For day three of the Chocolate Tour of Utah, we started out a little off-course thinking we were looking for The Chocolate Cottage downtown and not where they really were out in Sandy (my bad). But once we arrived – we had truly arrived! After that, we made our way back into Salt Lake and over to Millcreek Cacao, yet another bean-to-bar maker that is making waves in Utah.
The Chocolate Cottage (Sandy)
Under their current owner, Kimberly Smart, Chocolate Cottage has thrived for the last 15 years. Prior to that, Chocolate Cottage was owned for many years by the Snellgrove family who had built up a great reputation for their large variety of dipped confections. Today, Kimberly proudly states, “As cheesy as it sounds, I bought the store so I could put smiles on people’s faces.” We fell instantly in love with her grape chocolates – so refreshing and a wonderful complement to the chocolate-covered strawberries. While there taste her toffee – you will be amazed and how much softer and easier they are to bite into than most toffees. Lastly, the seafoam! Oh, the seafoam! If you like seafoam, this is guaranteed to be the best you’ve ever had. Run, don’t walk to Chocolate Cottage when down in the Sandy area.
Millcreek Cacao (Salt Lake City)
Everyone likes a well-oiled machine when it comes to production, and when it comes to farm-to-bar chocolate you want a really clean process and system. Millcreek Cacao does just that, using state of the art equipment that is well maintained and calibrated to produce a delicious treat for dark chocolate aficionados. And another cool feature with Millcreek, who sources their beans from Ecuador and Nicaragua, is their exclusive use of heirloom-certified cacao, certified by the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Initiative. The goal of the HCP is to preserve, protect and propagate fine flavor cacao. This means sustainable agriculture as well as the development of a better product. The result is rich, delicious chocolate in the form of chocolate bars, chocolate in bulk, roasted cacao nibs, hot cocoa, cacao tea, chocolate-covered espresso beans, and more.
