How Personalized Chocolates Came to Excelsior

Susan Benson loves working with people, and she loves Excelsior.

Benson and her husband, Kevin, own . Personalized chocolates are just that: personalized. Customers can have photographs, business cards, wedding invitations, pictures and more printed on the sweet treats.

“They tell us what pictures they want and what colors they want,” Susan Benson said.

In the store, chocolates for events like birthdays and anniversaries are available for purchase. There are even chocolate CDs, and for Christmas there are chocolate ornaments. The printed images are so clear and well done that some customers think the chocolates are magnets.

“No, it’s chocolate!” Benson tells them. “You can eat it.”

The Bensons' shop can make 400 to 600 personalized chocolates an hour. The amount of prep work determines how long it will take to finish an order, and sometimes customers can just wait in the store or shop the town while their order is completed.

Planning for Pantouf’s began three years ago when Kevin Benson was laid off from his job in the construction industry.

He became interested in owning a business and found out about the equipment used to make personalized chocolates. To learn how to use the equipment, Benson had to travel to New York to receive training. His background as a surveyor gave him the skills to create detailed graphics for the chocolates, Susan Benson explained.

“Some people come with 50 year old pictures and we make it like new,” she said, referring to the resulting photo that gets printed on the chocolate.

Although the couple had only lived in Excelsior for about seven years at the time of the store’s opening in 2009, they knew that Excelsior was the place for their store. They believed in shopping local, so they already did a lot of shopping in the area.

“It’s a great area,” she said about Excelsior. “I love it out here.”

She is part of the Excelsior Downtown Business Group, helps with  and was on the planning committee.

Benson gives her husband credit for naming the store. Pantouf is the imaginary kangaroo in the movie Chocolat. They always try to have kangaroo-related merchandise in the store. These items usually sell quickly, Benson said.

At Pantouf’s, customers can also buy unique gifts. Benson said that she is careful not to have the same merchandise as other businesses, something that her customers notice. They know that they can find something “different” and affordable, she said.

The chocolate at Pantouf’s is processed in a facility free of tree nuts, making the chocolate safe for children with nut allergies. The chocolate is also kosher, and the Bensons do many live events at Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. At the events, called Chocolography Live, participants have their picture taken and then watch as the personalized chocolate is made right in front of them. The live events are hilarious, Benson said.

“Adults like it more than the kids,” she added.

They have done events at other places too, such as the Mall of America and the Hopkins Center for the Arts.

Benson has been in retail 30 years and while she always dreamed of owning her own business, she admitted that it can be stressful. Pantouf’s is open seven days a week and for the last year she has run the store herself.

“But it’s also very rewarding,” she said. “When someone says it’s exactly what they want, you can get some pride in that.”