Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
I'm not Artic Fox but I'll chime in with my own HO:
Peterbrooke in Sumter Landing Town Square
Kilwin's in Spanish Springs Town Square
Lindt and Godiva are better than Russel Stover's, but neither has their own store anywhere around here. Hershey's Kisses are better than Russel Stover's solid milk chocolates but again - no Hershey's store here, you'd have to settle for buying them in Walmart.
See's Candies are not available anywhere except from their own stores/mall kiosks, or ordering online, and there aren't any stores near the Villages. But their chocolate covered toffee (tins of what they call Toffee-ettes) is to die for.
Also - trivial factoid: "Belgian chocolate" has no legal distinction outside of Belgium. But within Belgium, "Belgian chocolate" has specific standards in order to get the label. But anyone outside of Belgium can make their chocolates using the same standard, there's nothing unique about "Belgian chocolate" since they get their raw cacao from the same places everyone else gets them (cocoa doesn't grow in Belgium): Africa, Central America, and South America.
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We used to live near a large chocolate factory that was in a big tilt-up building in an industrial park in Chino, California. They had an outlet store and they made chocolates for many different "boutique" companies and Godiva and Ethel M (now part of Mars Corp). It was all the same chocolate, just packaged for different companies. We would buy Godiva turtles with a mis-shapen leg or a stray lump by the bag for a small fraction the retail price. It was all very good stuff but people love to pay extra $$$ for brand names / bragging rights.
They did not make See's, which is excellent.