After Halloween, I thought I could curb my chocolate cravings for quite some time. With empty wrappers of Reese’s, Butterfingers and miniature Hershey bars lingering like ghosts in my living room, I felt all candied out.

That is, until I stepped through the door of 208 Walton St. and entered a chocolate lover’s paradise. Nestled in the heart of Armory Square, Sweet on Chocolate has been concocting homemade and hand-dipped chocolaty treats since 1993.

With wide eyes, I studied the two glass cases of sweets. Dark chocolate nonpareils, lemon creams, white chocolate smothered almonds and chocolate covered potato chip clusters?

‘Chocolate covered potato chips are one of our most popular items,’ Tina Orlando, a Sweet on Chocolate employee, explained to me from behind the counter. Although the concept struck me as strange, Orlando assured me the combination tastes delicious.

It only took one bite of a milk chocolate potato chip cluster for me to agree. The chip shreds inside the chocolate maintain their crispness, and the two tastes meld together in salty-sweet perfection.

‘We’re still holding off on the chocolate-covered bacon, though,’ Orlando said, laughing. At first, I thought she was joking. She assured me that she was not — customers have actually asked the shop to create the breakfast-dessert concoction.

Sweet on Chocolate may not have adopted the chocolate bacon yet, but another employee, Katie Santorelli, showed me the salted caramels the shop recently started making after a customer brought one in for the owners to try. Big salt crystals rested on mounds of thick caramel and dark chocolate. The sweet, gooey caramel offset the sharpness of the crystals, and I tasted why the caramels became a recent customer favorite.

‘I’ve tried everything in the store,’ Santorelli said with a smile. An employee for 13 years, she is well versed in the chocolate making process.

‘It basically comes down to a science,’ she explained. Tempering the chocolate — which gives it its snap, shine and texture — is difficult to do because it requires very careful heating and cooling.

After ogling potential choices, I decided to try three chocolate-covered pretzels — one white, one dark and one milk chocolate. Oftentimes, I find white chocolate sickly sweet, but this was subtle and light. The dark chocolate had a delicious mild bitterness, and the milk chocolate tasted rich and smooth. Compared to the generic, chalky bars I’ve bought at CVS Pharmacy Drug Store, these chocolates tasted amazing.

When I asked Santorelli for some chocolate pieces to go, she wrapped them up in a beautiful gold box with a brown silk bow. I made a mental note to stop by Armory Square to buy a gift for my mom before heading home for break. But with allure of delicious handmade, gourmet chocolate for only 26 cents per pound, I’m sure to go back before then.

jidonfro@syr.edu

Published on November 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm