This could be the most amazing gift ever! Short of a diamond necklace or mink coat, that is.
Now, you can have your favorite golf hole painted on chocolate, and then, like a Hershey bar, break off squares to eat and share with your friends, maybe as a celebration or remembrance of playing a particular bucket list golf course. Like the 17th at TPC Sawgrass!
Yes, it would be a shame to do that, but you could save it for a year, we are told, without refrigeration, and it will still be good. Just don’t delay any longer than that.
The company that makes this delicacy is Nouveautes Inc., located in Fairfield, New Jersey. They have an easy-to-negotiate website called chocolatetext.com or immunitygoodness.com that features some very recognizable golf holes painted by their artists who are actually artwork restoration experts when they are not painting chocolate masterpieces.
If you want an immediately ready, already painted golf hole, they have three very famous par 3s: the 12th at Augusta National, complete with blooming azaleas and dogwoods, and perfect for a centerpiece for your Masters party; and the 7th at Pebble Beach, with waves crashing up over the rocks, which you could order to enjoy while watching next year’s tournament. Of course, the pièce de résistance, the TPC Sawgrass 17th, with it’s hard-to-hit island green, complete with water surrounding it.
In addition, they have a ready-to-send, painted-on chocolate image of The Old Course at St. Andrews featuring the 17th green, Swilcan Bridge and the 18th hole, complete with the Royal & Ancient Clubhouse and the Grand Hamilton apartments — including its recognizable turret — in the background. Take your choice of these items for $250 each.
The only person who might not want a TPC Sawgrass 17th hole in chocolate is Bob Tway. He once made a 12 there. It was a special occasion, for sure, just not the kind he cherishes.
A special-order golf hole, like the 18th at your home course, which is something they don’t already have in stock, will be $300, because there’s a $50 set-up charge. However, in quantities, the price would be lower.
The "paint” used by artists is cocoa butter in various colors. Very edible.
Now, in addition to images being hand-painted on chocolate, you can choose your preference in a chocolate “canvas” from Belgian milk chocolate, Belgian dark chocolate, Belgian dark chocolate infused with vitamin D, Belgian milk chocolate mocha presso (with crushed espresso beans) and Belgian milk chocolate elderberry (infused with natural elderberries). The chocolate is created by culinary-trained chefs from premium Belgian or American gourmet chocolate in their facility, which has been FDA-inspected since 1997.
The dark chocolate has no less than 56% cocoa. Each chocolate artwork measures 9-by-5.5-by-1/2 inches and weighs 10 ounces. The back of the artwork is scored to make 60 pieces to share with friends.
Now if golf isn’t your thing — and for the life of me, living in Ponte Vedra, it’s practically impossible to understand how it wouldn’t be — you don’t have to have a golf painting in chocolate. You can have a person, a building, a home or a copy of something like that famous painting “The Scream.” (We’ve all had days like that!) Or maybe you like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” Maybe you want your favorite flower or a French village photo from a special vacation. Whales you saw in Alaska? The Eiffel Tower? Sydney Harbour Bridge? Hilton Head’s lighthouse?
You can easily upload a photo or image of your choice to the chocolatetext.com, Edible Art website. You do need to plan your gift giving of masterpieces a little bit ahead. Remember, unless it’s one of the in-stock designs, each one is painted just for you, and the price may adjust slightly accordingly, depending on your request. The minimum time for a new piece of art is a week, plus shipping time. And there’s a timeline choice of 0-3 months up to 12 months and there’s a category for “other.” Regardless, it’s best to plan your chocolate masterpiece ahead so you won’t be disappointed.
The idea for chocolate art belongs to David Little, who calls himself the “President and Chocopreneur” of the company. He likes to have fun with his chocolate ideas and his company. For instance, he calls one of his artists Coco van Gogh, which is totally not her real name.
Little’s forte is really in healthy supplements, like vitamin C and vitamin D, and he got the idea to combine healthy ingredients with chocolate. Of course, you can make the choice to forgo the healthy parts and just go for the chocolate!
As chief chocopreneur, Little can pretty much do anything he wants in chocolate. To show how creative he’s been, he has created Chocolate Text in a box. You create your own text message in chocolate squares, each in its own separate candy holder. You decide what the message is going to spell. You can add emoji wrapped chocolates if you want or foiled hearts, chocolate wrapped baseballs, footballs, golf balls, soccer foils and more. You can say whatever you can write on the available number of chocolate squares, not to be confused with “Hollywood Squares,” and send it in a Chocolate Text.
Chocolate Text boxes come in 3-by-5 (15 letters or spaces), 4-by-6 (24 letters or spaces), 4-by-7 (28 letters or spaces), 4-by-8 (32 letters or spaces) and 6-by-8 (48 letters or spaces) squares. The letters and space blocks are all premium Belgian milk chocolate. Pricing starts under $35.
But Little didn’t stop with that. He came up with Selfie Tins. You can put a photo of yourself doing something amazing, like winning THE PLAYERS. Well, OK, that’s probably not going to happen, but it could be your son’s baseball team or your daughter’s soccer team, or a group photo of the gymnastic club or your tennis team. Then, you fill them with chocolate or cookies or candies, something that tastes incredibly good. You get to pick from a wide assortment. There’s even an option for a tin for your pet friends, which you can fill with pet treats. (We all know chocolate is very bad for dogs, right? So don’t send that!) The tins come in round or square shapes and prices start at $25.
After Selfie Tins, Little went big with stadiums. OK, replica chocolate stadiums with a sport-appropriate imprint in the center. It’s a pound of chocolate that he calls a Colossal Coliseum. Inside, the 7½-inch tin is filled with foil-wrapped chocolate footballs or soccer balls or baseballs or tennis balls or basketballs. There’s even one with a golf green (foil wrapped golf ball chocolate candies) and another with a lacrosse field. And those active athletes probably burn enough calories to be able to eat the chocolate without gaining an inch.
With so much variety, it’s hard to imagine what Little will come up with next. Probably chocolate planets. Come to think of it, wouldn’t it be great if Jupiter was made of chocolate?
