MOLINE, Ill. — If they say love is patient, then this labor of love takes quite a lot of it.
In the days leading up to Valentine's Day, chocolate makers at The Shameless Chocoholic are working around the clock to fill all its orders, especially for its popular chocolate-covered strawberries.
Owner Rebecca Burns will hand dip and decorate 1,000 milk, dark and white chocolate strawberries before the holiday is over. She has to make sure the chocolate is at the perfect temperature so it's not too thin and dries quickly. Each one is handled about six times between inspecting it, washing it, dipping it, decorating it and boxing it up.
"It takes a majority of the day to do the orders for the next day," Burns said. "Chocolate is extremely temperamental."
Her favorite part is coming up with design ideas, and her favorite flavor is white chocolate, mixed with red coloring and edible glitter for a marble effect.
"Who needs diamonds when you can get sparkle on your berries?" she joked.
Valentine's Day and other winter holidays make it the store's busiest time of year, which helps sustain the store during the warmer months when fewer people want to buy chocolate.
"Last year was our biggest year," Burns said. "This year's a little quieter, but I think we'll still go through the same amount of berries... The economy has really got people kind of pulling back a little bit, but our customer base has been amazing. Our regulars are coming back and we're still seeing new faces every day, so I really have nothing to complain about."
Like many other businesses, The Shameless Chocoholic is dealing with the effects of rising costs. Nationwide, the cost of chocolate is up 11.6% from last year, according to the personal finance site The Balance.
"I think it was in 2021, we had our first (chocolate) price increase and then it went up three times last year, and then it went up again in January of this year," Burns said. "So prices have more than doubled on our chocolate cost, not to mention the cost of butter has gone up, the cost of sugar, everything's gone up, labor and everything. So makes it hard as a small business to keep going, but fortunately we have a great loyal customer base."
The berries are made to order ahead of time, but Burns said whatever is left over from their orders will be out for sale on Valentine's Day morning. Besides the berries, The Shameless Chocoholic sells more than 120 different kinds of chocolates and candies.
It will close its Moline location on River Drive on Friday to move into its new storefront in Bettendorf, which will open in March.
"The whole premise of moving is that we're expanding our production so we can make more products in a quicker manner and we can also maybe start bringing in some chocolate classes and chocolate tours."
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