At Sweets Handmade Candies, we are all about Belgian Chocolate! Belgian Chocolate is considered to be the gourmet standard by which all other chocolate confections are measured. What makes Belgian chocolate unique is the quality of ingredients and an almost fanatical adherence to the manufacturing process.

Most of the cocoa beans used for chocolate come from the equatorial regions of Africa. Each batch of cocoa beans is carefully analyzed, then blended according to individual recipes. The beans are crushed to extract the cocoa nibs, which are then roasted to perfection. The roasted nibs are made into cocoa powder or chocolate liquor (not an alcohol, but, rather, pure unsweetened chocolate), by a process called “conching”, which is a kneading or stirring process. The Belgians conch their chocolate for several days, compared to most American companies, which only conch their chocolate for 4-12 hours. This creates a very small grain, which produces the wonderfully silky “mouth feel” of Belgian Chocolate.

The chocolate liquor is then combined with other ingredients, using carefully guarded formulas to create dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate.

Dark Chocolate is made with chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and pure vanilla extract. Dark chocolate can be bittersweet or semisweet, depending on the amount of sugar added.

Milk Chocolate has the same ingredients as dark chocolate, with the addition of milk solids.

White Chocolate is not really chocolate at all, but a mixture of cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla and milk solids.

At Sweets Handmade Candies, it is our pride to serve you with the best!