From Vancouver Island, chocolate-lovers can follow the self-guided Chocolate Trail through Victoria, Shawnigan Lake, Salt Spring Island, the Comox Valley, Denman Island and Tofino for a Valentine's Day treat.
Rogers' Chocolates has made chocolates in Victoria since 1885. It now boasts several Vancouver Island locations, including Nanaimo, at the BC Ferries Terminal, Sidney, Oak Bay and downtown at 913 Government Street. Try the chocolate-coated ginger. For Valentine's, Rogers' offers heart-shaped Victoria creams and pretty heart-shaped tins filled with assorted chocolates.
Chocolate truffles
At 2740 Dundas, Shawnigan Lake, on Vancouver Island, enjoy freshly made organic Fair Trade coffee and handmade chocolates at Moziro Coffee Roasters and Chocolatiers. Owners, Jakob Zaiss and Jennifer de Valk, create and hand-dip all chocolates on site.
On nearby Salt Spring Island, Harlan's Chocolates uses Belgian Callebaut and French Bellcolade chocolate, hand-roasted nuts and cream to make milk and dark chocolate truffles, hedgehogs, barks and holiday themed chocolates. You'll find them at 100 Lower Ganges Road.
Chocolate shop
Hot Chocolates is a family-run artisan chocolate shop in the Comox Valley region of Vancouver Island. Try their hand made Belgian chocolate truffles, nut barks, fudges and gelato.
You can find Denman Island Chocolate at several Vancouver Island shops. The company makes chocolate bars from organic bittersweet Belgian chocolate, with freshly toasted hazelnuts, dark espresso beans, candied ginger, tangy dried Fraser Valley raspberries, natural mint and orange zest flavors.
Find Chocolate Tofino on 1180 Pacific Rim Highway, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Gordon Austins' mouthwatering champagne, maple syrup and vanilla bean caramel, wildflower honey ganache and Clayoquot blackberry buttercream chocolates make perfect Valentine's Day gifts for chocolate-lovers.
Romantic getaways
You can combine the chocolate shops on the Vancouver Island Chocolate Trail with a romantic getaway. Tigh-Na-Mara's two-night Seaside Romance package features accommodations, a four-course dinner, champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, truffles, a Jacuzzi tub garnished with rose petals, candles and salts from the Grotto Spa, a blazing fire, and rose petals strewn on the sheets during the evening turndown. Tigh-Na-Mara is located at 1155 Resort Drive in Parksville, Vancouver Island.
On Stroulger Road, in Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, Aqua Terre Spa's Rekindle the Romance package offers several chocolate spa treatments. Couples enjoy a spa lunch, chocolate massages, chocolate body scrubs, chocolate milk baths in solid granite soaker tubs, chocolate martinis and chocolate truffles. Chocolate manicures, pedicures, body wraps and facials are also available.
You can support an endangered species by buying chocolate fudge at Beaver House Fudge. Its address is: 4705 Trans Canada Highway, in Next to Nature Gifts in Whippletree Junction, just south of Duncan, Vancouver Island. Owners, Karel and Max Bossi, sell organic chocolate, vanilla and swirled Vancouver Island marmot fudge with or without nuts. A portion of the selling price for each one-pound gift box is donated to the Marmot Recovery Foundation.
