Inside Voyageur Booksellers in Whitefish, shelves upon shelves of used and vintage books fill the shop, creating the cluttered and cavernous academic ambiance that is the staple of a quality bookstore.
If you maneuver around the dimly lit tables laden with volumes of Jack Kerouac and stacks of hiking guides and head toward the back of the shop, however, a different degree of darkness is on display behind a glass case.
Inside the illuminated case are rows upon rows of hand-crafted artisan chocolates, the specialty of Susan Schnee, who owns both the bookstore aspect of the business as well as its more decadent division, Copperleaf Chocolat.
One row of truffles is dark, almost black, topped with espresso beans. Next to it is a lighter row, drizzled in mint green and topped with sea salt flakes and next to those a row topped with pecan slivers. Below the truffles sit intricately shaped turtles next to hand-painted hearts and ovals with edible designs emblazoned on the sheen of sugar.
“The sea salt caramel truffles are by far the most popular,” Schnee said. “Then after that anything huckleberry will get snapped up by tourists.”
Schnee has been a chocolatier for nearly two decades, having pivoted from a career as a chef working in West Yellowstone, Hawaii and Whitefish to one of retail and confections. She studied under Ecole Chocolat, a professional school of chocolate arts out of Vancouver, B.C., and made many messes in her kitchen practicing her artisanship.
“Business-wise, I figured this would be a niche market to operate in. I could start small and test the waters,” Schnee said. “It was a way to keep my culinary skill going while doing something artistic.”
In 2006, she opened up her first retail space on Central Avenue and the locals were receptive. Schnee moved spaces twice before settling down in her current location.
Initially, Schnee focused on crafting her treats from high-end luxury chocolate like Valrhona, a French-based chocolate producer, before realizing that wasn’t sustainable across the board. While she still uses the world’s best chocolate for some of her local bed and breakfast clients, the majority of her candies are made with a more affordable, but still quality, cocoa.
“I cater to the locals because I want them to be able to afford good chocolate,” Schnee said. “That’s the most important thing, is making sure that the locals can come in here and get fresh chocolates whenever they want.”
Each truffle, or turtle, demands time and patience to craft. The most detailed chocolates, those shaped like animals or hearts, are made in molds but each truffle is hand rolled. Every chocolate takes two days to fully set before they’re ready for display.
“I’ve got the process down, but it still takes me a full day to produce the week’s chocolates,” Schnee said. Each week she puts out only as many chocolates as she has orders for and thinks will be sold in store — a week-to-week variety that has been honed over the years. The Chistmas holiday season is the busiest for the shop, followed closely by the upcoming Valentine’s day.
Schnee admits that the chocolate shop on its own would be a difficult venture to sustain, which is why she paired it with a bookstore. It helps that it mixes two of her favorite things.
Just like a good book, a top-end truffle is meant to be savored, not scarfed down. Schnee says there’s a middle ground between thinking chocolate is a one-time special treat or a low-quality guilty pleasure. “Good chocolates are something you can have a little bit of every day.”
“It’s deeply satisfying to do any kind of culinary work, but chocolates are special,” Schnee added. “You know that just by taking one look at them; they’re pretty. People will see them and have an immediate reaction. It’s all about the exclamations people make at first sight and then the looks of joy and gratitude when they take the first bite.”
