You already know that the Finger Lakes boasts amazing wine trails, craft breweries, and distilleries. Now let me add another Finger Lakes food category to explore that’s especially fun if you’re traveling as a family: chocolate!
I was researching artisan chocolate in the Finger Lakes when I realized just how many sweets and chocolate shops dot the landscape.
Many of these New York chocolate shops have a long tradition, going back decades and often telling the story of a family’s immigration and new life in the United States. Generations of locals have been enjoying their creations.
In the list below you’ll find everything from fancy chocolates with established flavors and daring modern takes to chocolate art, a successful chocolate pizza venture, and chocolate-making nuns.
Let me know in the comments or by email what shops I may have missed! What places are your favorites and what do you always get there?
Map of Finger Lakes chocolate shops
Finger Lakes chocolate shops by county
Cayuga
- Gretchen’s Confections & Cafe, Auburn: trained chocolatier Gretchen Christenson creates intriguing confections, sometimes with local ingredients
Chemung
- Preliminaires Chocolat, Millport: confections made by French chocolatier and glassblower Christian Thirion; available online and in several stores in the region
Cortland
- Sinfully Sweet Cafe, Homer: cafe and bakery with fudge, truffles, candy, chocolate-covered cookies
Livingston
- Sweet Arts Bakery, Geneseo: cafe that also sells truffles, fudge, chocolate pieces
Monroe
- Affaire de Chocolat, Fairport: small-batch production; truffles, bark, caramels, chocolate bowls, bars
- Andy’s Candies, Rochester: multiple locations; founded in 1917; sponge candy, clusters, caramels
- Encore Chocolates, Rochester: founded in 1987; big selection of chocolate and candy products such as truffles, creams, clusters, bark, sponge candy, molded pieces; see the website gallery for interesting chocolate art
- Goodie Shoppe, Webster: since 1927; chocolates, and specializes in ice cream cakes
- Hedonist Artisan Chocolates, Rochester: handcrafted from French chocolate, using some local ingredients (such as goat cheese!) and creating interesting flavors
- Laughing Gull Chocolates, Rochester: organic chocolates handcrafted from transparently sourced ingredients, frequently using local ingredients
- Stever’s Candies, Rochester: opened in 1946, still in the family; made fresh daily with the founder’s recipes; melt-a-ways, truffles, fruit bark, fudge, chocolate-covered nuts, marzipan fruit
Onondaga
- Chocolate Pizza Company, Marcellus: the national brand has its origins in a small-town chocolate shop; known for large rounds of chocolate covered in candy or other snacks, and “wings” made from peanut butter and potato chips dipped in chocolate
- Hercules Candies, East Syracuse: in business since 1905, still owned by the family; all-handmade clusters, novelties, bark, nut brittle, hard candy with ingredients sourced directly, nuts roasted on the premises
- Speach Family Candy Shoppe, Syracuse: founded in 1920 by an immigrant from Italy, still family-operated; interesting combinations and flavors; huge selection of oversize truffles (some infused with alcohol), nut brittles (e.g. maple-pecan-bacon), “brickles” (their version of chocolate bark, including a savory “Everything but the Bagle” brickle), candy, chocolate-dipped potato chips, and all kinds of other fruits, candies and cookies dipped in chocolate
- Sweet on Chocolate, Syracuse: specializes in many varieties of truffles, turtles, clusters, bark, and creams
Ontario
- Sweet Expressions, Canandaigua: since 1997, chocolates and gifts; truffles, creams, jellies, mint patties, clusters, bark, caramels, dipped pretzels and cookies; sugar-free chocolates
- Watson’s, Victor: the only FLX branch of the Buffalo-based company started in 1946, still family-owned; all Fair Trade-certified chocolate used in products made in the Tonawanda factory; best known four sponge candy; caramels, turtles, creams, chews, truffles
Schuyler
- Specc’s Chocolates & Gifts, Watkins Glen: owner Stephanie makes numerous varieties of fudge, peanut butter cups, chocolate-dipped oreos and other items, flavored solid chocolate molds, haystacks, coconut balls; there’s a line of homemade ice cream toppings
Seneca
- Puttin’ on the Mitts, Lodi: Laurel O’Donnell runs a fully mobile dessert food truck; includes truffles, next to cookies, cake, other desserts; look for it around Seneca Lake and the region
- Rue Claire, Lodi: Claire Benjamin’s accredited expertise as a chocolatier and local ingredients combine into unexpected flavor combinations; also a lavender farm and glamping site
Steuben
- Dmitri’s Confectionery Treats, Corning: family-owned, in the tradition of the original shop opened in 1916 in Olean; truffles and other candy, gifts
- Finger Lakes Chocolates, Corning: family-owned, available at a number of retail locations; truffles, caramels, bars
Tioga
- Fuddy Duddy’s Confectionery, Owego: family-owned confectionery and general store; over 20 varieties of handmade fudge; truffles, cookies, other food products
Tompkins
- Molly Flerlage, Trumansburg: not actually a shop but an experienced chocolatier making interesting truffles from ethically sourced Ecuadorian chocolate; sold exclusively at Trumansburg Main Street Market
- Oracle Chocolates, Ithaca: also not a shop; a couple making chocolates inspired by folklore and myth; available at Nothing Nowhere cafe and through bimonthly boxes
Wayne
- The Original Candy Kitchen, Williamson: family diner and candy store, established in 1890, in the Boosalis family for 4 generations; truffles, creams, clusters, caramels, peanut brittle, hand-pulled candy; over a thousand molds dating from the 1800s
Yates
- Keuka Candy Emporium, Penn Yan: Stacey and Rebecca Ingerick run the largest retro candy store in New York State; handmade chocolate items include clusters, turtles, caramels, dipped items, a dozen varieties of truffles, liquor-infused chocolates
Other
- Honeypot Chocolates, Alfred: since 1922, nougat made with local honey, enrobed in chocolate; sold at the Alfred Pharmacy and Canacadea Country Store
- Emmy’s Organics: a special mention for a great company that got its start in Ithaca; specializing in coconut cookies, but they have some chocolate-covered bites worth trying
- Angelhearts Diner, Ithaca: occasionally carries Lagusta’s Luscious from New Paltz — a vegan brand with great ethics and amazing flavors (cherry-black pepper-almond-whiskey or yuzu-cashew, anyone?)
- Vermont Green Mountain Specialty Co., Skaneateles: while the chocolates sold here are sourced from outside the FLX, this is a well-known shop with a big variety; truffles, turtles, creams; gifts, coffee
More chocolate exploration in the Finger Lakes
Corning also has what it calls the “Chocolate Trail.” It’s not, however, as I first thought, a tour of chocolate stores. Instead, a variety of businesses have gotten in on the action to offer everything from chocolate(s) to chocolate-related products, including chocolate pipe tobacco, dark chocolate balsamico, chocolate liqueur, and baked goods.
Along Seneca Lake you’ll find the Chocolate and Wine Weekend, put on by the Seneca Lake Wine Trail in February. Again, not about confections per se, but wine paired with food that involves chocolate as an ingredient.
And if you’re generally into sweets, you may enjoy these posts as well:
- A history of the ice cream sundae, which was invented in Ithaca!
- My roundup of the best ice cream shops in Ithaca.
PIN THIS POST FOR LATER:
Where to Find Artisanal Chocolate in the Finger Lakes
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