Potomac Chocolate — Local services in Occoquan

In the heart of Historic Occoquan is an enticing store front. With restored furniture on its front porch and a sign that reads "Named one of the 50 best chocolate shops in the country by Food and Wine magazine," you can't help but to walk in. Here's my experience:

1. Chocolate: For 11 years, Potomac Chocolate has made hand-crafted chocolate just south of Occoquan in Woodbridge, Virginia. The chocolatier's goal is to make quality bean-to-bar chocolates. They sell 5+ bars for around $9 each. Expect a different kind of bar. They are thinner than expected and come in packaging that looks more like a coffee bean bag. What I appreciate about Potomac Chocolate is they have a good mix of dark and milk chocolate. I bought the "Toasted Milk" bar and it was deliciously creamy!

2. Space: For having such a beautiful front porch, it's shockingly bare inside. There's a sterile counter and a wood table with brochures on it.

3. Gelato: I didn't order any, but it looked good and my friends later told me they love their gelato!

4. Price: $9 seems steep for chocolate, but keep in mind they are hand-crafted and artisanal chocolate. You pay...

Really good bean to bar chocolate shop on multiple levels.

They have roughly 15 varieties of bars, truffles, cookie butter, caramel, chocolate covered nuts, hot cocoa. There is also a pop up pizza joint Fridays and Saturdays in the evening, I haven’t tried the pizza yet…I will be trying it.

The chocolate covered hazelnuts are simple but addictive. The single origin bars that I tried were well balanced, good for savoring, chocolate connoisseurs will be happy with these. Your average person will love the bars with inclusions (cookie butter, hazelnut, bread, salt, etc). Truffles are creative and delicious.

They also have some cool T-shirt’s and I really want to try their hot chocolate next time. They know...

We stopped in on a pretty busy day - it was Riverfest and the streets were full with tons of family digging into gelato or pizza! Despite the rush, the gentleman (who may have been the owner?) who helped us select a few chocolates to try, took the time to explain the origin of the chocolates, sourcing directly from the growers and explaining the nuances of the flavors based on where the cocoa beans came from.

It was fantastic chocolate! I should have taken a photo, but I immediately ate all of them — what can I say, it was hot and I didn’t want them to melt!

Highly recommend stopping in here - there were several “sweet” shops along the street but this place was in a class of its own! A...