The case for chocolate consumption is compelling. At Fleur de Cocoa in Los Gatos, known for its award-winning pastries and chocolates, owner and chef Pasqual Janvier knows all about it. All he has to do is observe his customers—or his wife and partner, Nicola, an admitted chocoholic.

This year, after four years in the N. Santa Cruz Avenue location where breakfast pastries, special soups, sandwiches and quiche also have become a big attraction, Janvier expects to use an unprecedented 3 tons of chocolate in his pastries and candies. That's a virtual mountain of endorphins, antioxidants and polyphenols—compounds considered responsible for many of the health benefits of chocolate. Eighty percent of that gratifying mass is consumed by Janvier's faithful customers during winter when the holidays, along with the chilly weather, have a big effect.

"The cold affects people," he observes. He says the chocolate gives them a warm glow and a feeling of contentment. "It makes them feel comfy and better."

Their cravings occur mostly in the afternoon, when experts say 40 percent of women report a need for chocolate, along with 15 percent of men. For Nicola, who fell in love with her husband-to-be at first sight when she became his student eight years ago, the craving was intense during the time she was expecting their son, Cedric, now 15 months old. "And you can't believe how great my cholesterol count is," she enthuses. "It must be the dark chocolate. It's full of antioxidants."

After 15 years of chocolate-making, a master's degree earned in Paris, prestigious awards and a decade of teaching his profession to American chefs, Janvier, 41, is considered an artist. His chocolate medium is voluptuously smooth—used as a couverture for a variety of citrus and berry fillings whose flavors conjure imagery of a genteel life. His flagship morsel is the Fleur de Cocoa, or chocolate flower, a 12-gram rectangle of dark chocolate filled with a cocoa ganache—a combination of chocolate and cream—and imprinted in gold with the store's logo—a blossom from the cocoa palm tree. It sells for $1.25. "In winter, I make 1,500 a week and still can't make enough of them," Janvier says of the demand. A 2-pound box, containing an assortment of from 14 to 16 of the more expensive filled chocolate pieces, runs $88.

Janvier's day begins at 4 a.m. and ends around 7 p.m. While one of the biggest pleasures he achieves from his work is the pleasure it creates for his customers, he rarely gets to see them. He works as he did as a child apprentice in Normandy, France, where he was born, without breaks or defined mealtimes in a small back kitchen. As a boy of 5, he knew it would be his life's work. "It's a vocation for me—an interest that has remained steady." He sacrifices a lot—extra time to spend with his son, to run his small boat in the ocean or to skin dive—but the reward "is a product that tastes great and looks terrific."

Perhaps symbolic of his dedication to quality and freshness is the kitchen wastebasket containing morsels of chocolate whose shelf life ended on Sunday—the end of the store week. "People pay big money for this, so we don't allow it to stay on the shelf for more than a week," he notes.

Fleur de Cocoa is located at 39 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 408.354.3574.