Heavenly chocolates made by Grocer’s Daughter are so good, you’ll moan!

By Pat Stinson
Sun staff writer
Oh, divine chocolate!
They grind thee kneeling,
Beat thee with hands praying,
And drink thee with eyes to heaven.
— Marco Antonio Orellana, 18th century
For three centuries after the Spaniards brought the first cacoa beans to Spain from Mexico, “chocolat” was known only as a thick beverage, full of nutrients, served at breakfast to royals and aristocrats while still in their beds. Today’s chocolate is no longer a beverage, (cocoa – a powdered form of chocolate without the cocoa butter – has replaced chocolat), nor is its present-day incarnation as a confection meant as a luxury exclusively for the upper classes.

And that’s the way Mimi Wheeler, a Glen Arbor-area chocolatier, thinks it should be.
“Good wine is not for everyone, because it’s so expensive,” she explains. “Good chocolate is for anyone; I like that idea.”
As the owner of “Grocer’s Daughter,” a new business specializing in making exquisite chocolate truffles with local flavor, Mimi has paired her love of fine chocolate with what she calls the “fun of the craft” to make what she hopes will be “…a piece of art that’s really special.”
“I think Americans are ripe for good chocolate,” she says, citing a recent article in The New York Times. Generously offering a ginger truffle for tasting, she adds, “It’s affordable at $1.25 or $1.50…I like that idea, too.”
On this mid-summer morning, Mimi’s blue eyes sparkle as she points to a sepia-tone photo of her mother, Mary Louise Leth-Soerensen, the “grocer” who served as inspiration for her business name. Watching as her mother quietly helped villagers on both sides of the counter, and growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, Mimi seemed destined to follow their lead – though the path that led her to where she is now may have meandered a bit.
“I like to serve people, make people happy,” she explains. “I think that’s why I became a social worker.”
For 10 years, Mimi was employed with Manistee-Benzie Community Mental Health, where she supervised a program for the developmentally disabled. An eight-year stint as a counselor for The Leelanau School followed, (where she would bring melted chocolate for dipping speared blueberries). For the last nine years, she also baked chocolate cake, brownies, scones and Danish pastries for various Glen Arbor establishments.
“What led me to that step was a visit to Art’s Bar. No one knew ‘Norm’s wife,’” she said, referring to Norm, her husband, a teacher at The Leelanau School. “I wanted to find something (to do) in my community.”
During this time, she says she also “played with truffles,” struggling for many years to “master the method,” making them for family and trading them among her friends.
After a spring trip to Provence this year, Mimi decided to take her truffle-making more seriously. While there, she says she stumbled upon a famous chocolate shop where the owner, sensing her excitement, gave her several samples. “He used fresh violet, lavender, mint and thyme — the Provence flavors. That fascinated me.”
Back home in her experimental kitchen, Mimi began using herbs in her own truffles. “I always cooked using things from my garden: thyme, mints, oregano. I get such a kick out of growing things and bringing them in and cooking with them. It’s such a magic process.” To the ginger, hazelnut, Grand Marnier and Courvoisier flavors already developed, she added truffles made with members of the mint family, rosemary, lavender and lemon verbena – one of her favorites.
Asked to name his favorite flavor, Norm diplomatically replies, “All are unique and delicious. I like them all. It’s like your kids; you don’t play favorites.”
Mimi pairs herbs with what she calls “constrasting” flavors: ginger with jalapeno, raspberry with black pepper. Asked whether or not these ingredients should be included in this story, for fear of divulging trade secrets, Mimi says matter-of-factly, “We all copy each other.” Then she adds, almost conspiratorially, that there’s “a lot of snobbery” in the world of chocolate.
“It’s quite hard to get information about truffles,” she explains, (with the exception of the chocolatier in Provence). “I talked to people in Denmark and they’re really secretive. It’s in your blood, so I’m not that secretive about what I do.”
In her homeland of Denmark, she remembers savoring her first fine chocolate at the age of nine, (at a cousin’s confirmation – her aunt was a pastry chef). During the early 50s and 60s, as a grocer’s daughter in the small, agricultural village of Hvam, Mimi recalls her parents’ store being stocked with “wonderful” European and Danish chocolate year-round. The rule for employees packing chocolate during those times was: you had to whistle while you worked, because you couldn’t whistle and eat at the same time.
In June, Mimi retired from her counselor position at the school and began making chocolate professionally. While she doesn’t whistle as she works, her enthusiasm and skill are evident as she prepares a small demonstration batch of ganache, (a mixture of cream, flavored with liqueur or steeped with herbs, heated with cane sugar and poured over chocolate – the “center” of the truffle), and tempers the chocolate that will coat the hand-rolled balls of cooled ganache. Tempering involves heating the chocolate, in this case using a double boiler (“baine marie” or water bath), to manufacturer’s specifications, then cooling it, (a marble slab or granite countertop works well), and re-heating slightly. “You can only ruin it by burning it or getting it damp,” she explains. “If it gets too hot, I add more chocolate to cool it.” The resulting product is known as a “couverture.” What you’re looking for in a truffle, she says, is a thin and crisp outer layer of chocolate with a very soft ganache inside.
Mimi prefers to use organic ingredients whenever possible because she says the flavor is better, and there are no hormones or other additives. She is also researching the use of fair-trade chocolate.
“I’m anxious to make new recipes; I think that’s the most fun.”
Mimi is studying edible flowers and has used orange calendula, (“it has a light, wholesome smell”), and rosa rugosa, (a type of rose), from her garden in her truffles. She says she wants to experiment with rose hips, too. She’s also making chocolate bark and working on a brownie mix and fudge sauces.
She says her goal is to sell directly to customers through a website, and she looks forward to catering special celebrations by personalizing the truffles for parties and weddings. For now, her truffles are on the dessert menu at the Good Harbor Grill and are sold individually or in gift boxes at Thyme Out, both in Glen Arbor.