Sweets stuff

Handmade chocolates are practically non-existent in today’s market of high-volume, low-quality bulk foods. Most people don’t even know the difference between a Hershey’s kiss and a Dutch Callebaut chocolate. Sweets only uses authentic Belgian chocolate to make their candies. Belgian chocolate is revered by most confectionary experts to be the best chocolate in the world. Chocolate production standards are actually much higher in Belgium than anywhere else in the world. Recently, a resolution by the European Union that allows chocolatiers to substitute cheaper vegetable fat for the pricier cocoa butter was enacted, but Belgian chocolate companies ignored it altogether, sticking by their own high standards.

Sometimes, when you want to get a special little gift for someone you love and a box of mass-produced pseudo-chocolates from the supermarket just won’t do, a shop like Sweets makes for the perfect alternative. Sure, it’s a bit more costly, but luxury isn’t cheap. This place is a cute little chocolate boutique that has the feel of a store you might walk in to during the 1800s. They specialize in one thing: quality chocolate.

As though you needed reasons to indulge, chocolate releases the feel-good chemical serotonin to the brain, sort-of a sugary Prozac. Dark chocolate is a known great antioxidant. No matter the reason, the lure of handmade Belgian chocolates, peanut brittle and butter almond toffee is a temptation that is impossible to overcome. Besides, super high-quality chocolate actually has a lower amount of fat and sugar than the cheap stuff. If you are going to break your diet you may as well eat the best chocolate you can find.

Originally based in historic Truckee, Sweets has been making its family recipes since 1995, and due to popular demand brought their confections to the Reno area shortly after. Located in the Redfield Promenade, Sweets Handmade Candies has the raw appeal of homemade candy that you can smell being made a mile away—the smell that flows through the air and that permeates every wall, ceiling and door until it makes its way in to your nose, triggering a craving for fresh, sweet candy, made just before you eat it.

I stopped by Sweets one afternoon because my girlfriend Chérie was stressed out by the new school semester, and I knew that some chocolates from Sweets would be just the remedy. I got the truffles, 1/4 pound for $8.95, the cream caramels dipped in dark Belgian chocolate, 1/2 pound for $5.95, Tahoe turtles 1/4 pound for $7.50 and a bag of peanut brittle for me, 1/2 pound for $5.95. While I was ordering my treats, I noticed the caramel corn, caramel apples, candied apples and toffee.

For those so inclined to a little healthy masochism, Sweets also has a line of sugar-free chocolates.