Whim Chocolates: A Family Business in Westwood #ShopSmall

When Westwood’s Inge Kiss had some Swiss chocolate in Croatia, it was love at first bite. The company she owns with her husband, Marshall Parker, Whim Chocolates, was thus born. “The inspiration for Whim Chocolate was a gift of Swiss chocolate from a friend but our chocolate is actually Belgian. We’re a little, local, Westwood business. We have a residential kitchen permit from the Town of Westwood (thank you Linda Shea!) and we make the chocolate in our kitchen at home. It’s just the two of us. Inge makes the chocolate herself, by hand, in small batches and Marshall runs the business. Our workforce doubles when our son, Christian, and Inge’s dad, Leslie, help us both make and sell the chocolate,” say Kiss and Parker of their business.

“I love good chocolate – something worth spending money and calories on. I feel cheated when I buy bad chocolate and there’s so much out there! I decided I could make better chocolate. It really is a labor of love. It’s funny… Sometimes I try a little piece of my chocolate and I think ‘wow, this is really good!’ When was the last time you said that about your chocolate? I’m a huge believer that happiness comes from small, perfect moments in life – a sliver of happiness. Stopping for a moment during a crazy day to savor the moment. We know a couple who share a piece of our chocolate every night at 10 pm. It becomes an event. Another woman once said our chocolate is ‘hide in your closet and eat it all yourself chocolate.’ These small, perfect moments happen all the time. The most important thing is to stop and savor them!” Laughs Kiss of her company’s chocolates appeal.

The Whim website lists chocolate flavors including pumpkin seed chai and milk chocolate tiramisu. When asked about where they get their ideas, Kiss and Parker report “We love to travel and try new foods and flavors from around the world. It’s fun to come home and incorporate some of our favorites into the chocolate. It reminds us of wonderful times spent abroad and, hopefully, we can share these flavors with others through our chocolate. We’ve made white chocolate with green tea and almond, inspired by a trip to Malaysia, dark chocolate with orange and hibiscus, inspired by our travels in Egypt, and dark chocolate brandy cherry, inspired by my grandmother’s liquor cabinet in Hungary.”

“We are just making our new stack in time for the holidays! We are working on milk chocolate sugar plum with almond, dark chocolate mulled wine, and white chocolate eggnog with nutmeg to name just a few,” they comment about the potential for special holiday flavors. “If you’re invited over to someone’s house for dinner or drinks, our chocolate stack is a wonderful hostess gift! Our chocolate is also amazing when paired with dessert wines like port or Tokaji. So, for an extra special gift, give our chocolate with a nice bottle of dessert wine. At our house, we sometimes serve our chocolate as a dessert. After a big meal, sometimes our guests don’t want a big piece of cake or pie. A piece of chocolate is the perfect solution. We cut up the chocolate into bite sized pieces and serve it on a cutting board with dessert wine. It becomes a fun event to guess the flavors, debate the favorites, and just savor the moment with friends and family. We have some suggestions [of wine and chocolate pairings on our website if you need inspiration.”

“Inge makes all of the chocolate herself and our production is very small batch but we do sell in a few stores. You can find us at Decor and More on High Street in Westwood, Sprig & Vine in Wellesley, and The Cave in Gloucester. We attend a lot of farmers markets, do a lot of pop-ups, and a lot of tastings. We’ll be at the Fab Finds Foxboro Holiday Open House, the Decor and More Trunk Show, the Westwood Artists December Marketplace, and the BSV Weihnachtsmarkt. You can also find us online at www.whimchocolate.com and on our Facebook page.”

All Photos Credit Whim Chocolates

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