Sweeten up your Valentine with chocolates made in Waterloo region and area: Jasmine Mangalaseril
Local chocolatiers offer a variety of sweets that will up your gift-giving game
Valentine's Day is often filled with flowers and romantic meals ... and of course, chocolate.
That means this is also an opportunity to present your sweetheart or perhaps yourself with something extra special, from a local independent chocolatier.
After acquiring couverture (high-quality chocolate) — chocolatiers interviewed for this column all use sustainably- or ethically-sourced chocolate — it needs to be tempered. It's done through controlled heating and cooling, so cocoa butter's fat crystals line up in a specific shape, making the chocolate workable.
"At working temperature, you can do anything you want with chocolate," said Lauren Edgar of Grand River Macarons and Chocolates. "It'll harden really nicely. It'll snap. It'll be shiny … it's really solid and strong."
Tempering also stops chocolate from blooming — the grey or white coating that can develop when the fats begin to separate.
Launched in the summer of 2024, Grand River Macarons specialises in chocolate bars featuring natural colourings and flavourings, often embellished with rice paper lace, or gold or silver leaf.
A sprinkle of salt
Ted Drew-Smith and his sister Carrie Peart took over Reid's Candy and Nuts in Cambridge from their parents a few years ago.
In coming up with their Sea Salties (sea salt caramels), Drew-Smith said they tried up to seven types of sea salt before landing on the right one.
"I would have thought all sea salt is essentially the same, but it's not," said Drew-Smith. "Some of it's harder than others. It sucks up moisture, but then it can also bleed moisture."
When Reid's Candy and Nuts opened in 1948 they sold already made products. In the 1970s, after Peart's and Drew-Smith's parents bought the company from the Reid family, they started making their own chocolates. Chocolate-enrobed caramel and pecan Tortoises are their signature sweet.
'Chocolate is for your soul'
Although people call for chocolate fads they see on social media (like Dubai chocolate), today's chocolate consumers are leaning toward deeper flavours and "healthier" versions.
Milk chocolate is popular, but more people have become interested in dark chocolate and, according to Busra Hacioglu, of Kitchener's Esta Chocolates, there's increased interest in sugar-free options.
"I like to say there's two types of food. There's food for your body and food for your soul," explained Hacioglu. "Don't go out there, expecting hyper-nutritious chocolate. You can have carrots and hummus, or whatever you'd like. But chocolate is for your soul."
Hacioglu's father, Abe, is a third-generation confectioner. In Turkey, the extended family makes candy, chocolate, and snack cakes. Abe opened Esta in 2006, specialising in European-style truffles.
Carrying on traditions
Bruce Merritt runs Candies by Merritt in Guelph. His grandfather learned how to make candy after he immigrated to Canada more than 100 years ago. Today, Merritt dips into those recipes, to bring back old favourites for short runs, or to try something he's not made before.
He describes the older caramel's flavour as different to today's. Back then, many caramel recipes called for nuts; some used molasses.
Today, Merritt and his staff continue making candies like cut rock, humbugs, and horehound, fudges and chocolates (creams, caramels, barks) without machinery, as his parents and grandparents did. Peppermint patties are a firm favourite.
"I think the taste has evolved some. They used a lot of heavy cream. I don't think that's quite what people are looking for now," explained Merritt. "Nowadays tastes need to be just a little bit sharper…people like a bit stronger taste than back when my grandfather started."
LISTEN | Chocolate sweets for your sweet this Valentine's Day: Jasmine Mangalaseril:
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