Chocolates for Your Valentine

CHOCOLATES

Chocolates—colored pink and blue, shaped as pigs or ruffled like bows, rich with natural flavors from around the globe, and placed with care in treasure boxes of whimsical design or sturdy wood—this is what the chocolatiers of Victoria offer. And here are a few chocolatiers to consider as you place your order in preparation for Valentine’s Day. By the time you’re done perusing these options, you’ll be hoping your sweetie will be feeling generous when he or she opens the box.

In their not entirely appropriately named “Regular” box of chocolates, Vin Coco Patisserie provides a maple smoked bacon flavor chocolate shaped as a pig, coconut curry and ginger flavors, and 24 karat gold painted pieces (along with some pink and blue ones too). Especially for Valentine’s Day, the patisserie offers an espresso flavored key (to your heart) and a vanilla Eiffel Tower, as well as some spicy bits such as cinnamon lips and other shapes flavored with chili and Grand Marnier. All the chocolates are made fresh to order without preservatives. You can find these treats at the Farmers Market in Market Square, every first and third Saturday of the month from 11am to 3pm or order online until February 10th for local delivery or pick up.

Another chocolatier you’ll have to contact first in order to enjoy their delectable treats is Terrible Truffles. Operating what they call their “factory” at the Humboldt House Bed & Breakfast, they offer high percentage cocoa truffles made with fresh cream and flavored with orange brandy, coffee, or peppercorns; milk chocolates made with sweet butter; and some intriguing white chocolate options such as Cassis and Maccha that, when bitten into, reveals vivid purple and green inside. You can buy as few as two, wrapped in a gold box, or as many as twenty-four packed in a wooden one. They also deliver.

If a store front location is what you require, enter the twenty-five year establishment that is Chocolat. Here you will find an array of flavors (with many made to suit dietary requirements) including brandied cherries, champagne, tart lemon, passion fruit, tequila, chai, wasabi, pecan, and saffron. Single this year? Slip in here for a chocolate beverage such as Xocolatl, and love the moment.

Out of Whistler comes comes Whistler Chocolate, an organic chocolate company started in 2006. They make seven bars ranging from  their Dark Chocolate Bar (72% Cocoa) to the Milk Hazelnut Bar (34% Cacao). Made with fresh roasted organic hazelnuts from the Frazer Valley in British Columbia. Launched in May 2009 a new eco-friendly packaging. The inner wrap is now 100% compostable and made out of wood fibre. It can be disposed of in a home or local composter. Their box is 100% recyclable and is made from 35-75% post consumer waste – so as along as you eat the chocolate (we know you will) there is absolutely no waste!

Dark Side Chocolates, located in the town of Cumberland on Vancouver Island, is an artisan chocolate shop that specializes in making chocolates by hand in small batches using fresh, organic ingredients. Choose from a variety of chocolate truffles such as lavender/vanilla, tequila/lime/salt and Beaufort Winery’s blackberry/black current fortified wine. Oh my! There are also numerous flavours of single origin bars and a hot bomb that can be stirred into milk to make hot chocolate.

—By Michelle Buchanan