Candy is Dandy, Chocolate Is Better

By Kip Tabb – 

Dark chocolate Valentine’s heart with chocolate truffles from Sweater Box Confections.

Ok, I admit it. I’m probably not the best authority on what to get a woman for Valentine’s Day, but I am just romantic enough to think something should be offered.

Flowers are fine . . . wine makes a very nice gift . . . jewelry, if you can afford it, works as well. My experience, though, is the one constant on every woman’s wish list (or at least the women I have known) is chocolate.

Which brings me to the point of this article.

I stopped by Cloud Nine in Nags Head and Chris Carroll, owner, chief cook and bottle washer of Sweater Box Confections was there. I am not suggesting that I am a chocolate connoisseur, but I will say this may be the best chocolate I’ve ever had.

Not that anyone is telling you what to do, but this is the type of gift that if you give it to that certain someone, and they care about you enough to share, well, that’s just an added bonus.

Sweater Box Confections is an all Outer Banks business. Chris got tired of delivering magazines for a local company, took a course in how to make chocolate and studied for a couple of winters with Maison Robert in Atlanta, a master chocolatier.

The result is a confection that is sublime—a full, rich chocolate flavor, that seems to melt at just the right temperature and has a wonderful lingering aftertaste.

Chris does more than just chocolates—she has some cookies that are very good. There is a chocolate dipped macaroon that is almost as good as her truffles. But it is the chocolate . . . the dark and milk chocolate bark, the heart and especially the truffles that set her apart.

The name came from the goodie delivery system that her grandmother used. Every Christmas, a sweater box, filled with homemade goodies would show up at the house.

And now this. Chocolate goodies just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Chris and her Sweater Box Confections will be at Cloud Nine, Pirates Quay Shoppes in Nags Head through Valentine’s Day. Chris can be reached at 252.207.9283.