Food for love

Four local artisans produce treats to satisfy the most ardent chocoholic

By TOM KANE

REGION — Chocolate is for lovers.

If you have any doubts about that, and if you want great chocolate locally made and produced, four chocolatiers are here to assist you.

Tantra Chocolate

“Chocolate is an aphrodisiac, big time,” says Suzanna Abbott of White Lake, NY, owner of Tantra Chocolate, a business she conducts from her home.

“It’s a claim that comes down with a long history. It’s the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day. Chocolate has chemicals in it that play this role.”

Not only that, but Abbott says that her chocolate is endowed with qualities that she calls “tantric,” thus the name of her business – Tantra Chocolate.

Tantra is about honoring creation and universal love and compassion after the teachings of the Buddha, she said.

“Tantra is a spiritual pathway that literally expands your knowledge and wisdom and includes pleasure and loving of a spiritual nature.”

Her chocolate is sold only via Internet and word-of-mouth. For more information visit www.tantrachocolate.com. The phone number is 845/583-8679.

Three Chocolateers

Kris Schleur of Jeffersonville, NY owns the Three Chocolateers store on Main Street across from the post office. A customer can merely walk into her store and be immersed in chocolate.

She got started making chocolate after she retired, spurred on by her daughter, Melissa, and her future son-in-law Dan Hopping, who is a chef.

“The three of us worked to get this store and our product started,” Schleur said. “They still help me on weekends.”

Contrary to expectation, her best season is not summer, with its flow of tourists.

“Winter is our main season because of holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day and Easter,” she said. “We are also lucky to be in a good place when tourists come to the county and come into our store.’

Word of mouth is still the best advertisement, she said. The Internet provides about a third of her business. The hours for her store are from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except in the winter months of February and March when she closes at 3:00 p.m. She is closed on Sunday and Monday.

For more information visit ThreeChocolateers.com or call 845/482-5831.

Candy Designs by Fran

Candy Designs by Fran is the creation of Fran Greenfield of White Lake. Like Tantra Chocolates, she uses only the Internet and the telephone to sell the chocolates that she designs, produces, wraps up and ships out. She is also a certified Kosher candy maker.

“About a third of my business is done over the Internet,” she said. “I have a lot of individual customers and a number of businesses. I will make chocolate for weddings and I even have a wedding invitation made of chocolate.”

She has been producing chocolate for at least 10 years. “I guess I’m a chocoholic, I love it so much.”

For more information, contact her website at candyfran.com.

Vanessa Degori

Vanessa Degori is owner, with her husband Rocko, of the Milanville General Store in Milanville, PA. She also makes specialty chocolates.

“I started making my own chocolate privately about ten years ago in my kitchen,” Degori said. “Then, people started asking me to make more of it for special events. For the last five years I have been in the store all day long, and I had the time, so I began filling orders.”

One of her biggest items is chocolate lollipops, in various colors and shapes.

“I have about 100 molds,” she said. “Some are hearts for Valentine’s Day, footballs for the Super Bowl, and other shapes that appeal to children.

Besides chocolate bars and shapes, Degori makes chocolate chip cookies and produces greeting cards with photos of local scenes which she takes herself.

In addiition to the Milanville General Store, Vanessa’s chocolates are also sold at Roasters on Main Street in Narrowsburg, which is open from Monday to Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.