By Julie Kessler

From the February/March 2006 Issue

Lake Magazine covers the hottest information on the Lake Michigan area.

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Of course we’re talking about chocolate.

Or, if you prefer, Chocolat, the name of a film about a woman who poured her heart and soul into making fine chocolates.

Mimi Wheeler is her Michigan counterpart: She has a passion for creating the candy we crave. Her smooth, rich truffles, thick, caramel-filled turtles, and more are sold through Grocer’s Daughter Chocolates, a quiet little business that is picking up speed.

“I always loved chocolate,” Wheeler confesses. “I made my first truffle as a 9-year-old.” Since then she’s studied them — yes, studied the art of truffle-making, making her way through Europe sampling them and learning the subtle nuances of flavor combinations.

The idea of making chocolates for a commercial market had teased her imagination for years — and then there was a wedding, for which she had made her trademark confections. “They were speaking German, and my sister came to me and said, ‘The guests are talking about your truffles! They love them!’”

Since then, Wheeler has moved on from the more commonly used Belgian chocolate to a very robust Ecuadorian rainforest chocolate.

“I connected with the Zingerman’s, the nationally famous deli in Ann Arbor, a very wonderful place. They let me do this work with the Ecuadorian chocolate…I feel very honored using such wonderful chocolate.”

Wheeler takes being a chocolatier seriously. “I was a social worker for many years, and this…well, this is a different kind of social work.” Promoting the rainforest and the Rainforest Alliance is an important part of her business. Only natural cocoa trees are used, so they can grow in rainforest shade and need no fertilizers or pesticides, unlike hybrid trees. Rainforest Alliance helps promote conservation of the rainforest and helps support the local economy by training farmers and paying premium prices for the cocoa. In Michigan, Wheeler and her Grocer’s Daughter Chocolates partner, Carlene Peregrine, are collaborating with some like-minded business people in the area to use fair-trade coffee in their products.

Wheeler will travel to Ecuador in February to take part in the cocoa harvest, a painstaking process that protects the deep flavor and superb quality of the bean. The cocoa tree’s big, football-like pods each hold 30 beans that look rather like almonds. Once the pod is opened, the beans ferment naturally, the wide, fleshy part becoming almost like vinegar. The bean itself has no flavor until after three or four days of fermentation, after which the beans are dried in solar tents, then carefully roasted and packaged in a fair-trade cooperative.

The paper-thin shell of the dried cocoa bean is removed and the bean is crushed, yielding cocoa butter and solid cocoa. Most of the cocoa butter goes to the cosmetic industry. The cocoa itself is mixed with sugar in a slow, methodical process called conching.

“We use different percentages of chocolate,” Wheeler explains, from 55 to 75 percent. “It’s a pretty high percentage we use, mostly 65 percent chocolate, the rest is mostly sugar. People are asking for a higher percentage of chocolate because they want less sugar, and more of the antioxidant quality of the chocolate.”

Wheeler and Peregrine recently moved the candy-making operations into a building on the outskirts of Empire, Mich., near Traverse City.

“It’s a bold, beautiful space we’re in. Both our families have stood behind us … our husbands even built us a beautiful kitchen. We’ve had amazing support from business owners who’ve given us counters and other things we needed. We have silk Indian wall hangings, and the décor has the colors of the cocoa. We’re open most afternoons and encourage people to call if they’d like to visit the product site.”

Here, the creamy confections are produced, with unusual infusions of herbs. “I was inspired in traveling in Provence, France, where, to use fresh herbs, it was a new world opening to me,” Wheeler recalls. Grocer’s Daughter chocolates are made with all organic ingredients. There are truffles, whose smooth centers made from heavy whipping cream are infused with herbs; the rosemary truffle is a favorite seller. Some are infused with sage, lavender, basil, or oregano, all of which Wheeler grows herself. “Part of the joy for me is going out and picking the herbs I grow. It’s fun to come up with complex flavors.”

While Peregrine handles the packaging, Wheeler makes all the chocolates. One of the most complex truffles has an infusion of blueberry, sage and lemon zest. There’s a Mayan chili truffle that’s smooth early on, then has a little bite that lingers. Other customer favorites are the turtles, with roasted, organic hazelnuts. The Puddles are popular: they’re solid chocolate with something extra: pumpkin seeds, with a nice crunch and sweetness; hazelnut-coffee, with a little caramelized sugar; and Puddles with crystallized ginger.

The business has branched into caramels, made from locally produced star thistle honey, chocolate, toasted hazelnuts, and raspberry. For the chocolate lover looking for a solid bite to swoon over, there’s the beautifully wrapped Arriba chocolate bar.

Wheeler and Peregrine are delighted to hear customers’ comments. “We sent a box to Washington, and got a note back raving over this chocolate.” The note was from a former secretary of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Part of the joy of chocolate is in its presentation, Wheeler says. She’ll make specially personalized boxes for weddings and corporations. “One of our biggest customers is Black Star Farms Winery; we used a couple of their spirits in our truffles.”

When you combine the robust flavor of the Ecuadorian chocolate with environmental and social responsibility, then throw in the sheer joy of creating fabulous confections, “It’s a gift to work with chocolate.” So says the grocer’s daughter; Wheeler’s father was a grocer and her mother’s picture is the charming business logo. The chocolates can be purchased at such retail outlets as Oryana in Traverse City and Hansen Foods in Suttons Bay, or online at www.grocersdaughter.com.