Elbow Chocolates — Photo courtesy of Elbow Chocolates
If you have an insatiable lust for all things chocolate, here are some great places to find just the right bites. From Kansas City and Springfield, Mo. to Fredericksburg, Texas and Madison, Wis., these chocolatiers have all the right stuff to please even the most finicky chocolate-lover.
Sweet art
Elbow Chocolates — Photo courtesy of Elbow Chocolates
If Jackson Pollock took several minutes to paint white cocoa butter atop a chocolate bonbon, the results might resemble signature confections available at Christopher Elbow Chocolates in Kansas City, Mo. While they may look too good to eat, be sure to indulge.
Belgian chocolates with molded exteriors, French-style options with delicate chocolate shells, and decadent drinkable chocolate make this is a great destination for chocoholics. Elbow – who would prefer to never eat chocolate if it isn't amazingly good – creates nothing short of chocolate perfection. Not to mention, he's been featured on Food Network.
Farmer-focused chocolate
Askinosie Chocolate bars — Photo courtesy of Askinosie Chocolate
After decades as a criminal lawyer, Shawn Askinosie chose a sweeter line of work. He also decided everyone involved with Askinosie Chocolate in Springfield, Mo. deserved a piece of the profits. So Askinosie pays cacao farmers 10 percent of net profits from bars made with their beans – including single origin varieties from Honduras, Ecuador and more.
It’s also a great source for award-winning chocolate hazelnut spread, roasted cocoa nibs, baking chocolate, white chocolate bars, house-made cocoa butter and natural cocoa powder.
An O Magazine fave, the company teaches local high school students about ‘charitable chocolate’ through Chocolate University – a program featuring 'chocolate education,' business ethics training and even a visit with a Tanzanian farmers' cooperative and supplier.
Latin American flavors
Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier — Photo courtesy of Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier
After Gail Ambrosius studied chocolate-making in Paris, she left her cartography profession behind and mapped out a new future for herself. That’s when she opened Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier in Madison, Wis.
Christened the "Holy Grail of Chocolate" by the Food Network's Alton Brown, the tiny shop was also ranked among top U.S. chocolate shops in February 2012 by USA Today and Kay Harwell Fernandez, creator of the Chocoholic Traveler app.
Truffles are the big draw here. Customers swoon over flavors such as delicate jasmine in Venezuelan chocolate; shiitake mushrooms enhancing Peruvian chocolate; or spicy-sweet ginger and warming cognac flavors with heirloom Ecuadoran chocolate. It’s a sweet way to visit Latin America without the plane fare.
Boozy chocolate
Quintessential Chocolates mural — Photo courtesy of Lisa Waterman Gray
If liquor and chocolate are two of your favorite food groups, here’s a great way to enjoy them together. Located in Fredericksburg, Texas, Quintessential Chocolates is famous for chocolate shell candies that burst with boozy goodness as the chocolate center melts on your tongue. Think liquid almond tequila, or rich ruby port, cognac or whiskey, and blackberry and espresso liquid chocolates, too.
Lecia Duke, also known as the 'Chocolate Diva,' began selling these signature chocolates in 1984, creating her multi-day chocolate molding and filling process after apprenticing with a Swiss master chocolatier. Health nuts will appreciate that these delicious confections feature at least 50 percent cacao, only 28 calories and an astounding antioxidant level of 13,000.
