Robyn Dochterman / Owner, St. Croix Chocolate Co., Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota

Robyn Dochterman fell hard for The Perfect Purée Red Jalapeño Puree when she tried it at the 2020 Winter Fancy Food Show. As soon as samples arrived at her award-winning gourmet chocolate shop in St. Croix, Minnesota, she began experimenting. The result is one of St. Croix Chocolate Co.’s most delicious and unique Valentine’s Day treats.

“I wanted to see if Red Jalapeño would withstand the sweetness of white chocolate so I made a ganache and piped it into the molds along with a layer of coconut ganache,” Robyn says. “Though I don’t normally see coconut and jalapeno together, I had a suspicion they would play nicely. I just didn’t know if our customers would embrace it. But wow! They sure did. Who knew that little old ladies had been craving a little zing in their lives!”

St. Croix Chocolate Company handcrafts every batch with some of the world’s finest chocolate and local, organic ingredients. In warmer weather, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, currants, violets and herbs picked in the morning often find their way into confections by the afternoon.

Robyn uses more traditional Valentine’s Day flavors like The Perfect Purée Red Raspberry Puree in a heart-shaped chocolate with raspberry coulis and orange ganache but says sometimes people get tired of fruit flavors. Red Jalapeño, a bold, savory flavor made with mature jalapeños that have been deseeded, brined, and puréed with rice vinegar, delivers the signature red of Valentine’s Day with a far different flavor profile.

“It’s this wonderful sensation of spiciness that opens your eyes but doesn’t burn your mouth,” Robyn says. “I will never make my Bloody Mary’s at home without Red Jalapeño either! It’s been a long time since something set me on fire like this (no pun intended).”

Robyn already had a shelf of The Perfect Purée’s flavors in her freezer when she discovered Red Jalapeño. The integrity of both the Key Lime and Meyer Lemon Concentrate sets her product apart.

“What The Perfect Purée allows me to do is say, ‘This is lemon, this is raspberry,’ and you’re going to know that when you bite into it. They’re just wonderfully intense. If you just can’t place the flavor, that’s a fail to me,” Robyn says.

She recently introduced a line of caramel sauces in five flavors including Peppered Passion Fruit with The Perfect Purée Passion Fruit Concentrate. She adds undiluted Meyer Lemon Concentrate to chocolate ganache and rolls it in espresso sugar.

“That has a cult following,” she says. “People who love coffee go nuts for it.”

Robyn and her partner, Deirdre Pope, both made a career switch when they opened St. Croix Chocolate Co. more than 10 years ago in the wake of The Great Recession. Robyn took advantage of being laid off from her career in journalism to learn fine chocolate techniques at the Melissa Coppel Chocolate and Pastry School in Las Vegas and the French Pastry School in Chicago. She convinced Deirdre to leave her job in the non-profit world to oversee operations and ensure customer satisfaction. Together, they’ve earned significant recognition including a Good Food Award in 2015 and the International Chocolate Salon’s award for Best Overall Truffle Artistry in 2019. In 2020, the International Chocolate Salon named St. Croix Chocolate one of the eight best Chocolatiers and Confectioners of the year.

For Robyn, the reward is in the reaction. She recalls her friend Mary telling her she almost drove off the road after tasting a new flavor.

“That’s one of the things I love about doing chocolate instead of journalism, that kind of feedback and seeing time stop when people eat one of our flavors,” she says.