(This is the fourth and final installment of our Valentine’s-Day-and-Chocolate series. You can still read Parts 1, 2 and 3 at https://theberkshireedge.com/decadence-all-day-part-1/ , https://theberkshireedge.com/decadence-all-day-part-2/ and https://theberkshireedge.com/decadence-all-day-part-3/ . And now, you have arrived at your destination!)
Back home
Admit it (proudly!): You’ve cached some chocolate ice cream from the SoCo Creamery on Great Barrington’s Railroad Street in your freezer. A small dish of cold ice cream is the perfect way to begin to end your day. Double down and use chocolate sprinkles – or “jimmies” as they are often called in the Berkshires – for the topping. Alternatively, drizzle Mother Myrick’s hot fudge sauce (from Manchester, Vermont) over a bowl of French vanilla.
You staggered out of bed this morning; now stagger back in.
Sex and chocolate
Get this: In 2006 the killjoy New York Times cited scientific studies that reported “no significant differences between reported rates of sexual arousal” between those who consumed chocolate before bed and those who didn’t. This, despite the fact that chocolate contains tryptophan, a building block of serotonin, a brain chemical involved in arousal, and phenylethylamine, a stimulant related to amphetamine, which is released in the brain when people fall in love. It’s true, chocolate alone won’t put or keep you in the mood. But if you’ve been indulging all day, as we and our chocolate-creating colleagues have invited you to do, chances are you’ll soon be channeling your inner Montezuma or Madame du Barry. In any case, if you have saved one last chocolate from your box, you may consume it – and perhaps share it – now. Wash it down with a nightcap of Kahlua Especial; the beans are cultivated in Veracruz.
And if you don’t have a single chocolate left, or any Mexican chocolate chasers in your liquor cabinet, remember: Love is all you need. Buenas noches!
Chocolate shops of the Berkshires
Chocolate Springs
55 Pittsfield Rd
Lenox, MA 01240-2123 USA
(413) 637-9820
H R Zeppelin Fine Handmade Chocolates
Stockbridge, MA 01262
(413) 559-0275
Catherine’s Chocolates
260 Stockbridge Road
Great Barrington, MA 01230
1-800-345-2462
Peace Love & Chocolate
36 Main St
Stockbridge, MA 01262
413-298-0020
Robin’s Candy
288 Main Street
Great Barrington, MA 01230
413-528-8477
Lindt Chocolate Shop & Beverage Bar
60 Premium Outlet Boulevard
Space B060 Suite 17
Lee, MA 01238
(413) 243-0637
Chocolate without borders
New York
Oliver Kita Artisan Chocolate
18 West Market Street
Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845-876-2665
Verdigris Tea and Chocolate
135 Warren Street
Hudson, NY 12534
(518) 828-3139
Connecticut
Thorncrest Farm, LLC & Milk House Chocolates
280 Town Hill Road
Goshen, CT 06756
(860) 309-2545
Vermont
The Village Chocolate Shop
471 Main St
Bennington, VT 05201
(802) 447-3789
Vermont Confectionery
1541 West Rd
Bennington, VT 05201
802-447-2610
The Chocolate Barn
5055 Historic Route 7A
Shaftsbury, VT 05262
(802) 375-6928
The Chocolatorium
261 Old Mill Road
East Arlington VT 05250
(802) 375-6037
Mother Myrick’s Confectionery
4367 Main St
Manchester Center, VT 05255
(802) 362-1560
