The New York Times
February 10, 2008 Sunday
Late Edition – Final
It’s Chocolate as You Like It — Hand-Dipped and Handmade
By PATRICIA BROOKS
THIS may be one of the biggest chocolate weeks of the year, but a
shortage of bonbons isn’t likely in these parts. There are at least
15 chocolate producers in the state, from tiny artisanal boutiques to
companies that started small and grew over several generations.
One of the first chocolate makers was Peter Paul Halajian, an
Armenian immigrant, who began making chocolates at home in the
Naugatuck Valley in the early 20th century. In 1919 he started a
wholesale candy business — the Peter Paul Manufacturing Company in
New Haven — and soon was producing Mounds and Almond Joy. Eventually
the company was sold, but both bars were produced in Naugatuck until
the end of last year.
Today, the biggest retail producer of handmade chocolates in the
state is Munson’s, which Ben and Josephine Munson began as a small
candy shop in Manchester in 1946. The huge operation, now run by
third-generation Munsons, includes 10 shops and a large wholesale and
online business that sell a wide variety of boxed chocolates,
truffles, bars, fudge, peanut brittle, fruit slices, even
chocolate-covered pretzel rods.
Fascia’s Chocolates in Waterbury is also a family affair. Helen and
John Fascia began making chocolates in 1964 and now their three
daughters, Louise, Lynne and Laurie, are part of the family business,
which has expanded to more than 50 types of hand-dipped, handmade
chocolates in numerous combinations. Through their shop and online
catalog, Fascia’s chocolates, including molded holiday specialties,
are shipped all over the United States.
Then there is Knipschildt Chocolatier in Norwalk, which sells retail
and wholesale. The Danish-born Fritz Knipschildt began selling
chocolate in 1999, after several years as a chef at Le Chateau in
South Salem. His tiny factory turns out exquisite and unusual
chocolates, packaged in handmade cardboard boxes from Nepal. Mr.
Knipschildt sells to major upmarket catalogs, like Dean & DeLuca and
Norm Thompson, and has won enough attention to be rated by Gourmet
magazine as among the world’s top three chocolatiers. He now sells
wholesale to Whole Foods and Balducci as well.
Knipschildt chocolates are made with Valrhona and Michel Cluizel
French chocolate and Belgian Belcolade, all with a high amount of
cocoa content — the key, many believe, to really high-grade
chocolate. There are some 26 Knipschildt types of chocolate, each
bearing a woman’s name. My favorites are Jennifer (marzipan Sicilian
pistachio truffle), Lola (lavender ganache topped with lavender
petals) and Cleopatra (praline with liqueur de framboise).
In 2006, Mr. Knipschildt opened Chocopologie, a small cafe where
people can have their chocolate and watch it being made too —
through big glass windows along a corridor leading into the cafe that
let you peek at the chocolate-factory workers. In the cafe, you can
indulge in a delectable pastry and sip the richest hot chocolate I
have ever tasted, served in cups the size of small soup bowls, topped
with fresh whipped cream.
Another former chef currently indulging in chocolate dreams is Pierre
Gilissen, who comes by his interest in fine chocolates naturally. He
is Belgian. His shop, a former Victorian carriage house in Kent
called Belgique Patisserie & Chocolatier, is as beautiful and
pristine as a European patisserie. There Mr. Gilissen displays and
sells his handcrafted pastries (tortes, tarts, cookies, breakfast
Danish) and his pralines, truffles and chocolate candies, each one as
superb as the next.
Mr. Gilissen uses premier Belgian-made Callebaut for his chocolates,
which, like the pastries, are made without preservatives on the
premises. He stresses the fact that it is 100 percent cocoa butter,
without any vegetable oils. He and his wife, Susan, also sell
delicious Belgian hot chocolate and, in warm weather, house-made ice
creams.
Paul A. Staley, a former chef who worked at the Copper Beech Inn and
Union League Cafe, produces limited batches of handmade candies for
his shop, Madison Chocolates in Madison, which occupies three rooms
of the frame house in which he grew up. He makes just enough daily to
sell retail, using Felchlin Swiss chocolate, fresh cream and butter
and real liqueurs in his chocolates.
Among his creations are 18 to 26 different types of truffles (Grand
Marnier, frangelico and passion fruit among them), paves (espresso,
caramel crunch, black currant), solid bars (in milk, dark, special
edition dark and bittersweet) and novelty pops. His soft center
pralines are popular, but truffles are his best sellers.
For most artisanal chocolatiers, the jewel in their production crown
is the truffle, a hand-formed ball of melted chocolate named, by the
way, for the underground black funghi because the first chocolate
versions were cocoa-coated and misshapen, rather like the earthy
originals.
Wilfred Parilla, also an ex-chef, makes hand-rolled truffles under
the label Three Oaks Chocolatier, along with English toffee,
chocolate-covered orange peels, bars and s’mores-on-a-stick, some 12
varieties of chocolates in all. He and his wife, Rebecca, a
psychologist, are Litchfield County natives. They make small batches
daily — no more than 24 of a type at a time — to sell at their
little Litchfield shop. Mr. Parilla also does special treats for
holidays, like brandied cherries and hazelnut turtles with raspberry
caramel. Customer favorites are the pecan caramels and truffles.
Michelle Weber of Cocoa Michelle in Westport said she began making
truffles because they were practically the only thing her mother, a
gourmet cook, didn’t make. Now, in a bandbox of a shop whose display
areas look like jewelry cases, she sells her beautiful handmade
chocolate. (She uses Swiss chocolate — 73 percent bitter chocolate
— to make her candies, but declines mentioning the brand.) At a
coffee bar in the rear of the shop, visitors can sit in overstuffed
armchairs and sip latte and chat, as in any European-style coffee
house, while sampling some of the 15 varieties of chocolate. Among
them are Champagne, toasted coconut, cardamom, port wine, chai latte,
passion fruit, green tea, Kahlua and dark ganache and sea salt, as
well as hand-dipped fruits.
Deborah Ann’s Homemade Chocolates in Ridgefield also offers a large
selection: about 70 varieties, including truffles, caramel nut and
mint patties, marshmallow and peanut butter ”pillows,” turtles,
butter crunch, peanut butter crunch and many seasonal molds. The
factory has expanded to Brookfield, but Mike and Deborah Ann
Grissmer, the owners, still make the molded pieces in their
Ridgefield shop.
The Grissmers — New York lawyers who craved a simpler life — began
selling chocolates in 1998 in Ridgefield, where Mr. Grissmer grew up.
”We wanted a change of scene,” Mr. Grissmer said, ”and a business
that would make people happy. What’s happier than chocolate?”
The Chocolatiers
Except where noted, prices below are for a pound of chocolates;
truffles and boxed assortments are often more expensive.BETHEL Hauser
Chocolatier, 137 Greenwood Avenue; (203) 794-1861;
$27.50.
BOLTON Munson’s Chocolates, 174 Hop River Road, Route 6; (860)
649-4332 or (888) 686-7667; $18.50.
BROOKFIELD Bridgewater Chocolate, 559 Federal Road; (800) 888-8742;
$32.50.
HIGGANUM Sundial Gardens, 59 Hidden Lake Road; (860) 345-4290; www.
Sundialgardens.com. $13.95 for truffles by the half pound. KENT
Belgique Patisserie & Chocolatier, 1 Bridge Street (corner of Routes
7 and 44); (860) 927-3681. $32.50 for a half pound.
LITCHFIELD Three Oaks Chocolatier, 583 Bantam Road (Route 202); (860)
567-0392; $17 to $22.
MADISON Given Fine Chocolates and Indulgences, 696 Boston Post Road;
(203) 245-4646; $26.
Madison Chocolates, 908 Boston Post Road; (203) 245-4335;
$4 to $64 for boxed truffles.
NORWALK Knipschildt Chocolatier and Chocopologie, 12 South Main
Street; (203) 838-3131; $30 and $40 for
half-pound box.
RIDGEFIELD Deborah Ann’s Homemade Chocolates, 381 Main Street; (203)
438-0065; $24.95 WALLINGFORD Sweet Cioccolata,
28 North Colony Street; (203) 294-1280; $4
for package of four.
WATERBURY Fascia’s Chocolates Inc., 40 Industry Lane; (203) 753-0515
or (877) 807-1717; $19.95. WESTPORT Cocoa
Michelle, 190 Main Street; (203) 221-0002. $12 for six-piece box.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress