CLEVELAND — Sweet treats are a popular way to show someone you care on Valentine’s Day, but rising costs and lack of ingredients are leaving a sour taste in the mouths of some chocolatiers.
What You Need To Know
- Increasing cost of butter, cream and chocolate is impacting candy makers
- The owner of Sweet Bean said milk chocolate can’t be sourced right now, and there’s a six-month wait for white chocolate
- Sweet Bean handmakes and decorates gourmet chocolate creations
Kristin Barnes knows the way to the heart is through the stomach.
“We eat with our eyes first, so why shouldn’t you eat something beautiful?” Barnes said.
She’s the chief chocolate artist and owner of Sweet Bean. She uses colored cocoa butter like paint for a candy canvas.
The artistic expression started as a hobby and a way for Barnes to spread some creativity into her life following two decades in the corporate world.
“I have to pinch myself sometimes,” she said. “That this is what I do. I’m painting on chocolate. Painting chocolate for a living.”
She’s now celebrating her second anniversary at her Euclid corner store, and prides herself on finding flavors that might sound unusual.
“We have put goat cheese in our chocolates,” she said. “We like to kind of think about savory flavors a lot.”
She puts tastes to the test and pours herself into each creation.
Barnes said she aims to source ingredients locally, but noticed the prices aren’t what they used to be.
“We are seeing an increase in butter, cream, chocolate,” she said.
She said she’s even having a tough time just finding chocolate.
“We often have to wait five to six months to get a shipment of white chocolate,” Barnes said. “I currently can’t source my milk chocolate.”
She’s now relying on her creativity and current stock of dark chocolate to keep the business flowing. She said she’s eating as much of the cost as she can to not impact customers.
“We’ve tried not to pass that on right now,” Barnes said. “We’re doing our best.”
After Barnes creates the candy shells, assistant chocolatier Amanda Hotton pipes them with filling. Hotton is finally finding her joy in the kitchen.
“I always thought I was going to be a hairstylist, so it just proves that in the middle of your life you can always change your career and you can be anything you want to be,” she said.
