Chocolate lovers in Oregon are so lucky. Just like brewers and chefs, chocolatiers across the state experiment and innovate with surprising ingredients — think nut milks, fungi, blazing-hot chiles and local spirits — and delicious combos. Consider stopping by one of these cocoa-scented wonderlands on your travels or ordering online for a treat you can take home.
Fudge and Truffles Made by Monks
There’s a quiet place about 20 miles northwest of Salem where an entirely self-supporting community of monks lives, prays and works. Brigittine Monastery has called Amity home since 1986, and for decades have refined their own recipes for their small-batch fudge and hand-made truffles. You can visit the tasting room to try them for yourself and take home a few boxes, or custom order your favorites early before big holidays. The Heavenly Fudge is velvety smooth and creamy, thanks to the homemade marshmallow creme used as its base, with flavors like cherry chocolate walnut, pecan praline and English toffee white chocolate. Divine Truffles come in two sizes and a variety of flavors like mint, cherry, hazelnut, peanut butter, strawberry, lemon, coffee and more.
Vegan Bars With Single-Source Chocolate
Salem’s Chomp! is a vegan chocolate factory that makes milk chocolate without the milk. Instead, the company uses oat milk to get the wonderfully creamy texture in its signature original chocolate bar. This vegan-milk chocolate serves as the base for the Popstar bar, filled with crunchy puffed rice, and the Nutpucks, their nondairy version of a peanut-butter cup. Chomp! is also all about acquiring its cacao beans directly from the source where possible and making its supply chain transparent by listing where its beans come from, including 2020 harvests from Uganda’s Semuliki Forest and the Cayapas River in Ecuador.
Drinking Chocolate for a Chilly Day
While there’s something satisfying about biting into a bar of silky chocolate, nothing hits the spot on a cold day like a steamy mug of hot chocolate. And there are plenty on the menu at Cannon Beach Chocolate Cafe. Opt for a brew made with 70% Colombian dark chocolate, mixed with the milk of your choice, or the Mayan-spice version spiked with cinnamon and ancho and chipotle chiles. Most decadent, perhaps, is the European spoon chocolate, thick enough to eat with a spoon. The shop also makes chocolate treats in-house, including truffles and animal-shaped critters, as well as carries a selection of chocolate bars from around the world.
Wine- and Truffle-Flavored Chocolates
Sure, anyone could pair chocolate and wine, but sweets like truffles made with Oregon wine have been charming visitors to Eugene’s Euphoria Chocolate Company for over 40 years. These truffles come in thoughtful flavor combinations like the creamy white chocolate paired with citrusy pinot gris, dark chocolate matched with peppery syrah and classic Oregon pinot noir enrobed in milk chocolate. Visitors can stop in at the factory store in West Eugene, or visit their storefronts at the 5th Street Market in downtown and Oakway Center. You can also find Euphoria chocolates at Made in Oregon stores and grocery stores like Market of Choice.
Mushroom Chocolates for Wellness
Vehicle Chocolates brings mushrooms with medicinal properties like lion’s mane, cordyceps, chaga and reishi to the world of chocolate. Containing no psilocybin, these organically sourced mushrooms have traditionally been used to support immune and heart health and improve energy and memory function. Now they can be consumed in a delicious delivery system. This means 66% dark organic chocolate flavored with bright mint, herbal turmeric, pepper or floral bee pollen. Curiosity-seekers can buy these fungi-filled chocolates at New Seasons or order them online directly from the source.
