The Chocolate Thief

  For the rest of us, best of all is that they operate a thriving mail-order business and you can have chocolates only my heroes could snub (because, you know, nothing another chocolatier can make is as good as what they can do, ever) shipped to you. Tiny bites of dark chocolate, laced delicately with fig and port wine; exquisitely delicate chocolate-enrobed salted caramels; truffles infused with lemon, pepper, and rum . . . and if that isn’t enough, each box comes with at least one of their impossibly cute, tiny chocolate mice. If you have a child in the house, you may as well give up on tasting the mouse yourself right now.

  The classic mice can be varied through the holiday seasons with the cutest chocolate ghosts known to the living, turkeys, snowmen, adorable tiny bunnies, or, my personal favorite, honeybees.

  Or let me let you in on a little secret . . .

  Miel Bonbons

  www.mielbonbons.com

  Ferrandi- and Le Nôtre-trained chef Bonnie Lau opened her shop, Miel Bonbons, three years ago in the very out-of-the-way corner (for chocolate) of Carrboro, North Carolina. Since then, she has drawn followers from all over the United States. There is something delightfully charming and comforting about these chocolates—despite exotic flavors like mango mint and coconut curry—as if exoticism and quality have been synthesized in a chocolate you can cozy up at home with. They are larger than the thumbnail chocolates so popular among Parisian chocolatiers, and you can savor over two or three bites unafraid that they will disappear in your mouth before you have quite finished enjoying the flavor.

  Rich, dark ganaches pair with whimsical and sophisticated flavors, giving the whole jewel box of a shop the appeal of finding the treasure in Jeunet’s Amélie. And amid all the ganaches, don’t miss Bonnie Lau’s dense, intense salted butter caramel chocolates. Every chocolatier gives her chocolate the stamp of her personality, and Bonnie Lau’s are fanciful, warm, adventurous, and reassuring.

  Check out my site, www.lauraflorand.com, for more tours of chocolate shops, behind-the-scenes looks at chocolate making, and even occasional giveaways of the best chocolates out there.

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2012 Laura Florand

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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  ISBN: 978-0-7582-7908-8