A box of chocolates, including several heart-shapes and colorful cocoa butter applications

A Valentine’s Day line formed almost the minute the shop opened for business. Probably, most people who wanted to mark the occasion with a box of chocolates had bought one days ago. Those of us who’d waited til the last minute would make a point of going early to Tierrasanta, home to Iris Delights Artisanal Chocolates. Because we’d needed something special

Iris Meyers was ready. After eight years of this, the candymaker reckons she has something like 75 recipes to choose from, including regular customer favorites such as Mexican Hot Chocolate and Peanut Butter Meltaway, and a special one called Hazelnut Crunch Surprise (the surprise having to do with popping candies inside).

But on this day, her glass counter boasts a preponderance of love-themed creations.

A dark chocolate ganache, with heart shaped stencils across the top

Several heart-shaped chocolates are filled with flavored ganache (passionfruit or champagne, for example). Others have colorful, heart cut-out stencil patterns applied to flat tops, such as a chocolate ganache or lavender sea salt caramel. At least one features both: a heart-shaped dark chocolate port wine ganache, applied with filigree hearts.

Most eye-catching of all, though, have to be the chocolate domes decorated with painted-on brush-strokes of brightly colored cocoa butter. The sometimes metallic swirls and spatters help popular morsels such as salted caramel, vanilla bean, and raspberry ganache look like small, individual pieces of edible art. Which is also how they taste.

Raspberry ganache, with colored cocoa butter brush strokes

Meyers tells me she fell in love with the possibilities of chocolate making while watching a sculptural chocolate TV show on an airplane. As she’s fond of sharing, she called her husband upon landing to say, “I don’t know if there is such a thing as chocolate school, but if there is, I want to do it!” Soon after, she took a three-month, online chocolate making course, and Iris Delights was born.

Even since she’s been in business, Meyers has pursued just about every sort of chocolate and candy learning opportunity available to her, mainly resulting in ganaches, caramels, nut and chocolate barks, and fruit jellies. The self-described perfectionist crafts each batch of candy with painstaking effort and precision — a single recipe may take 4 to 6 hours to complete. And she sticks to a recipe til she gets it right. For example, the champagne ganache in the case marks her third attempt to master the flavor, and the first she’s been satisfied with the outcome. Her next recipe may very well feature brown liquor, now that she’s finally sourced a reliably gluten-free bourbon.

A box of 16 chocolates, ready for any occasion

In fact, of the 15 different chocolates routinely in its case, every single one of them gluten-free. Meyers, who’s gluten-intolerant herself, also makes sure to label each of her creations to notify customers of other ingredients that might trigger allergies — something greatly appreciated by those of us with unusual aversions (or am I not the only one set off by lavender?).

Bear in mind, these aren’t Hershey’s Kisses we’re talking about. This chocolate-maker works with quality French and Belgian chocolate, meaning an individual piece sells for $3.50. But once you see all the tantalizing options available, you’ll want to custom-order a box loaded with your potential new favorites, anyway. Four pieces go for $13.50, nine for $29, sixteen for $49, on up to fifty pieces for $136.

Nine will always be enough for a pleasant surprise; sixteen should get you out of a pickle. I got mine just in time for Valentine’s Day, but that’s not really the point. Iris Delights is here to show us that any occasion can be made special by a box of chocolates, if it’s the right box of chocolates.