Solid Cocoa Sheet
About Marmoleum Cocoa Solid Sheet Flooring
Marmoleum Cocoa is a flooring choice that's truly inspired by sustainability. Cocoa husks are the tough outer shells discarded during chocolate production. Forbo's design team recognized that instead of being thrown away, they could be collected, finely ground, and dispersed across the Marmoleum surface. Because the husks naturally carry facets of varying color, the result is a simple, uni-colored floor punctuated by a soft random speckle that's visible enough to feel handmade but subtle enough to stay quiet.
Marmoleum Cocoa earned the iF Design Award and the FX International Design Award in 2017, a rare distinction for a floorcovering material. Fast forward to today, and Cocoa remains one of the most conceptually inventive products in the Marmoleum flooring range.
A Color Palette Borrowed from the Kitchen Pantry
Marmoleum Cocoa's variety of colorways read like a menu, and deliberately so. White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Earl Grey, Chocolate Blues, Meringue, Panna Cotta, Stracciatella, Salted Caramel, Curcuma, Matcha, Eucalyptus, Nori, Black Tea, Chia Seeds, Indigo Milk, and Hummus. What unifies them is restraint. These are muted, mineral-leaning tones rather than saturated statements, which is what allows the cocoa speckle to register as texture instead of pattern.
Designers frequently pull a color from the husk facets to tie the floor into the surrounding materials, whether that's exposed brick, warm natural wood, or brushed metal. The overall effect is casual and relaxed, which is why Cocoa has found a home in cafés, boutique retail, creative offices, and residential kitchens as much as in institutional settings.
What Goes Into a Cocoa Floor
Cocoa uses the same time-tested natural linoleum recipe as every other Marmoleum product. That is, linseed oil, pine rosin, wood flour, limestone, natural pigments, and a jute backing with cocoa shells introduced as the final surface element. That composition brings it to roughly 98% natural raw materials, and it is entirely free of PVC, phthalates, plasticizers, and mineral oil. Standard sheet is supplied at 2.5 mm in rolls up to 2 yards wide, and every Cocoa color can also be ordered in a 3.5 mm Marmoleum Decibel build offering 18 dB of impact sound reduction for upper-floor and multi-tenant applications.
Circular by Design, Not by Retrofit
Cocoa is where Forbo's circularity ambitions are most prominent. The marbled sheet flooring carries 38% recycled content, and notably, that figure includes end-of-life recycled Marmoleum recovered through Forbo's Back to the Floor take-back program, the first time reclaimed post-consumer flooring has been fed back into the product line. Forbo publishes a cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of -0.67 kg CO2e/m² for 2.5 mm Marmoleum Cocoa (a negative number, meaning each square meter installed represents a net removal of carbon from the atmosphere rather than an addition to it)
Like the rest of the Marmoleum family, Cocoa is climate-positive from cradle to gate without purchasing offsets, since the plants that supply its raw materials absorb more CO2 during growth than production emits. Manufacturing runs on 100% renewable electricity, and the floor is fully biodegradable at end of life. For projects pursuing LEED, WELL, or Living Building Challenge credits, Cocoa offers documented performance backed by a third-party verified EPD rather than unsubstantiated claims.
Living With the Texture
A common question about Cocoa is whether the speckled surface traps dirt. It does not. The husks are ground fine and fully encapsulated within the linoleum, leaving a smooth, sealed plane protected by Forbo's factory-cured Topshield finish. If anything, the random visual works in your favor, camouflaging crumbs, dust, and light traffic marks more effectively than a flat solid color would.
Daily care means dry dusting and mopping with a damp mop using a pH-neutral Marmoleum cleaner; waxing, polishing, and stripping are never required. Avoid ammonia, high-alkaline products, and abrasive cleansers, which can permanently dull the finish. Addressed promptly, most spills lift with nothing more than water and a neutral detergent.
Marmoleum installation & floorcare
Marmoleum with its Topshield pro surface finish is incredibly durable, resistant to scratches and stains and easy to clean. You can find more information about the performance of our Marmoleum floors on our Topshield pro page.
