Valentine’s Day and chocolates go together like cats and catnip.
Irresistible.
Want to be tempted?
Let’s go to a chocolate shop that makes every piece by hand in small batches and without preservatives.
Bill Brown is the founder and chief chocolate officer at just such a shop – William Dean Chocolates, 2700 West Bay Drive, Belleair Bluffs, Florida not far from Largo.
The shop anchors one end of a small mall. Step in the door. Take one look at the chocolates in the display cases and feel your knees go weak.
There are 36 flavors all created by Brown. Each one is an edible piece of art. Many are airbrushed in bright colors. Others are printed with templates having intricate designs. In front of each flavor tray is a descriptive label.
“The name of each chocolate tells you what it is,” Brown says.
Indeed they do. Check out PB&J, Dulce de Leche, Tropical Carmel and Banana Foster for starters. Oh my.
William Dean Chocolates started in 2007. The name honors the founder’s father (William) and grandfather (Dean).
His chocolates are both delicious and famous. William Dean chocolates were featured in one Hunger Game movie and his macaroons were displayed in another Hunger Game movie.
About eight years ago Whoopi Goldberg promoted these chocolates on the View television show.
Brown smiles. “She is still a steady customer.”
Right now the staff is gearing up for Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2020. All the chocolates are made on site.
“On February 13 and 14 we will have six people at the register and will easily double our volume to 500-700 boxes a day,” says Brown. “There will be a line all day long, mostly men.”
Men and women buy chocolates differently.
“Women come in the week before and know what chocolates they want. Men go and get a box, they don’t pick.”
Brown has his hand in every facet of the business from expanding their Internet business, handling corporate clients, inventing new flavors and designing boxes like the red heart shaped box with two doors opening in the middle to a box shaped like a two-tier jewelry box in honor of his mother.
Making chocolates started out as a hobby when he was in the corporate world as a corporate trainer.
“The first time I played with chocolate I liked it, it was artistic,” Brown recalls. “I had a traumatic experience as a kid with art in school so stopped doing it. When I started with chocolates the artist came out again.”
Brown made new flavors and brought them to work. The response was enthusiastic.
“I started reading about making chocolates on the Internet and buying books. I was on my 40s, took classes and became friends with famous chocolate makers. Maybe they liked me because I was older and gave up a corporate job. I was passionate. I gave something up to do this. You make chocolates because you love it, not because you want to be on the Food Network.”
His favorite flavor?
PB&J.
Across the state the Angell & Phelps Chocolate Factory has been making down home delicious chocolates and candies for over 80 years. They are located at 154 South Beach Street in the Daytona Beach historic downtown district.
Free tours are given Monday through Saturday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. There are no tours on Sundays.
Walk into the store and be a bit overwhelmed with all the displays. So many choices – they even have keto friendly dark chocolate sweetened with kabocha extract – it is sugar free.
All the chocolate goodies are made by hand on site. The tour starts at the end of a long wide hallway that is both wheelchair and stroller accessible.
A guide walks you down the hall, stopping at windows looking into the working kitchen and explaining what’s happening. Each tour takes about 20 minutes.
And at the end of the tour —–drum roll —– they bring out a big tray of samples. Yes, everyone gets free chocolate.
This popular tour made TripAdvisor’s list of top 10 sweetest attractions in the United States.
For Valentine’s Day, 2020, they have a sweet deal – buy 12 strawberries dipped in white or dark chocolate and get six free. Place orders in advance and this is in store only.
Angell & Phelps Chocolate Factory started in 1925 on Mackinac Island. The founders were two women – Riddell Angell and Cora Phelps. When World War II started the Mackinac Island location closed and the factory relocated to Daytona Beach.
Imagine this – the Daytona Beach store opened back when there was no air conditioning. A challenge! And notice two women started a successful business at a time when women were not candidates for being entrepreneurs.
Our tour guide told us that after 20 years the chocolate factory was sold to a man who bought the shop for his wife – as a Valentine’s Day present!
In 1983 the shop changed hands with new owner Dr. Alvin Smith. Currently, his son Charles is the owner and candy maker.
Many of the original Angell & Phelps recipes are still being made today. So their legacy lives on.
©2020 Photographs and text by Lucy Tobias
Upcoming
The Southwest Florida Writers Conference happens Saturday, April 18,2020 – one jammed packed day of speakers, handouts, networking, agents from New York – everything you need to jump start your writing dreams. Takes place at the Charlotte County Cultural Center in Port Charlotte. Among the speakers is Lucy Tobias who will talk about travel writing – what it takes and who’s buying.