the country and saw their bars sell out during pop-up and collaborative events in downtown Camas.

Low-carb trend

The popularity of DownLow’s low-carb, sugar-free chocolate aligns with national industry trends showing an increasing demand for sweets that are safe for people adhering to low-carb diets. According to a recent Market Research Future report, the sugar-free chocolate industry was valued at $1.52 billion in 2024 and market experts project it will grow to $2.58 billion by 2034.

“In response to the rising obesity rates worldwide, people have started consuming more low-sugar or sugar-free items, like sugar-free chocolates,” Market Research Future, an international market analysis company based in India, noted in the report.

The Huths want to find their own unique place in the growing sugar-free chocolate market. They are focused on sourcing the highest quality cacao beans and committed to buying beans from farms throughout the world that grow sustainably and treat their employees fairly.

“We’ve learned a lot about where the cacao beans come from and the impacts” of cacao farming and harvesting, Lee said.

Now, the couple hope to educate others on the health and environmental benefits of choosing a higher quality, low-sugar artisan chocolate bar made from sustainably grown cacao beans.

The Huths said they believe “everyone deserves to indulge in flavorful chocolate without sacrificing their health or the environment, which is why (they’re) dedicated to providing delicious, guilt-free chocolate options that support a sustainable, clean, healthy, low-carb lifestyle.”