Glendale News Press
Published March 14, 2005

A family’s affair with chocolate

For about 70 years, their sweets have been pleasing palates at in the United
States, Europe and the Middle East.

By Rima Shah, News-Press and Leader

The Terpoghossian family has been selling sin to the world for 70 years.
Only their sin comes in the form of richly flavored chocolate, which for
three generations has been in demand from chocolate lovers from Iran to the
United States.
advertisement
Mignon Chocolate, which initially catered to the Armenian population in the
United States, is now well known outside the community too, Joe
Terpoghossian said.
The popularity was so great in the Iranian and Armenian communities that Joe
Terpoghossian decided to leave his comfortable managing job in the insurance
business and join the family’s chocolate business.
He opened his chocolate manufacturing plant in Van Nuys about two years ago
and started the retail store on Glendale’s Verdugo Boulevard in April.
“Our family name is associated with Mignon,” Terpoghossian said.
His grandfather started the business in 1934 in Ukraine, where it became a
well-known name until he was arrested and deported to Siberia.
The rest of his family escaped to Iran where he ultimately joined them after
being released from prison.
He reestablished his business in Tehran, starting as a bakery but moving on
to chocolate. Terpoghossian’s father inherited the business.
“In the early ’70s, before the revolution, Mignon was well-known among the
members of the upper class in Iran,” Terpoghossian said.
The Shah’s family would often come to the chocolate store to sample the
wares, the family said.
After Terpoghossian and his brothers immigrated to the United States, they
would often arrange for special deliveries for Armenian immigrants here who
were well acquainted with the Mignon name.
With the growing demand, Terpoghossian finally decided to open his own
store.
They now ship their chocolates to the Armenian community in the United
States and to Europe.
“We use the most premium and freshest ingredients for chocolate,”
Terpoghossian said. “For chocolate you can’t cut corners. The difference
between us and the stores in the mall is that they often use vegetable oil.
We always use cocoa butter.”
Besides selling chocolates in his store, Terpoghossian takes orders for
weddings, birthdays and other occasions.
He also rents out chocolate fountains, which drip liquid chocolate. The
fountain is popular in parties and movie sets, Terpoghossian said.
His store, which recently started selling coffee, also serves drinking
chocolate.
“It’s got a 70% cocoa level,” Terpoghossian said. “For a chocolate lover,
it’s pure heaven. It’s like drinking liquid chocolate.”
The coffee bar’s most popular drink is the cafe glace, a concoction of ice
cream and coffee topped with the store’s Mikado chocolate, a wafer and
chocolate cream sandwich.
Alen Frank is one of the store’s regular customers, who comes for the coffee
and the free chocolate sample that coffee drinkers get.
“Cheap coffee, good coffee and good chocolate, which is actually a bad thing
because I am getting fat,” Frank said. “It’s very tasty. They move from the
healthy to the decadent.”
The cocoa beans are bought from West Africa and Brazil and processed in
Belgium, Terpoghossian said.
The truffles are the most popular items in the store. Terpoghossian changes
the flavors every week.
This week’s flavor is the cappuccino truffle

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress