Rachel and the Chocolate Factory

Is Valentine’s Day’s setting your heart aflutter with anxiety because you still need to get sweets for your sweetie? Here’s great news. No need to settle for bland, mass-produced candy when right here in Concord you can buy fresh, hand-made chocolate treats direct from the folks who make them.

Plus, you get to nibble samples. And if you’re willing to pop on a hairnet, you can venture behind the retail store into the factory and watch as the tasty confections are made.

At Rachel Dunn Chocolates, Dunn, her husband, Mike, their three grown kids and a loyal staff lovingly handcraft chocolate in all its pure splendor. Or mix it with its favorite companions—caramel, nuts, marshmallows and even fresh berries.

“Valentine’s Day here happens in the last few days and it’s fun. Men come in asking for something specific. They’ll say 'My wife likes coffee.' Or 'My wife doesn’t like nuts.' Women come in and want to shop – they look around at all the bows and ribbons. People also come in to get gifts for their daughters and granddaughters and that is just so nice,” says Dunn.

One customer comes in every year around Valentine’s Day to have the original birch box he purchased from Dunn a decade ago refilled with fresh creamy dark truffles. You can buy your own birch box here or go for edible containers. A deep eight-ounce basket made of chocolate that holds six truffles or strawberries dipped in white, milk or dark chocolate and festooned with stripes of edible red glitter is $20.

For presenting your beloved with bling, especially a ring, a round ring box made of chocolate complete with cherubs on the lid – a deal at $4.95 - will melt hearts. Plus, there’s the traditional red satin heart-shaped boxes as well as small packages of treats done up in ribbon and clear cellophane.

Foodie options such as sea salt chocolate caramels and 24 karat Swiss truffles made with real gold — the top selling truffle – and Grand Marnier truffles can be assembled into a mix-and-match Valentine’s package.

Or you could make a really big impression on your Valentine with one of Dunn’s famous Unbelievable Apples — $22.95.  The largest Fuji apple you’ve ever seen is dipped in caramel and then a dark layer of chocolate and ultimately rolled in chopped toasted almonds. Weighing in at three to four pounds, the apples made Oprah’s “must have” holiday list.

Dunn, whose back-to-basics recipes call for pure melted butter, sugar and chocolate, says her confections are the opposite of mass-produced fare.  “A typical mass-produced candy is 90 percent sugar flavored with 10 percent chocolate. Ours are 90 percent chocolate. You’ll actually eat less because they are so satisfying.”

But the secret ingredient at Rachel Dunn Chocolates is the human touch. Each piece is made by hand by people who love what they’re doing. Dunn counts moonlighting doctors and nurses from nearby John Muir on her staff.  She accommodates everyone’s schedule. “I’d rather have someone here four hours a week who loves doing this as opposed to just finding a body to be here eight hours a day, five days week.”

While you’re at Rachel Dunn’s, you might see Rodger Adams, the first candy maker Dunn hired 18 years ago, working at a 24-by-3-foot table spread thick with 300 pounds of hand-made caramel he’ll cut into heart shapes. Nearby, Dunn’s most recent hire, Jessica Enriquez, who came as an intern from Cordon Bleu, brushes melted butter on pastry.

And take a good look at the giant machine spinning ribbons of chocolate. It is a 7,000-pound cast iron Greer chocolate enrober made in 1947.  Not just any 1947 Greer chocolate enrober, this is the exact machine from the famous “I Love Lucy” chocolate factory episode. However, Dunn bought the machine for its function, not its fame. “They don’t make them like they used to,” she said.

Staying small with no marketing or distribution costs helps Dunn keep her prices affordable and her life in balance. It also makes Rachel Dunn Chocolates a great place to take your teens to select special Valentine’s Day goodies for their friends or their first special someone.  

Rachel Dunn Chocolates
1021 Detroit Ave.
925-798-8050