Within the realm of Valentine’s Day gifting, you have the grocery store heart box (charming in all of its populist splendor), and then you have Bella Sophia Chocolates.
Tucked away in Huntington Beach’s Pacific City Mall, this isn’t just a candy shop — it’s an atelier where cocoa beans are treated with the same reverence a vintner gives a prized pinot noir. Founded in 2016 by the husband-and-wife duo of Steph and J.D. Shafer, Bella Sophia is a love letter to the craft of chocolate making, and to each other. Their venture is even named after their daughter, Sophia. Married for nearly 37 years, the Shafers have turned their shared passion for European-style chocolatiering and bean-to-bar chocolate making into one of Orange County’s most esteemed sweet spots.
J.D. and Steph’s journey to becoming an award-winning chocolatiers didn’t start in a kitchen, but on the sidelines of the world’s biggest sporting event. For decades, Steph worked as a massage therapist for Olympic athletes. “They don’t eat junk,” she told me during a recent visit to her shop. “I wanted to create bars they could actually eat, dark chocolate with the fewest ingredients possible, no preservatives, just healthy fats and organic cane sugar.”
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What started as a labor of love for her athletes — and a 150-year-old stone mortar and pestle inherited from her great grandmother — has turned into an award-winning bean-to-bar operation. The process is, to put it mildly, grueling. It takes roughly 400 to 500 beans to produce just one pound of edible chocolate. After fermentation and toasting, the beans are winnowed and placed in a melanger, a stone grinder that runs for up to 72 to turn the beans into a velvety, smooth paste.
The Shafer’s chocolate-making execution revealed such precision that the couple won first-place honors at the International Chocolate Salon and TasteTV, including being named Best Chocolatier and Confectioner in America in 2019. Not too shabby for not being formally trained; the duo learned everything online by researching and reaching out to chocolatiers to perfect their technique.
“You can’t just turn off the machine and say it’s done because you have a deadline,” said Steph, with a laugh. “It’s a 72-hour commitment to smoothness.”
The couple use fair-trade cacao beans sourced from Los Arroyos in the Dominican Republic, where they create their chocolate in a painstaking process at a local kitchen offsite from their storefront. In fact, nearly everything they make for Bella Sophia is homemade, including the chocolate’s varied fillings, from caramel to fruits, to the flour used in Steph’s chocolate ship cookies. “I milled the flour myself,” she said.
If the chocolate-making process is science, the finishing part is pure art. Steph is a lifelong painter who used to work on massive canvases (one of her pieces can be seen at the store), but now her masterpieces can be measured in millimeters. Using colored cocoa butter, she hand-paints intricate designs into the molds and onto her chocolates, everything from shiny ladybugs and highland cows to miniature “Birkin” bags and “red-bottom” Louboutin stilettos.
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“Every day my art changes, and the flavor panels change,” she explained. Unlike commercial chocolates that sit in a warehouse for six months at a time, Bella Sophia’s chocolates are made daily. “What’s here today won’t be here tomorrow,” said J.D., who worked in finance for 23 years before turning his life over to chocolate, pointing to the rank-and-file battalion of chocolates in the case. “We don’t refrigerate. We just want it to be the best thing you’ve ever tasted.”
For Valentine’s Day, their biggest day of the year, the shop will lean into the spectacular. To wit: This year’s showstopper is an edible, quilt-stitch chocolate box, entirely made from chocolate and hand painted. Patrons can fill the shiny box with truffles and chocolates. Then eat it. It’s the kind of gift that has led to some memorable romantic stories, including one customer who has the Shafers hide an engagement ring inside of of their chocolate boxes.
Other menu highlights include chocolates in myriad shapes (from hearts and caviar tins to turtles and Hawaiian shirts) with fillings like Speculaas “cookie butter,” dulce de leche, sea salt caramel, mango-passionfruit and hazelnut, to name a few. Also of grave importance: the expansive chocolate case is divided into “milk chocolate” and “dark chocolate” sections.
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While the current shop is a bustling hub of energy and sweet scents, the Shafers are preparing for a massive expansion. They are currently building out a new larger space at the other end of the Pacific City mall (taking over a former bikini store) to create a true “chocolate cafe.”
Slated to open in early spring, the new spot will feature a mini kitchen where customers can watch the magic happen. The menu will expand to include chocolate croissants and “fired-up s’mores” featuring their marshmallows and graham crackers, both made from scratch. “I want to be front and center with the customers,” said Steph. “Chocolate brings people together. You can’t not be happy with chocolate.”
Find it: 21060 Pacific City Circle, Huntington Beach, 714-906-9011, bellasophiachocolates.com
If you’re looking to round out your Valentine’s Day chocolate crawl, here are a handful of other Orange County chocolate purveyors with a visit:
Chocolate Bliss (Rancho Santa Margarita): This single-origin chocolate shop features treats that are are handcrafted on the premises. Find it: 22312 El Paseo, suite G, Rancho Santa Margarita
Läderach Chocolatier Suisse (Brea, Costa Mesa): With two locations at Brea Mall and South Coast Plaza, this is the place for “FrischSchoggi” (fresh chocolate) bark. It’s high-end Swiss luxury that’s both a feast for the eyes and the palate, if a bit of a ding to the pocketbook. Find it: 1065 Brea Mall, unit 1116, Brea; 3333 Bristol St., unit 2814, Costa Mesa
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Le Rue Du Chocolat (Laguna Beach): An exceedingly charming seaside spot known for his hand-dipped fruits and whimsical shapes. A great pit stop after a romantic sunset walk on the beach. Find it: 448 S Coast Highway, Laguna Beach
See’s Candies (multiple locations): The Los Angeles-born chocolate pit stop is a longstanding, beloved classic for a reason. More than 200 locations in Southern California alone, with many more across the globe.
Valenza Chocolatier (Costa Mesa): Operating out of the Hood Kitchen Space, master chocolatier Amy Jo Pedone creates award-winning, Italian-inspired bonbons and more that are almost too beautiful to eat. Find it: 350 Clinton St., suite A, Costa Mesa
Venchi (Costa Mesa): Another South Coast Plaza spot, this new Italian chocolatier is famous for its Nougatine and Chocoviar. Don’t leave without trying the rich, velvety gelato. Also of note: the chocolate waterfall cascading from behind the counter. Find it: 3333 Bristol St., unit 1018, Costa Mesa