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Surprising sweetness

Lydia Love’s Chakraletes are a hit in Olympia

Chakraletes are made by Love. Photo credit: Nate Boggs

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You know those chocolates that melt in your mouth, not in your hands?

Those aren't Chakralat Love Melts. The aptly named candies, made in Olympia and containing no sugar, dairy or soy, melt in your hand, on your countertop or just about anywhere other than the refrigerator.

You might be thinking that any chocolate without sugar cannot possibly be worth eating. You would, in this case, be wrong.

These chocolates are just as sweet (thanks to stevia) and just as creamy (coconut oil) as you could want. So good are they that they've inspired moans of delight, poetry and even a drooling smiley ‎;-)~ on Facebook.

In the next week or so, the melts - previously available only at kirtans and festivals, by special order and to friends of chocolate maker Lydia Love - will soon be available at the Olympia Food Co-ops, for delivery through Olympia Local Foods and as part of Helsing Junction's CSA program.

Already, you can get a community-supported chocolate subscription direct from Love and her partner in love and chocolate, Xam Devesh Love.

The chocolates have come a long way since Lydia Love created them in her West Olympia kitchen last fall. Her goal wasn't a business - it was simply to eat chocolate because she loves it and can't have sugar.

"I got this idea from a friend who was making raw chocolate using coconut oil," she says. "I started to experiment and came up with the recipe."

In those early days, she simply poured the chocolate into a bowl, refrigerated it and broke off a piece when a craving hit.

"Then I bought my first little order of molds with the intention of sharing them, because they were just so good," she says. "It was a lot more fun to put them in the shapes. People were just so into them; it was so exciting."

These days, she makes them in flavors from classic (toasted almond, peanut-butter cups) to modern (sea salt, smoky chipotle) to the superfood line (goji-cacao, maca balance) and pours them into molds in shapes from hearts and flowers to horseshoes and cowboy hats.

Love shared the chocolates with friends in Olympia's dance community at Waves Studio and Fusion. The first sale of the chocolates was at a benefit fundraiser for a friend with breast cancer.

"Somebody bought them all and put them on the table with the food to share, and then people continued to donate for them, and so they earned double," Love says. She was at a meditation retreat during the benefit.

"It's nice to have the chocolate represent me when I'm out of town," she says. "It's like I can be in two places at once."

As for the melting, while it's part of the Chakralates' charm, it does make them tricky to transport now that the sun is finally out.

"I'm still fine-tuning the recipe and learning to the temper the chocolate so it won't melt as quickly," she says.

[Chakralates, 360.359.3460, www.chakralates.com, www.facebook.com/chakralates]

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