<\/p>\n
If your life is like a box of chocolates, then a box of Cocoa Euphoria chocolates would be the life to have.<\/p>\n
Mancos resident Kendra Mackenbach started her part-time Cocoa Euphoria business because she is passionate about chocolate. When Mackenbach opens a box of her chocolates, that passion shows.<\/p>\n
She creates more than 20 flavors, including Cherry Blossom, Luscious Lemon, Vanilla Milk, Salted Caramel, Vanilla Lavender and Chai Tiger, to name a few.<\/p>\n
The Gingerbread is dusted with iridescent gold paint, the Vanilla Milk is painted with a modern art design, the Salted Caramel has a diagonal of sea salt across it, and the Vanilla Lavender is tinted with purple paints.<\/p>\n
They are like works of art, say those who sell her chocolates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love her unique flavors,\u201d said Amy Long, owner of April\u2019s Garden, one of two stores in Durango that carry Cocoa Euphoria. \u201cThe shell of her chocolates are so delicate and amazing. I don\u2019t know how she does it. They are so refined and dainty, and then have such a lovely filling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mackenbach started her chocolate business 3\u00c2\u00bd years ago and makes chocolate when she isn\u2019t working as chef at Colorado Timberline Academy.<\/p>\n
Mackenbach said that when she started at the Colorado Timberline Academy, a private boarding high school in Durango,she met Fairlight Whritner, a woman who was a trained chef from the Culinary Institute of America and worked under a French chocolatier in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe helped me fine-tune all of my chocolate-making,\u201d Mackenbach said. \u201cChocolate-making really is a science.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up with a mother who was a home economics teacher, Mackenbach has always enjoyed cooking. But it was chocolate making that made her happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cTempering chocolate is the base behind making good chocolates,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
You have to take the chocolate up to a certain temperature and hold it there for 20 minutes and then bring it back down to another temperature for 10 minutes and then bring it back up to a working temperature, she said. The temperature changes for each chocolate \u2013 white chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone who tries my chocolate raves about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mackenbach won awards at the Ouray Wine and Cheese Festival and won first-place awards for visual and taste at the Chocolate Fantasia Show in Durango.<\/p>\n
Could it be because she grows her own chilis for the Chili\u2019s & Chocolate or because all the mint, lavender and coffee in her chocolates are all local? She uses organic cream and butter and fine Swiss chocolate in each one of her creations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Chai Tiger, I infuse the cream with organic chai tea and Tahitian vanilla bean,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Most of her chocolates are filled bon bons.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite is the Luscious Lemon. I love the tanginess of the lemon paired with the not-too-sweet dark chocolate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mackenbach makes all her chocolates in a commercial kitchen in Durango, usually at night when she isn\u2019t working at her day job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved to cook. My mom taught me how to make a white sauce at the age of 4,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t want to make the trek to Durango to purchase some of Mackenbach\u2019s chocolates, you are in luck \u2013 on Saturday, she\u2019ll sell her chocolates at the Dolores River Brewery Holiday Arts and Crafts Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
A box of 12 chocolates sells for $21. You can buy a box of six chocolates for $11, and Mackenbach also sells them as singles and trios.<\/p>\n
A box of chocolates at the newspaper office didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n
One reporter raved, \u201cThe peanut butter chocolate, complete with dried peanut butter flakes atop the bite-size candy, included a hardened chocolate shell with a creamy chocolate center. Crunchy and velvety. Ten times better than a Reese\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mackenbach, 31, was born and raised in Chicago and moved to Mancos from Durango recently after buying a 73-acre farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really into sustainable living,\u201d she said. \u201cI love the dry air here , the blue skies and the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Web: www.etsy.com\/shop\/CocoaEuphoria
\n On Facebook: www.facebook.com\/cocoa.euphoria
\n Phone: 630-835-6188
\n How to buy: Cocoa Euphoria chocolates will be available on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Dolores River Brewery Holiday Arts and Craft Show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Brewery, 100 S. Fourth St., Dolores.
\n Available Elsewhere: Cocoa Euphoria chocolates also available at a few shops in Durango.
\n Spaah Shop and Day Spa: 934 Main Ave., Durango.
\n April\u2019s Garden: 2075 Main Ave., in Durango.
\n During the holidays: You can find Cocoa Euphoria chocolates at the Durango Coffee Co. 9 Burnett Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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