Valentine’s Day can mean sweet reward for
chocolatiers

Sales during holiday rival Easter season

By George Pyle

News Business Reporter

Updated: February 12, 2010, 10:05 pm
Published: February 13, 2010, 7:01 am

If chocolate be the food of love, eat up!

Various forms of chocolate are among the most commonly given gifts on Valentine’s Day, the holiday of romance. A gooey handful of Buffalo-area chocolatiers reported a brisk business over the last couple of days and expect an even larger crush today as last-minute gift-givers (read: men) rush in to buy boxes of sweets for their sweeties before Sunday’s holiday.

“It’s a very short, chaotic three days,” said Ted Marks, who has owned the 100-year-old Fowler’s Chocolate brand for the last 15 years. He estimates that the Valentine’s Day traffic amounts to some 20 percent of Fowler’s annual business.

“It’s really a good shot in the arm for the business,” agreed Tom Margarucci, owner of the Bella Mia Candy Store on Buffalo’s Hertel Avenue. Because his store carries many different kinds of candy, not just chocolate, Valentine’s Day can come a close second to Easter as his busiest season.

Unlike the Christmas shopping season, which used to begin at Thanksgiving and now seems to start right after Halloween, Valentine’s Day creates a short, intense blitz of buying.  Because Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, some stores that are normally closed on that day will remain open for the last-minute treat shoppers that chocolatiers have every reason to expect.

The lore of chocolate, which begins with the ancient Aztecs, promotes it as not only the food of the gods but as a pleasantly mood-altering, if not downright aphrodisiac, treat.

“On our Web site, we promote it,” Margarucci said about the romantic angle of chocolate. “In the store, it’s more word of mouth.”

Marks said calling chocolate an aphrodisiac is a claim he won’t make — or deny. But, he said, chocolate clearly does have an effect on the brain’s pleasure centers, boosting endorphins and raising moods.

“Chocolate has such a complicated and complex chemical composition,” Marks said. “It’s incredibly difficult to replicate. Which is why guys like me are still in business.”

And guys who buy, said Choco-Logo owner Dan Johnson, may receive a somewhat different reward if they remember to bring home a box of chocolate for their wives.

“We can guarantee them control of the remote control for the weekend,” he said.

Dark chocolate especially has been increasing in popularity in recent years, the chocolate makers say, because of scientific evidence that it contains healthful compounds such as antioxidants and flavanoids. Taken in moderation, they say, dark chocolate can have the same positive effect on the heart and arteries as can red wine. In moderation, of course.

That’s part of the idea behind today’s The Perfect Pair celebrations at Choco-Logo on Broadway in Buffalo. Johnson leads the sessions, a fundraiser for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, in the exploration of matching chocolate with wine.  Moderation is also the key to the constant popularity of chocolate, especially for holidays.

“Chocolate tends to be recession proof,” said Mike Smith, manager of the Watson’s Chocolate store on Elmwood Avenue. “It’s inexpensive, and it makes people happy.”

Marks agreed, saying that fine chocolate has always been something reserved for special occasions, for reasons of cost as well as concerns about health. Those special days still come, he said, and the chocolate still flies out the door.

“We’re here to provide something that’s a real special treat,” Marks said. “No one’s buying a pound of chocolate every day.”

Each of the chocolate purveyors has a specialty. Fowler’s offers Buffalo Oreos — Oreo cookies covered in chocolate and stamped with the image of a buffalo — along with butter crunch and caramel varieties.

At Choco-Logo, Johnson said the cherry bark is a big hit this year, as is the store’s traditional singing balloon. It sings “Wild Thing.”

Bella Mia offers chocolate-covered bacon — clusters and bites — as well as cinnamon and sesame flavored treats.  Watson’s is doing a big business with its traditional Valentine’s fare, chocolate hearts with the name of a loved one written in icing. One customer ordered 17 of them.

But all of the chocolate meisters agreed that Buffalo chocolate customers never abandon their old favorite.  “No matter what we introduce, no matter what we try to do,” Marks said, “nothing does better than sponge candy.”