TRAVERSE CITY -- Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away and if you're looking for the perfect gift for your special someone you really can't go wrong with chocolate.
One Traverse City chocolatier has mastered the art of chocolate making. Her hand crafted treats are sweet for the taste buds and the economy.
7&4’s Kate Fox showcases The Chocolate Den in this week’s Made with Michigan Hands.
The Chocolate Den has been satisfying northern Michigan's cravings for 12 years.
Jeni Novakova bought the business in May and she's ready to bring the den into the 21st century. She says her chocolate career started out as a hobby about seven years ago when she was living in Czech Republic.
It was a simple craving for a sweet treat that really started everything.
Owner of The Chocolate Den Jeni Novakova says, "I wanted chocolate mints, and in Czech Republic they didn't have chocolate mints so I decided I’m going to make my own chocolate mints then, so I started making chocolate mint truffles, everyone loved them so I became the chocolate lady."
Novakova says she transformed her kitchen into a chocolate laboratory and it was a challenge to master making chocolate from scratch.
She explains, "I researched, I studied figured out how to make it happen, started simple--then worked into the more complex version of chocolate making."
Novakova makes it all, hand dipped caramel apples, barks and clusters and her specialties sea salt caramels and of course hand crafted truffles.
As a Traverse City native, she is proud to use local ingredients in her chocolates.
She says, "We use Higher Grounds coffee, I use them not only selling the coffee but I use them in any product I have like my espresso caramel, espresso truffles. Also I use Food for Thought, I use their preserves and honey in my products."
The Chocolate Den also carries Moomer's ice cream in the summer which is a tourist favorite.
She says, "We have a lot of foot flow just from that, people come in here it's great, they come in their like oh I see Moomer's, we heard about Moomer's, and they're people from all over the United States."
Novakova says her treats seem to have a lasting impression on people, "Online orders from people around Michigan, who've been here in the summer during other tourism times, and they call up and want to have some of our products and they want to support Michigan as well."
As for the future she plans to continue to push the envelope with her chocolate creations, "Right now were working with right brain brewery to come up with a chocolate beer pairing for valentines day-- so I’m doing a blue cheese truffle right now….you know things that just are kind of off the wall that you wouldn't think of...I’m experimenting with and that's my favorite part."
To order treats from The Chocolate Den CLICK HERE.
