Visions of Chocolate in Scotts Valley

Lloyd and Lindy Martin had owned their wholesale chocolate business, Chocolate Visions, for seven years when they decided to expand and open a retail store.

Lucky for us, they chose Scotts Valley for their new store’s location.

“We’ve loved Scotts Valley for years,” Lindy said.

Lloyd had a more practical reason for locating here.

“The planning department was much easier to deal with than Santa Cruz,” he said.

They spent three months cleaning up the empty space and remodeling the interior. Lloyd did the majority of the work himself. It’s hard to imagine the darkness and dinginess described by Lindy that greeted them when they first walked into the space. The store is now clean, bright and cheerful.

Handmade Chocolates

All the chocolates are made by Lloyd and Lindy right there in the back room of Chocolate Visions. Lloyd also designs the beautiful decorations silk-screened onto the chocolates with cocoa butter and natural food coloring.

“We experiment and try different things,” Lindy said. “We make chocolate, vanilla and strawberry marshmallows, toffee and chocolate fudge, with and without nuts.”

They also created chocolates containing unusual ingredients such as basil, lavender, Meyer lemon, single malt scotch and wine ganache.

Their testers are “whoever comes in the door.” I was lucky enough to be a tester the day I visited, and savored chocolate and nut-covered toffee, fudge and the delectable strawberry marshmallow flavored with real strawberries.

When I asked if either of them had a favorite, Lloyd and Lindy were of the same opinion: “They’re all good.”

Gelato, Too! 

Chocolate Visions also serves gelato supplied by in Watsonville.

“We’ve known Massimo for eight or nine years now,” Lindy said. “He’s a friend of ours as well. His gelato is fairly well known—he’s even been on Oprah.”

I bought a six-piece box of chocolates and a small container to go, packed with two flavors of gelato: coconut and chocolate. After sharing the decadent chocolates and the creamy gelato with my husband, I knew I’d be back—soon—to Chocolate Visions.

Chocolate Visions is at 224-C Mt. Hermon Rd. adjacent to . Its phone number is 831-440-9256.