BEautiful and BEwildering BE Chocolat, Fairfield December 2022 As you'd expect chic-chic Connecticut has its fair share of chic-chic chocolatiers. Places where you can go to buy your sweetheart a Valentines Day gift box with a fifty dollar bill and come up short. (We've also got a bunch of more affordable, yet … [Read more...]
Thompson Chocolate
Foiled Again? Thompson Chocolate, Meriden December 2022 I had an absolutely full old school CTMQ day of "stuff" to do. I had taken off Fridays in December, so after I dropped my son off at his school in Windsor, I sped towards Meriden. I time out my days like this to the minute, so the plan was to arrive at … [Read more...]
Mystic Sweet Shop
Hallelujah Mystic Sweet Shop, Groton November 2022 Way back in late 2013 I visited this place with my family. My young sons and beautiful wife enjoyed the shop's homemade ice cream on an autumn day out in the southeast corner of the state. If you go back and read that page (and smile at my incredibly cute boys), … [Read more...]
Castle Hill Chocolate
Sheeran Delights Castle Hill Chocolate, Newtown August 2022 I'm on my way Driving at 90 down those country lanes Singing to Tiny Dancer And I miss the way you make me feel, and it's real When we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill (hill) Over the castle on the hill (hill) Over the castle on the … [Read more...]
Rosie’s Royal Chocolates
Where Snacks Get the Royal Treatment Rosie's Royal Chocolates, Southington April 2022 We live in an age of repurposing empty factories. These buildings are very often hulking ugly brick structures with massive open floors and giant windows. Some have become loft apartment buildings, some now house breweries or … [Read more...]
The Nutmeg Fudge Company
Oh @%##$! The Nutmeg Fudge Company, Torrington February 2022 We always hear that Connecticut's post-industrial cities are "on the cusp" of revival. Norwich, Hartford, Bristol, New Britain, Torrington... One "mixed use" project here, one factory converted to open concept lofts there... the cycle has been going on … [Read more...]
Six Spoons Chocolatier
Six-Six-Six Spoons Six Spoons Chocolatier, New Hartford February 2022 The chocolate landscape in Connecticut is in constant flux. Some players hang it up and some new players enter. Six Spoons in New Hartford opened in early 2017, but the chocolatier and owner has been in the game for far longer. The owner … [Read more...]
The Chocolate Shell
Where Being a Shell of Oneself is a Good Thing The Chocolate Shell, Old Lyme February 2020 I've struggled for a decade to figure out how the state's tourism folks decide on what chocolate shops get to be on the Connecticut Chocolate Trail and which are left off. Most are no-brainers of course, but then there are … [Read more...]
Hillside Sweet Shoppe (Closed)
A Hillside I'd Die On... Hillside Sweet Shoppe, East Haddam June 2016 This placed closed at some point during the pandemic. ... And what is the "Hillside I'd die on?" That it's okay for me to write about candy shops that used to be on the Connecticut Chocolate Trail just because they used to be on the … [Read more...]
Chocolate Geeks
Shot! Shot! Shot! Chocolate Geeks (Formerly Truffle Shots), Essex Feburary 2020 Here we are. Back in Essex. Connecticut's "cutest town." Our "quaintest village." And, of course, "Quintessential Connecticut." Poor Essex, always having to live up to these expectations year after year. And somehow it does … [Read more...]