Sometimes that feeling seeps inside your veins. You need chocolate, and you need it fast. Or maybe it’s just a small taste after a steak dinner or plate of street tacos. Do what Europeans do, go to a chocolate shop! Here are 10 options that are sure to impress and satisfy. Some even offer wine- and chocolate-pairing classes.
Boutiques
Cioccolatier
The American dream, but make it chocolate. Brazilian chocolate makers Silvia Valentoni and Ronald Peach Jr. have a humble goal: to make the world’s best chocolate at Cioccolatier. They start with premium cocoa, careful fermentation and roasting, and then craft the tastiest fillings with pure ingredients. (The pistachio praline, lemon pie and dulce de leche are some of our favorite flavors.) You can taste their chocolatey masterpieces at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center and Park Meadows Mall.
The Chocolate Therapist
It’s true. Denver has its very own chocolate therapist. It all started when Julie Nygard wrote the book, “The Chocolate Therapist: A User’s Guide to the Extraordinary Health Benefits of Chocolate.” Nygard studied nutrition in college but spent more than 18 years in the sporting goods industry. Through it all, her passion for chocolate never wavered. When news broke that chocolate has major health benefits, she amassed hundreds of scientific research papers and became an author and speaker on the topic. Nygard established a chocolate shop of the same name in Littleton making handcrafted, all-natural chocolate onsite, serving local-roast gourmet coffee and specializing in chocolate and wine pairing. Look for pairing collections as gifts, uniting just the right chocolates with beer, wine, tea and whiskey.
Temper Chocolates and Confections
Temper has a clear mission to share a love for chocolates and raise awareness of craft chocolate. Located at The Denver Central Market, a bustling food hall in the River North Art District (RiNo), there are always 15 to 20 unique flavors available such as salted caramel jalapeño, pecan pie, honey lavender and strawberry fields with both basil and strawberry ganâche. Plus, Temper sells gourmet chocolates from some of the best new American and longtime European chocolatiers as well as bulk and specialty candy from around the world.
Sweet Cooie’s Ice Cream and Chocolates
Paul Tamburello also started out in ice cream as the man behind Denver’s popular Little Man Ice Cream (named after his dad). He later launched Sweet Cooie’s Ice Cream and Chocolates in honor of his mom, whose nickname was Cooie. The classically inspired (and totally gorgeous) confectionery in Congress Park features house-made truffles, signature ice cream flavors from Little Man Ice Cream and the Gooie Cooie, a fresh-baked brioche ice cream sandwich.
Miette et Chocolat
This Stanley Marketplace French patisserie is more like an art gallery, with chocolate as the medium. Every single treat, from the glistening bonbons and truffles to the macaron-topped raspberry chocolate mousse, appears too pretty to eat. And while the delicacies could certainly hold their own next to a Matisse, they sure do taste better. The chocolate creations are well-deserved showstoppers but don’t skip the chocolate chip cookies, which have ranked among the city’s best since the shop opened in 2017.
Stargazer Fine Chocolate & Coffee Shop
Also entering the market in 2017, Stargazer Fine Chocolates & Coffee Shop is a family-owned business on Colorado Boulevard that specializes in the creation of handcrafted, artisan chocolates. Karen D’Onofrio studied with a local European-trained chocolatier for several months prior to his retirement and used that knowledge to create a large variety of handcrafted truffles (mimosa, chai spice, London fog and rosemary honey are a few examples), chocolate bars, nut- and fruit-filled bark, specialty and hand-dipped items, and holiday-themed treats. Added bonuses are a coffee bar and wine and chocolate-pairing classes.
Deiter’s Chocolates
Owner Adrienne Johnson-Conway worked in the original shop, Dietrich’s Chocolates, for 15 years, purchasing it and slightly adjusting the name when the previous owner retired. She kept the shop’s memory-filled space in the bustling University of Denver neighborhood and continues handcrafting most everything in-house, including truffles, caramel nut turtles, nut clusters, nonpareils, custom chocolate bars and more. While time-tested recipes like Bavarian-style truffles continue to be favorites, new and innovative offerings are constantly added like wine and chocolate-pairing classes, chocolate-dipping classes, and happy hour on Fridays.
Colorado Cocoa Pod
Liane Pensack-Rinehart started making her hand-painted bonbons in her basement, filling the beauties with the not-too-sweet Asian flavors she grew up eating. That means unique (and uniquely tasty) bites of passion fruit guava, milk tea, dark jasmine and caramel and black sesame. The glossy bonbons are hand-painted with colored cocoa butter to match all that inner beauty. You can grab her creations at pop-ups and markets around town.
Chocolate Factories
Enstrom Candies
Based in Grand Junction, two of Enstrom’s five Colorado locations are in the Denver Metro, one in Cherry Creek and the other in Arvada. The fourth-generation family-operated business has been making delicious treats since 1960. Founder Chet Enstrom was more into ice cream as a founder of Jones-Enstrom Ice Cream Company and practiced the art of candy making as a hobby. His homemade almond toffee gifts earned a legion of fans that encouraged him to start a new business. In only five years, Enstrom Candies was shipping toffee worldwide. The company has expanded its product line to include toffee popcorn, truffles and gourmet chocolates.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
Another Colorado-centric name that has long been connected with chocolate and amazing treats is Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, which started out with a small shop in Durango in 1981 and has since become an international franchise with two shops in downtown Denver (one on Larimer Street and another on the 16th Street Mall). There are all sorts of chocolates to savor, along with caramel apples, ice cream and more.