(123rf.com image)
USA Today has named LaRue Fine Chocolate in Greenville, South Carolina, as the nation's best chocolate shop.
The national newspaper said chocolatier Elizabeth Logan McDaniel’s store was nominated by a panel of experts and voted by readers as the best in the United States.
"It feels a little surreal," said McDaniel, the founder. "This is a culmination of my team's hard work."
The newspaper said she is known for her specialty truffles with fun names and refined flavor infusions.
It added that selections may include the Sweet Kentucky, a dark chocolate with salted caramel, or the Dora Larue, a bite of peanut butter and milk chocolate with a graham cracker crunch.
"I'll think about what I want a chocolate to taste like for a few months before I actually try to make it," McDaniel said. "I'm thinking about how it tastes, what it smells like, and how it kind of unfolds and tells you a story."
This chocolate shop also has a cafe space with boozy beverages and a menu of small plates, USA Today said.
McDaniel was raised in Easley South Carolina, and after graduating from Lander University she was a fine wine sales representative for more than a decade and is a Certified Specialist of Wine through the Society of Wine Educators.
She was making chocolates and confection as a hobby and decided to make the plunge and become a professional.
She is a graduate of the Ecole Chocolat, gaining a Professional Chocolatier certificate with honors. She has also achieved the rank of Maitre Chocolatier from the same school.
McDaniel prides herself in achieving a balanced flavor profile and unique flavor combinations to excite and entice the senses, and says she is committed to using local, fresh, and quality ingredients.
She features local and organic ingredients such as Bee Well honey and Bulls Bay sea salt.
The company was named in honor of her mother, Dora LaRue Smith Logan, who served in the Army, and raised four boys and McDaniel.
McDaniel says her mother was strong, kind, gentle, and full of love - not to mention one hell of a Scrabble player. She died October 1, 1996.
In 2024, USA Today named LaRue Fine Chocolate as the nation’s fifth best chocolate shop, and in 2023, it was the third best.
Said McDaniel about the future of LaRue Fine Chocolate: "We want to concentrate on being the best version of ourselves so that when people come in and want to see what the best chocolate shop in America looks like, that they're thrilled, and we exceed their expectations."
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here