Artisan Chocolates in Orange County.... A Swell Idea... Oh Yeah

Hey Fellow Chocolate Lovers!
 You need to know Luisa.  She's one of a kind , and if you are lucky enough to have event favors from Luisa the Chocolatier, Yum-o. Delish. The O word.  (Oops.  That's not politically correct, but I had to toss it in.) The kind of chocolate your guests will savor, not toss out . I have this saying about event favors... the favor should be either edible or usable. Luisa's chocolates are BOTH. Enough of my digressions.
Let's chat about Luisa.  She's old school.  Only works by referral.  Doesn't know what a blog is.  That's one of the reasons I love her.  But, really.... her chocolate is enough to love her.

From my trusted colleague, Luisa..."Everything we make is made by hand. We don't have machines (I wish I had).  The shape items: crocodiles, hearts, ballerina slippers, pacifiers, baby carriages, wedding cakes, etc.
Everything is done by hand, by order. After we mold each item we clean it, brush it, paint it if requested and trim by hand either in cellophane or in a box. All this hand work is qualified as artisanal."
On this photo you will see some "hand dipped truffles" and some "hand molded" truffles. The top layer are hand dipped.

Very few chocolatiers hand dip truffles these days. We are one of the last houses that does this job on the West Coast.  Most of the chocolate stores buy little chocolate "balls" and they fill them with truffle. We don't do that. We pipe our centers by hand and then we hand dip them. These are our finest product.
I make my ganache using real cream and butter as I learned in school in France and as I did at the pastry and chocolate store I apprenticed. I don't make shortcuts. We don't buy pre-made truffle mix from any company.
My flavorings are real: we use real fruit purees for the fruit truffles,real ground nuts for the nutty , etc. etc.
I don't advertise. Do a good job and the people will do the marketing for you.
I work mainly by referral. It has work well for me for 15 years." 
~Luisa the Chocolaier

If truffles aren't your thing, call her!  She'll make you whatever you want.

If you'd like more information about Luisa, visit her at http://www.luisachocolatiere.com/  ... or, better yet, call me.  We'll go visit Luisa together.