Favorite Chocolates
Monday, November 20, 2006 at 11:40PM 
Last summer, during a quick cherry tour of northern Michigan, my husband and I spotted a little shop called The Grocer’s Daughter in the town of Empire, just outside Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The shop owner, Mimi, was making chocolates in the kitchen area behind the glass counter. (Mimi is indeed a grocer's daughter; her mother, whose image is part of the chocolate shop's logo, ran a village store in rural Denmark.) She offered us samples of her truffles, and we chatted about her recent research trip to Ecuador. I wish I remembered more of our conversation, but I was completely distracted by the smoothness and subtlety of the single-origin chocolates, infused with liqueurs or with lavender and herbs from her garden. I like Vosges, particularly their Black Pearl truffle, but the Grocer's Daughter's creations taste even more wonderfully real. They're literally handmade, yet like nothing I could make myself.
Reader Comments (2)
My favorite chocolate is Hawaiian Hosts Macadamia Nut chocolate.They are so delicious. You have to come to Hawaii and eat a box of those. If you but a piece of it in your mouth and wait for maybe five seconds, it starts melting right off of the macadamia nuts. The chocolate and the macadamia nuts are so rich in flavor. I'm thinking right now of going to the store to get a box.The tourists that come to Hawaii take back with them Hawaiian Hosts candies to where ever they are from. I see them in Wal Mart buying stacks of them at a time. It would really be awesome and inspiring if you could come to Hawaii to my college and visit my class because we are reading and spending a lot of time doing papers and activities to do with "Stealing Buddha's Dinner". I think it would be great to meet the inspiring author behind a wonderful memoir.