Classy confections — Artisans know beans about chocolate

Two Utah companies are breaking new ground in the field of artisan chocolate.

Amano Artisan Chocolate is one of a handful of chocolate factories in the United States. In a small, unmarked industrial unit in Orem, owners Art Pollard and Clark Goble turn cocoa beans from Madagascar and Venezuela into bars that command a hefty $6.95 price tag.

A few miles north at Chocolatier Blue in Alpine, pastry chef Chris Blue molds chocolate into environmentally conscious confections that sell for more than $2 each at the famed Charlie Trotter's restaurant conglomerate in Chicago.

The two chocolate companies are unrelated, but they're putting Utah on the map for chocolate connoisseurs.

Artisan chocolate is springing up in other parts of the country, "but not of the caliber of Amano and Chocolatier Blue," said Matt Caputo of Tony Caputo's Market, which sells high-end chocolate and hosts chocolate-tasting classes. "I'm a serious chocolate snob, and in our classes we do some of the world's upper echelon chocolate made by people with credentials. Art (Pollard) competes heartily with all of those. He's getting kudos among some of the foremost chocolate experts in the world. And Chris Blue is one of the top in the country. I feel really honored to be able to carry his chocolates."