Valentines Day: Chocolates and candies
CLIFTON PARK (Feb. 10) — Anyone can head to the chain drugstore to buy a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentines Day, but how special is that? Does it show how special your love is — even if you opt for one of the mass-produced “gourmet” chocolate companies?
There are much better — more unique and personal — options for your beloved chocoholic. And you don’t have to go out of your way or over your budget to find them.
At Candy Creations next to Boscov’s in Clifton Park Center, you can literally have a Valentines gift created for your sweetheart. Owner Marge Himes, who has been in the business for over a dozen years, will custom make a chocolate treat. You choose the style and the flavor. You can even choose the color. Just give her a day’s notice.
Candy Creations owner Marge Himes makes her Valentines Day chocolates at her shop next to Boscov's in Clifton Park Center.
She normally stocks treats in dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate and peanut butter chocolate, but she often makes orange chocolate and strawberry chocolate. One regular customer orders chunks of raspberry dark chocolate to be cut up and used to make chocolate chip cookies.
“They’re delicious,” said Himes, who used to own Betty Lou’s Candyland — first in Watervliet and then in the Latham Mall.
Himes even made a chocolate sculpture in the form of a wedding cake, topped with a bride and groom. She said most people stick to the in-stock items at Valentines Day, though.
“The most popular is chocolate-dipped strawberries,” she said. “We also have chocolate lollipops, chocolate hearts, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates.”
If you really want to try something different, Candy Creations even offers a hot chile and corn chip chocolate bark.
Also at Clifton Park Center, ta-da! offers a chocolate bar collection called Chocolove. Each bar resembles a love letter with a romantic poem inside the wrapper. The bars are made with Belgian and French chocolate. Ta-da! also sells bars from Lake Champlain Chocolates in Vermont and I Love You gum. For an unusual Valentines Day gift — though one that has nothing to do with candies — the store carries a heart-shaped egg molder for $6.95.
For a “From Russia With Love” theme, head to Artique Co-Op, where vendor John Ryan of Hudson-Neva Exchange offers chocolates and candies from Golden Chocolates of Brooklyn. His booth, which specializes in Eastern European products, offers 16 varieties of the candies made by Russian emigrants.
“I think they’re wonderful chocolates,” Ryan said. “These recipes are traditional Russian recipes over a century old.”
Ryan’s booth also offers American treats from Bacci Chocolate Designs in Massachusetts. Bocci makes elegant chocolate bars with unique mixtures in them, such as cranberries, orange pieces and Oreo chunks. There are chocolate “pizza” slices, and Ryan recommended the company’s toffee.
“It’s a wonderful English recipe,” said Ryan, who also raved about the company’s CB Stuffer line of chocolate-covered brownies in flavors such as caramel, coconut and mint. “These are brownies to die for.”
For more information:
- Candy Creations, Clifton Park Center, 22 Clifton Country Rd., Clifton Park, 371.4191
- ta-da!, Clifton Park Center, 22 Clifton Country Rd., Clifton Park, 348.1881
- Artique, 1536 Crescent Rd. (Plaza 8), Clifton Park, 724-0750
- Hudson-Neva Exchange, 19 Broad St. Suite 100, Waterford, 233.1949
- Bacci Chocolate Design, 17 Columbia St., Swampscott MA, 781.595.1511
