L.A. Burdick Handmade Chocolates

What motivated you to open a chocolate business?
While working in Switzerland, I realized I had never seen handmade bonbons from chocolate of that quality in the United States. Artisan food products, such as wines, beer, cheeses, breads, etc., were becoming all the rage. High-quality chocolate making and chocolate bonbon making seemed not to be in the picture. It was an opportunity to bring a unique and beautiful product on the market and satisfy the artisan urge to make something unique, beautiful and without compromise.

Did you have any formal training in chocolate making?
For the most part, I am a self-taught (through interesting jobs) cook, pastry cook, and chocolate cook. I was [used for] slave labor in Switzerland (hard work and long hours in exchange for exposure and experience) for three years. I learned a lot there (and made some wonderful, lifelong friends to boot).

Where do you get your inspiration for the different flavors and textures you include in your chocolates?
From my background as a curious cook. I like to say our product has French gastronomical thoughtfulness, Swiss savoir-faire and American imagination.

If you had to describe your product line in a couple of sentences, what would that be?
The highest quality ingredients, carefully and imaginatively put together, and shipped and sold immediately after being made. A large variety of beautiful, complex chocolate flavors, made from the best cocoa beans from Central and South America, the Caribbean, Madagascar and Java.

What is your personal favorite out of all the products you make and why?
Hard to answer—it depends on the mood of my taste buds. I’m always looking for complex cocoa bean flavors. I'd have to say the full assortment because the variety is gastronomically most interesting.

www.burdickchocolate.com

LOCATIONS

47 Main Street
Walpole, NH 03608
800-229-2419

Harvard Square Cafe
52-D Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-491-4340

Boston
220 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA
Phone: 617.303.0113

New York City
156 Prince Street, New York, NY
(between W. Broadway and Thompson)
Phone: 212.796.0143

Chicago
609 N. State Street, Chicago, IL
Phone: 312.635.8975

Georgetown
1319 Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington, DC
Phone: 202.618.3338