Saratoga News Photograph by George Sakkestad Holly Westbrook of the Chocolate Dream Box is gearing up for Valentine's Day. The Chocolate Dream Box offers the stuff of dreams By Suzanne Cristallo Buying inexpensive chocolate at a grocery store counter or out of a vending machine has become a mundane experience for most connoisseurs of the candy. But finding the ultimate morsel--the antithesis of the chocolate bar Milton Hershey worked to make available to the masses in the early 1900s--is not so easy. Just ask Saratogan Holly Westbrook. She believes her Chocolate Dream Box in Los Gatos is the only outlet for fine French and Belgian chocolates free of preservatives in the Santa Clara Valley. Her shop is squeezed at the end of a tiny alley on N. Santa Cruz Avenue and is filled with the melty stuff that dreams are made of. Lacking the preservatives that give ordinary chocolates a long shelf-life, Westbrook's delicacies are meant to be eaten within a month of their creation. With a limited back-up supply stored in a 55-degree cold room designed to enhance its short shelf life, Westbrook's chocolate comes priced by the piece rather than the pound. Truffles--the sensually satisfying mixture of chocolate and heavy cream that come in beautifully packaged assortments--can run from $14 to $70 per box. Most fine chocolates are priced at about a dollar each in boxes of 12 to 25 pieces. A pound will cost about $32, but some will be as much as $50. Westbrook also sells chocolate cups, popular with home chefs who buy them in bulk to hold fruit or creamy desserts. "Some have been known to use our chocolate heart boxes to hold a ring or some special jewelry gift," Westbrook says. She also has a line of children's products, but not traditional candy bars. Instead, there are $2 lollipops and the surprising chocolate acorns: crack open the hollow nut and inside appears a chocolate squirrel. There's also a chocolate teddy bear that opens to reveal another teddy bear concealing a red heart. What makes fine chocolate pricey is the percentage of chocolate in it, she explains. Westbrook says Belgian chocolates are considered among the best in the world along with the French, called Valrhona. They are among the few that state their percentages--up to 70 percent--on their labels. Inferior grades exist in the United States because there are no federal requirements for stating the percentages of a product, according to Westbrook. Her own palate is able to determine many differences. "I grew up not liking chocolate," the 37-year-old recalls of her childhood in San Jose. "I never could figure what the big deal was about." That is, until she tasted fine chocolate during her travels. "Then I couldn't find it anywhere!" she adds. Eventually, Westbrook discovered a confectioner who knew how to make a good product. That, along with the fact that no one locally provided an outlet for it, inspired her to create Chocolate Dream Box. She and her husband, John Ross, a principal in a local electronics business, opened their doors appropriately on Valentine's Day, 1996. Valentine's Day was originally associated with chocolate because 19th century physicians prescribed it for lovelorn patients to help calm their pining. Not until the early 1900s, when Milton Hershey developed a way to produce milk chocolate inexpensively, did it become available to the masses. But, according to boosters of fine chocolate, much was lost in the process. Chocolate Dream Box, 309 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Open Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 395-4343. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 27, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.