Valentine's Day A Labor Of Love For Westport Chocolatier

WESTPORT, CT — With Valentine's Day upon us, many across Connecticut have undoubtedly either been stocking up on chocolate or are rushing out to get some for a special person in their life. Aarti Khosla is more than familiar with this rush.

As the owner of Le Rouge Chocolates by Aarti, an artisanal chocolate shop with a brick and mortar store in Westport, she has a front row seat every year to the crowds of people that flock to her store on Main Street or place orders online around the holiday.

"There has been prep going on [for Valentine’s Day] since the first of the month," Khosla said. "That is only in part for the packaging, and just making sure we have things ready and ordering stuff."

Though she prepares for the holiday rush all month, the bulk of the work comes only a few days before Valentine's Day, as everything she makes is 100 percent fresh. (To sign up for Westport breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

"My whole business model is fresh, which means that everything was made two days back," Khosla said. "Believe me, if I gave you something that I made a week ago, you would not be able to tell, but that is what my craziness is."

Earlier in the week, she stayed at the store until about 4 a.m., then went home for a couple hours before returning to the store for another full day of work.

There is a touch of irony to all this, as Khosla said she has never cared for chocolate hearts, and did not start selling them until 2017 for an ongoing campaign called Give A Little Love. As part of the campaign, customers are encouraged to stop in at Le Rouge pick up any of Khosla's chocolate creations packaged in a red heart tin box, then share it with someone in the community and "spread love through random acts of kindness."

According to Khosla, 10 percent of the proceeds from this campaign will be donated to various charities on an ongoing basis.

Though February can get hectic, making unique chocolate creations is nonetheless a labor of love for Khosla, stemming from a life-long passion for excellent chocolate.

"I’ve always loved chocolate," Khosla said. "Growing up, I was lucky enough that my father used to travel all over the world, and he would bring back chocolate, which is not an indigenous part of Indian cuisine. We don’t have any chocolate, so there always used to be a novelty to getting it from Paris or Europe. I probably cut my teeth on excellent chocolate at a very early age."

It was this passion and a desire to recreate memories of traveling around the world, sampling great food, and capture flavors from those places that drove her to leave the corporate world and start Le Rouge in 2012. It was also the perfect way to "showcase the rich diversity of Indian desserts," according to the Le Rouge website.

"People know Indian food, but they do not know anything about Indian desserts," Khosla said. "That is one of the first heritage collections I did of truffles. The inspiration is from Indian desserts."

A Weston resident, Khosla said she initially had no plans of opening a brick and mortar store, figuring customers would prefer to buy their chocolate creations online rather than at a physical shop.

Instead she rented a commercial kitchen in Weston, which she would typically use at night from about 8:30 p.m. until 1 or 2 a.m. Then she would take her products to farmers markets in Westport and New Canaan, which helped gain her recognition in the community.

As demand increased, she felt her business was picking up and it became too much work to go to a rented kitchen, taking everything with her and then packing it all back up at the end of the night. That’s where the idea for the Westport store came from, which she opened in 2014.

"Also because it was a premium product, I knew the store had to be on Main Street," Khosla said. "It couldn’t be in a hidden location. We are a destination; people Google us and find us."

One thing that drives people to seek out the store is the nature of chocolate as something that brings people together.

“The smell itself is very enticing," Khosla said. "People have told me that if I could somehow rent the smell of chocolate they get when they walk into the store or could glue it onto Main Street, we’d have more business. It's just a happy thing. What is there not to like about chocolate?"

Bringing it to her customers is truly a labor of love, as Le Rouge is a one-woman operation. Though she recently hired her first employee, Khosla is the CEO and manager rolled into one. She handles all aspects of the business, from creating and selling the chocolate to social media, website design and more.

She also does not plan to slow down, as she is planning to expand in the near future. While she is still working out the details of what that will be, she emphasized it will not be putting her product on grocery store shelves, something she said could not work with how fresh the product is.

She also hopes to encourage continue encouraging and empowering women, and urges anyone with a desire to follow their passion to go for it.

"If you are passionate enough, you will find a way," Khosla said. "You have the means and you have the drive, you just have to stick to it."

Photo credit: RJ Scofield