Finding Minnesota: St. Croix Chocolates For Valentine's
ST. CROIX, Minn. (WCCO) -- Never does chocolate get as much attention as it does right now -- the days leading up to Valentine's Day.
Feb. 14 is a little more than a week away, so this week in Finding Minnesota, Angela Davis spent some time with some chocolatiers in Washington County.
"When you bite into a really good piece of chocolate, it should feel like ... I really shouldn't say this because it is dirty," Chocolatier Deidre Pope said, with a laugh.
There's nothing dirty about being delicious. With flavors like fresh mint and lemon, orange raspberry, mango habanero -- the chocolates here are truly seductive.
"It is very sensual and it should be an intense flavor experience as well as a really good feeling of a soft lovely chocolate in your mouth and it should be transportative," Pope said.
Pope and Robyn Dochterman opened up the St. Croix Chocolate Company in Marine on the St. Croix in 2010.
They ditched their old careers to try something new.
"One of the things we do that is different than others is make a lot of layered chocolates, so you bite through a layer of fruit and then you'll get to the chocolate ganache and that makes for a different kind of experience and that is what we are about -- a good chocolate experience," Pope said.
Chocolatier Kyla Oesterrich showed a little bit of the ganache-making process.
"It's smooth and flowing and shiny, which is exactly what we want. It's completely homogenous," she said.
The techniques they use are mostly European, but the ingredients are local, like organic cream and butter from nearby farms. Customers can't seem to get enough.
"It's so unique. I love it ... been here several times. My wife says when you go down there I hide it because you are a grazer, you feed on everything and I just keep it for myself," said one customer.
The satisfaction is on both sides of the counter.
"You get to watch people have a really nice, blissful, sensual moment. It's very satisfying," said Karen Paurous, chocolatier.
Their motto is that every chocolate should be "bliss in a bite."
If you want to sample those chocolates, you don't have to drive all the way out to Washington County, you can order them online.
For more information on the St. Croix Chocolate Company, just click here.
