Christina Dove of the Newfoundland Chocolate Company shares how the family’s passion for sweets came from ‘Poppy’, and how giving back is where it’s at
One visit to the Newfoundland Chocolate Company’s Torbay Road location – which also just happens to be a café and chocolate factory besides hosting a delectable storefront – and you are hooked and enthralled with all the possible chocolate delights!
From their take on fish and chips to bars that proudly display their NL heritage and celebrate the dialect (like ‘God Love Your Cotton Socks,’ ‘You got Me Drove’ and simply ‘Skipper’) the merry crew at the Newfoundland Chocolate company have an edible something for everyone.
Supporting Ukraine
Christina Dove, CEO/Owner of NL Chocolate Company, takes a moment from the magical mixing and creating out back in the factory to talk chocolate and giving back. Take their Ukraine Bars, for example, she begins proudly. “We started making and designing the bars and the labels because we wanted to be able to give back and do something where one hundred per cent proceeds go to the Ukraine Red Cross and they’ve been going so well,” she said.
In fact, it was the bars in support of Ukraine that brought The Herald over to visit. Dove had heard that The Herald’s Managing Editor, Pam Pardy, had a son on the HMCS Halifax and that Pardy was looking for local items to add to her lad’s next box of morale mail headed to the Canadian Navy ship stationed at the ready on a NATO mission in water near Ukraine.
“I heard that the captain was from Newfoundland and that many of the crew on board are from this province, and after 14 years in business, one of our main values is to reach out to the community and provide any kind of support or awareness that we can.”
It was hearing of a mom who wanted to send a loving ‘care package’ from home that pulled at her heartstrings.
“They are over doing a humanitarian mission with NATO so I asked myself, ‘how can we help?’”
Dove donated 271 (one special ‘Skipper’ bar was tossed in last minute for the NL-born captain, Dale St. Croix) NL Chocolate chocolate bars with local sayings – enough for every person on the ship and a few left over for good measure.
Dove smiled from ear-to-ear, proud to have been able to do “something.”
“This was an awesome opportunity to include something sweet from home with the next morale mail shipment. I was happy to be able to give back and thank them and show them that we actually support them and love them and we are so thankful that they are carrying the responsibility for all of us, and it’s a heavy responsibility to be over there so supporting and helping in any way we can is what we all should be doing,” she said.
Carve a capelin
Dove proudly provides a tour of the premises. She holds one special chocolate mould that bears a striking resemblance to a capelin. She laughed.
“My dad used to always go down to Middle Cove to catch capelin and the whole house used to smell like fish and we’d all smell like capelin going to school, so I never liked them,” she said.
She had an idea, however, and created the flopping fishes out of chocolate.
“I carve a lot of our chocolate moulds – I do a lot of creating here – and so I thought I’d carve a capelin and make a chocolate capelin, which is actually the best way to enjoy them I think.”
From their chocolate fish and chips to their artisan boxed chocolates made from fresh, local ingredients, to fresh on-site made Gelato, there’s something tantalizing for all taste buds.
“We have a lot of fun with our products, like we created bergy bites which are marshmallow and chocolate and we make puffin eggs which are solid chocolate and we do all kinds of snack foods now too. People are in a rush and come in grabbing popcorn or chips or bark and of course all that is covered in chocolate,” she shared.
There’s bakery-fresh goods too like oat cakes and muffins, and everything that goes onto their goodies includes chocolate and – where possible – ingredients fresh from home.
There’s one more ingredient too, and that’s a whole lot of love!
Edible goodness
Dove acquired her love of edible goodness the old-fashion way – she inherited it.
“Ted Dove is my dad and he started making fudge years and years ago, it was called Poppy’s Old Fashioned Fudge, and it was always popular, so I guess I got my love of creating sweets from him,” she said.
The fudge has long been a family tradition, but so is the love of this province and its people. “Dad still comes in to talk to everyone and all the staff will say ‘oh Poppy was in today,’ and that’s always great to hear.”
For more visit newfoundlandchocolatecompany.com