Four chocolate bars.
Maybe a hot cinnamon kiss for Valentine's Day?
Chocolate, a traditional Valentine’s Day gift, is more than just a sweet treat when you head to Yahara Chocolate, 261 W. Main St. in Stoughton. There, chocolate is a science experiment, a global adventure, an economic boost to small farmers and an encounter with terroir. The shop specializes in imported chocolate bars from around the world.
Like a Belvie Thiēn Túy 75% dark chocolate bar with beans from the Lam Dong province of Vietnam, especially rich ($9), or a Fu Wan Red Wine Yeast bar from Taiwan, made with beans inoculated with red wine yeast during fermentation ($18). The Merkén Óbolo Smoked Chili Dark bar 65% incorporates smoked chili pepper from Chile’s Indigenous Mapuche culture ($12).
Yahara also makes its own chocolates including an oat-milk made vegan bar ($8), “experimental” bars (like a 70% dark chocolate with orange blossom pu’er tea, $10, feedback welcome), and several drinking chocolate mixes.
These chocolate bars aren’t meant to be scarfed like a Hershey bar; shop owner Brook Johnson recommends putting a small piece of chocolate in your mouth and letting it melt on the tongue, maybe swirling it a bit to distribute flavor. Truly the fun is in the adventure — better than poking around the varieties in the typical drugstore heart-shaped box.
