Chocolate lovers are a passionate and, according to a recent Business Week report, increasingly sophisticated lot. Less than a decade ago, most consumers didn’t know a ganache from a gianduja (the former is a smooth chocolate mixture, the latter is a chocolate-ground nut paste blend), but today, they’re demanding chocolate with top-notch ingredients and envelope-pushing flavors, and artisanal chocolate makers in the mountains are stepping in to supply it. 

“It’s not easy to come up with a new truffle recipe,” says Sue Foley who, with her husband Bill, owns Asheville’s The Chocolate Fetish. “Sometimes we’ll go through five different batches to get it right.” Like a love match, a chocolate flavor pairing depends a lot on chemistry. You’ll never know how chocolate, wasabi and sesame go together until you try (taste Chocolate Fetish’s Dragon’s Kiss truffle to find out), but, Foley says, you’ll increase your odds of success dramatically by starting with high-quality chocolate. 

Chocolate starts with the cocoa bean, which is processed to create chocolate liquor (a liquid form of cocoa) as well as cocoa butter and cocoa powder. Chocolate producers mix these products with milk, sugar or other flavorings, then sell their chocolate to confectioners like Foley who make it into edibles like truffles, turtles and the elaborate artistic creations of her daughter Elizabeth, who runs the store’s retail operation. 

A higher cocoa percentage will let the chocolate’s natural flavor come through, but that’s just part of the equation. Chocolate is a lot like wine, says Jael Rattigan who, with her husband Dan, opened French Broad Luscious Chocolates in 2007 and the French Broad Chocolate Lounge in early 2008. Different varieties of cocoa have different flavors depending on the region they come from and even the weather in the season in which they were grown. A chocolate made from Madagascar cocoa might have a citrus “note,” while one from Ecuador might have a coffee “nose.” Some chocolate producers even include a vintage year on their packaging.

For chocolate snobs, nothing less than an impeccable pedigree will do. Single-source chocolate, which can be traced to one region of origin (or even a particular cocoa estate) is the next big thing in chocolate. For some of their recipes, the Rattigans use a single-estate chocolate from Hawaii called Kokoleka, which has, according to the Rattigans, a hint of pineapple and is “mind-blowing.”

Flavor-wise, overly sweet is out and spicy or a salty-sweet combo is in. French Broad Chocolates offers an Indian-inspired cardamom, rose and pistachio truffle and a “liquid truffle” chocolate beverage made with, among other things, cayenne and cinnamon. The 14-spice-blend Chai Moon truffle is one of The Chocolate Fetish’s best sellers. Both stores offer salty caramels. Chocophiles may like to try new things, but they never forsake their first love. “We’re in the business of chocolate,” says Foley. “So the primary flavor should be chocolate. If someone wants fruit, they’ll eat an apple.” In the end it’s all about balance. 

“I have some intense flavors,” says Jill Tooley, who started Bliss Chocolat, based in her home in Brevard, in 2006. “So I create a thick coating of chocolate that makes a nice contrast with the confection center.”

Jael Rattigan's French Broad Chocolate Lounge is known for its truffles, made from exotic chocolates like Kokoleka, a Hawaiian chocolate with a hint of pineapple.With so much attention paid to what goes into the chocolate, it’s not surprising that there’s an increasing focus on how and where it’s eaten. The French Broad Chocolate Lounge is part of a trend toward chocolate parlors and lounges, which have sprung up around the country in recent years. There’s Ethel’s Chocolate Lounge, a swanky chain with locations in Illinois and Nevada, and Alison Nelson’s Chocolate Bar, among many others, in New York. Chocolate houses are hardly a new idea, though, says Rattigan. They were popular in Europe as far back as the 17th century, long before coffeehouses came into vogue (eat your heart out, Starbucks). 

Rattigan sees the lounge as a way to allow people to enjoy their chocolate in a comfortable atmosphere, “so they can really experience it, instead of going out and eating it in their cars by themselves.” Although the lounge does see a lot of traffic from couples on dates, its allure is not exclusively romantic. On any given night, their customers are just as likely to be a group of friends on a girls’ night out, or a bridal or baby shower party. The Chocolate Fetish, Foley reports, is occasionally descended upon by busloads of tourists. But even so, the store remains a favorite with those looking for a more intimate connection. They’ve had several marriage proposals right in their store, and they even took the extra step once of sealing a ring inside a truffle box to surprise the future fiancée (she said yes). 

The Chocolate Fetish and French Broad Chocolate Lounge offer chocolate tastings by appointment—at the lounge you can sample wine and chocolate together—and Tooley conducts confectionary classes so chocolate lovers can learn to satisfy their own cravings. But while some have no problem publicly declaring their love for chocolate, others prefer to keep it as a secret passion. “I have one couple,” says Tooley of her clients, “who only eats my chocolate together in bed. They store it in their nightstand.” 

Despite its reputation as a guilty pleasure, there’s no need to feel bad about eating chocolate, says Rattigan. At least not the kind she makes, which for the most part leaves out the refined sugar. “With reasonably sized portions, you can experience the pleasure of a decadent food without the guilt,” she says. And besides, chocolate really is good for you. Study after study shows that dark chocolate contains not only anandamide, “the bliss molecule,” which makes people happy, but also antioxidants, which can make us healthier too. So, really, what’s not to love?