Chocolate Shoppe: Fresh, Rich Flavor
Lynnette, of The Chocolate Shoppe, jokes about the challenges of quality control in a candy store. “I wish I could give up quality control, but someone’s got to keep testing those Pecan Turtles,” she laughs.
Lynnette and her mother Lynne have been martyrs for the candy business since 1989, when Lynne bought the then 13-year-old Chocolate Shoppe in Mantorville, Minnesota. In 2010 Lynette purchased the shop from Lynne, keeping the business in the family for years to come.
Sitting across the street from the world-renowned Hubbell House Restaurant, the candy maker attracts longtime customers from the Mayo Clinic, the Twin Cities, and all over the world—as well as many locals with a sweet tooth.
All of the chocolate and fudge sold by Mantorville Farms is created and produced by the Chocolate Shoppe.
The Chocolate Shoppe is a family business that specializes in handmade chocolates. Every day Lynnette and Lynn—with the help of four part-time employees—dip chocolate.
Their concoctions make a chocolate lover’s mind melt just reading about them: Pecan Turtles (caramel on top of pecans dipped in milk chocolate or bittersweet chocolate), Chocolate Covered Toffee (the shop’s own butter toffee dipped in milk chocolate or bittersweet chocolate), Minnesota Chips (potato chips dipped in milk chocolate) and Peanut Butter Cups (creamy peanut butter encased in milk chocolate). All of these darlings await Mantorville Farms customers as well as several assortments that customers can configure for themselves.
“One of the things that our customers remark on is the freshness of our chocolate,” Lynnette says. “There’s such a rich flavor to it. When you bite into a piece of our chocolate, you are not taking in any other flavor but the chocolate. People like getting pure chocolate, as well as the fact that we make a gluten-free product. We make everything from scratch and use only pure chocolate, fresh nuts, creams, and butter—no paraffins or preservatives.”
Lynnette and her mother are always testing and trying new techniques and recipes. They’ve developed their own homemade caramel and toffee recipes.
In summer, the shop’s busiest time, Lynnette and Company make 35 to 50 pounds of chocolate a day. Another busy time is Mantorville’s Marigold Days in September. That’s when Lynnette calls in reinforcements: “I’ve got four older brothers who come back to work during Marigold Days, and they’ve always got their hands out. Where’s the reject pile? they ask. After 20 years of making chocolates, I tell them, there better not be any rejects.”
The Chocolate Shoppe seems to have quality under control.
