There is something magical about chocolate. I used to spend every Sunday with my Nana, and these visits included a chocolate treat or two from her sweets jar on the gold-speckled white Formica counter. In my youth, my dad was my best Valentine (yes, I’ve been to therapy)—he bought Mom, my sister, and me fancy red Valentine’s heart boxes decorated with lace and ribbons each year. The gift made me feel special and grown up.
When I moved to Charlottesville, I graduated from my basic milk chocolate tastes after discovering Gearharts Fine Chocolates. Actually, my cousin gave me those initial eye-opening treats as a Valentine’s Day gift, I think.
Now, Gearharts chocolates are one of my gift-giving staples, so my interest was piqued when I had the opportunity to learn how they’re created.
What
A tasting tour that includes truffle-making at Gearharts Fine Chocolates.
Why
Watching experts make beautiful, scrumptious chocolates felt like a good idea.
How it went
I have lots more appreciation for the high-quality ingredients and artistry that go into the creation of every Gearharts chocolate now.
My visit felt pretty dang magical from the start. I was the first to arrive at the McIntire Road shop when it opened. My tour guide began my education in all things chocolate whilst another wonderful human made me the best hot chocolate I’ve had in my nearly five decades on this planet. Bless them—I’d skipped breakfast, which meant everyone needed to deal with my sugared-up 5-year-old energy by the end of the tour.
Gearharts’ team of chocolate wizards plied their trade with focused intention as we looked on through the café windows into the production area. Honestly, I could’ve watched the wizard working a guitar cutter—an apparatus with taut wires spaced out equally within a metal frame—all day as he cut perfect chocolate squares destined to become the heart of delicious offerings. We also dipped into the climate-controlled room where chocolates and truffles get finished and boxed, because my guide wanted to ensure I saw the enrobing crew and machine at work.
The maestro himself, Tim Gearhart, fed square bases through the chocolate enrober. A conveyor took the bases into the machine through a cascading melted-chocolate curtain that dressed them in an even coating of additional deliciousness. When the still-glistening, warm chocolates emerged, two divas of decoration pressed small squares of acetate on top that bore the special Valentine’s design to be transferred onto the beauties. Honestly, the experience of watching them work bordered on spiritual.
After that we went to the back room where the chocolate-making process began. Mind you, throughout the tour I snacked on different types of chocolate (milk, dark, tempered), in addition to the memorable hot chocolate. While a base-mixing master prepared perfectly filled sheet trays of chocolate to set, my guide told me about the European butter they use for most everything but croissants. Gearharts’ croissant expert then proudly showed me the French butter she uses for the pastry, cradling it to her chest like a beloved newborn. Other ingredients come from closer to home, with local honey, syrup, and spirits in play.
Returning to the room where the enrober lives, the chocolatier showed me more of the equipment as she described their processes. Several of the workstations held an unexpected trick of the trade: hairdryers. Apparently, a garden variety hairdryer is a multipurpose tool in the chocolatiering world. Something setting too quickly? Hit it with a hairdryer. Machine gummed up with chocolate? …You guessed it.
