Make Valentine’s Day sweeter and discover the stories behind these sublime Sacramento chocolates

After more than 30 years shopping at Snooks Candies and Chocolate Factory, Wes Medeiros is more interested in new sweets than tried-and-true favorites.

A mango habanero truffle here, two Peppermint Patty copycats there. Two milk chocolate turtles, one with pecans and the other with Macadamia nuts. And one for Medeiros’ wife Chris — a chocolate made with Port from Williamete Wineworks, stamped with the Folsom winery’s logo.

Medeiros and owner Jim Snook coached their kids’ soccer teams together, and ride motorcycles together in their spare time. But he’s a loyal Snooks patron outside of their friendship, and considers the candy store a must-see in Folsom.

“Everyone that I’ve ever recommended come by here, they walk away eyes bright and mouth dropped,” Medeiros said. “Like, ‘We can’t find a place like this anymore.’ And I go, ‘Yeah, it’s a very unique shop. It’s a unique family-owned and -operated business.’”

Every Sacramentan knows Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates. See’s Candies are a California classic ubiquitous at holiday celebrations. Hershey’s or Russell Stover can work as a last-minute pickup, but you can find local alternatives for Valentine’s Day.

The Sacramento region is dotted with chocolatiers, people who run chocolate shops beloved by their neighbors but sometimes slept-on by the greater populous. They come from around the world, disparate backgrounds and stories that shine through in their craft.

This Valentine’s Day, consider sourcing your chocolate — or a chocolate-adjacent drink — from someone different.

Chocolate at its roots

Cafe Xocolatl’s shelves are packed with about 200 types of chocolate from around the globe, from Chocolate Metiche in Mexico to Solkiki in the U.K. to owner Ariel Wolansky’s brand Choquiero in Nevada City.

“For Valentine’s (Day), you’re going to see the same stuff around the town. It’s mostly going to be the same stuff, just repeated,” Wolansky said. “We try to bring in things that you won’t see, so it’s really good place to find a specialty. It’s still affordable, but more rare and unique.”

The common thread? All are fair-trade chocolates carefully sourced by Wolansky, an Argentina native who opened his downtown Sacramento plant-based cafe and shop in December 2022 at 1607 10th St.

A psychedelic Willy Wonka with a laid-back demeanor, Wolansky began making chocolate in his Oakland kitchen 15 years ago and founded the Choqueiro brand in 2013. He opened Cafe Xocolatl (the Aztec word for chocolate, pronounced “sho-co-LA-toll”) as a cacao showcase more than a sweets shop.

It offers 70% chocolate bars from the Peruvian Amazon, Mexican bars with smoked heirloom chiles and dark chocolate with golden turmeric or CBD from North Carolina. Chocolate-covered honeycomb from Berkeley’s shares shelf space with espresso beans, durian and the Indonesian fruit salak, near mole negro hot sauces and cocktail bitters.

Wolansky’s favorite way to show people where chocolate comes from is through one of Cafe Xocolatl’s ceremonial cacao drinks, mixing Guatamala-based Keith’s Cacao powder with water (and maple syrup or Nevada County honey if desired, but never refined sugar).

The drinks are typically bitter and more acidic than the hot cocoa U.S. residents sip in cold weather. The cacao used to make Cafe Xocolatl’s ceremonial drinks is hand-peeled and prayed over; as a show of respect, Wolansky does not offer it to-go, forcing people to slow their lives down and appreciate the nuanced flavors.

“Definitely, ceremonial cacao has had its influence on how I view chocolate. Understanding the culture and where cacao comes from, which is Mesoamerica ... we want to pay respects to the traditions by working with farms and cacao plants where they’re actually from,” Wolansky said.

118 years of dessert

Orders come in waves at some local chocolate shops, cresting relatively evenly around major holidays including Christmas, Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day.

The rush is more concentrated at Kobasic’s Candies, a kistchy, fourth-generation chocolate shop at 5324 Riverside Blvd. in Sacramento’s Little Pocket neighborhood. Feb. 12-14 will be the busiest days of the year, according to Kathy Kobasic, as customers flood Kobasic’s for chocolate truffles the family calls “Kruffles.”

Kobasic’s carries more than 150 housemade desserts in its worn display cases, from balsamic vinegar chocolate truffles (more subtle than one might think) to divinity, an old-fashioned meringue popular in the South. The chocolate-covered salted vanilla caramel, one of 17 caramels available, is “far and away” Kobasic’s best-selling item, Kathy Kobasic said.

The Kobasics are a sweets-oriented family. Kathy’s great-grandfather, a Lebanese immigrant named Joseph Sayklly, founded Sayklly’s Candies in 1906 in Michigan. It was primarily an ice cream parlor, pictures of which can be seen behind the ice cream counter at Kobasic’s, until the 1950s, when chocolate became the main business.

Her father Jim Kobasic (pronounced “co-buh-sick”) grew up in Sayklly’s, which remains in business today, and opened a grocery store called Jim’s Market in 1978 where Kobasic’s Candies sits today.

That store closed in 1989, but Jim began producing wholesale chocolate on the side, making Easter eggs for Price Club and then Costco after their 1993 merger. He reopened the Riverside Boulevard storefront as Kobasic’s Candies in 2003, and continues to make chocolates alongside his wife and two daughters.

The charm of a local chocolate shop is not lost on customers such as Crystal Rivera, who lives a mile away in South Land Park and picked up an assortment of caramels, nut clusters, marshmallows and Kruffles in early February.

“Who has a chocolate shop down the street? I mean, the convenience, you know?” Rivera said.

Customers seeking Valentine’s Day presents such as Kruffles or truffle-fudge hybrid chocolate hearts should place orders in advance, Kathy Kobasic said. After all, it’s the family’s busy season.

Afghanistan to Germany to San Francisco to ... Davis?

Osman “Sonny” Maiwandy is another longtime local chocolatier like the Snooks, having opened The Candy House of Davis in the college town’s downtown 25 years ago. His story looks different, though.

Maiwandy was born in Afghanistan, but fled with his family during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s. They settled for a time in Frankfurt, Germany, where Maiwandy learned to make candy, chocolate and other sugary confections.

Maiwandy’s family immigrated to the U.S. when he was 18, and opened a candy shop in San Francisco that eventually closed to make way for the Giants’ waterfront ballpark, now called AT&T Park. He resettled again in Davis, opening The Candy House in 1999.

The dimly-lit chocolate shop at at 901 Third St. has quietly interwoven with Davis’ culinary scene, its 32 triangular truffles unmistakable at celebrations around town. Eighty percent of The Candy House’s business comes from Christmas, Valentine’s Day, graduations, Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Maiwandy said.

The mountainous chocolates usually have a splash of color at the peak or swirling around the body, a hint toward the Grand Marnier or passion fruit filling inside. Maiwandy has infused truffles with Sudwerk Brewing beer, another Davis landmark, and is generous with fudge or truffle samples

“What is the secret? We make good chocolate and people like it,” he said, chuckling.

We have cacao at home

Looking for an intimate, none-too-sweet chocolate experience this Valentine’s Day? Cru Chocolate is a cacao pipeline from Central America to cups around the Sacramento area.

Run out of founder Karla McNeil-Rueda’s home in Roseville, Cru contracts with 250 farmers in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala to grow, roast and grind cacao (known as cocoa once it’s been cooked).

McNeil-Rueda then crafts flavor combinations between the different products, packages and ships those powders to cafes and customers throughout Northern California, including Milka Coffee Roasters, Mast Coffee and Insight Coffee Roasters cafes in Sacramento.

A native of Honduras who previously worked as an industrial engineer, McNeil-Rueda extols cacao’s medicinal and spiritual properties. Dark chocolate’s much-touted benefits such as lowering blood pressure or reducing inflammation are best realized without a heavy layer of sugar, after all.

“It has this spiritual and nutritional connotation,” McNeil-Rueda said. “Here in the U.S., chocolate is more like a luxury or a treat or something that is extremely sweet. For us (Honduras natives), it’s more like a drink and is considered a very nutritious food that you would give to children or people who are sick or pregnant women.”

A timeless classic in Folsom

Snook was a strapping 23-year-old making peanut brittle in a copper kettle when he met his now-wife, Renee.

“Looks hot back there!” she joked at the time. Forty-three years later, that pickup line served as the slogan printed on T-shirts sold at Snooks Candies and Chocolate Factory in Folsom Historic District.

Founded by Jim Snook’s parents John and Jeannine Snook in 1963 under the name “Country Candies,” Snooks has become a Sacramento County institution with no signs of slowing down. It moved from the Arden Fair Food Circus to Folsom in 1984, nine years after the second generation of Snooks took ownership, then opened at 731 Sutter St. in 2002.

Snooks will grow to about 4,500 square feet with an expansion this year, allowing Jim to make chocolate sailboats, golf sets, skis and more as Renee oversees packaging and the display area.

All chocolate items are currently produced in a glass-walled laboratory, from Snooks’ 16 housemade truffles — the lemon chiffon was created for Renee, while strawberry Champagne is the best-seller — to the Folsom Gold bars that look like they contain golden tickets. With the expansion, Snooks will set up separate lines for milk and dark chocolate.

Jim and his brother Jeff began developing truffles in the 1980s. Today, Jim and Renee’s son Eric does the majority of the cooking, making toffee or peanut brittle in accordance to the original recipe (some of the latter gets crushed and applied as a coat around caramel apples).

He’s also the boundary-pusher responsible for items like habanero salted caramels made from scratch with fresh cream, evaporated milk, butter and housemade pepper extract.

“Each generation builds on the foundation built from before, and the good work ethics and vision helps to guide the company to keep it viable, keep it going,” Renee Snook said. “If it gets stagnant, I feel like we’re in trouble. But I think that as a family, we’re pretty well set to keep the future going.”

For local customers, Snooks is a destination to share with visitors to the area. Medeiros, the Snooks regular, took his aunt there years ago. Now in her mid-90s, she still places online orders from Hawaii.

“If I’m ever in need of something and I want to go shopping, I’ll look locally,” Medeiros said. “Yeah, obviously See’s is there. But the quality is just not the same. The uniqueness of the assortments here at Snooks, you just can’t find it anywhere else.”