One local chocolate store makes shopping for Valentine’s Day during a pandemic easy and safe.
XOCO The Chocolate Makery at 3 Fountain St. offers chocolaty treats for purchase online, with the added safety of curbside pickup.
This Valentine’s Day, XOCO—which is pronounced ‘choco’—will be offering chocolate-covered strawberries, breakable chocolate hearts and treat boxes with assorted goodies.
Kelley Kain, owner of XOCO, has years in the chocolate-making business. Kain owned a chocolate shop in downtown Utica. She later opened Sweet Escape at the Terrace Cafe, part of Munson-Williams-Proctor-Arts Institute.
Kain has been interested in chocolate from junior-high school. That’s when she decided to use a candy recipe she found in one of her grandmother’s cookbooks.
“It was fun, and people liked it,” she said of her first attempt at candy making.
“People who are in the food service industry, whether it’s baked goods or any kind of artisan food, I think that’s the one thing that we all have in common, getting that response from people. People enjoying what you make,” she said.
Kain continued finding and trying recipes from magazines and the Internet.
In 2009, Kain started selling chocolate-covered items, like pretzels and Oreos, at area farmers markets. She also did orders for special events, like birthdays and weddings.
After five years of selling chocolate treats, Kain saw ...
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