Valentine's Day is a day with a rich history of both Christian and pagan origins.  It is a day of romance in which loved ones give gifts with the sole purpose of showing how much they love each other. 

This February 14th, what better way to show that sweetheart in your life how much you love them than with the gift of candy?

Roland Jacob and his wife Cynthia, owners of Chocolate Dreamsexplained that nothing can beat chocolate on Valentine’s Day.

“February 14th, is a day for lovers, here at Chocolate Dreams we truly believe this. We transform simply popped popcorn into Popcorn Crunch, a yummy confection made of popcorn, three types of chocolate mixed with items such as caramel chunks, mixed nuts and peanut butter chocolate,” said Roland. “We also do all manner of edible favors, along with our new SweetScapes (think candy table with a Chocolate Dreams twist to them) and Kid In A Candystore Birthday Parties.  There is no $50/lb. chocolate to be found here at Chocolate Dreams!”

According to Cynthia, owning a gourmet sweet shop was always a dream of hers and in 2006, she turned this dream into a reality.

“I was going to Providence College with plans to go on to law school, but always had a dream of doing this.  I became very ill and was advised by my doctors that my body would not be able to tolerate the stress of law school,” she explained. “At that time, I decided to follow my dream of making candy, left my position as a paralegal, and opened Chocolate Dreams. Now my husband helps me run the business, and I must say we make an awesome team.”

Chocolate Dreams is a fun and funky little shop that takes ordinary items such as an Oreo cookie, and turn them into works of art called Oreo Dreams that are highly decorated sweet confections. Some of their other specialties, which are mostly made right on the premise, for Valentine’s Day include: Chocolate Covered Strawberries either beautifully boxed, or in a strawberry bouquet, Sweet Sentiment Oreo Dreams, chocolate caramel apples, chocolate assortments, fresh fudge, gourmet truffles, novelty "penny" candy, and a large assortment of sugar free candy. 

This small but quaint novelty shop in the heart of Coventry has collected quite a following over the past five years.

“We have been very lucky to have the support of our local community.  We have some very loyal customers, such as the O'Del family that visit us most every week.  Their young son has been so inspired by our store, that he started his own candy making business for family and friends,” Cynthia said.”  “We have customers who entrusted us with the favors for their weddings and now they are coming back for favors for the baby showers and Christenings of their children."

The Jacobs ended by saying, “We pride ourselves on our exceptional customer service skills!  You will always find a friendly face and kind words here at Chocolate Dreams.  We have some older customers who stop in just to say hello and chat for awhile.  We might be the only person they interact with that day, and we make it our priority that they leave here smiling and knowing that someone really cares about them!”

Chocolate Dreams, located at 577 Tiogue Avenue in Coventry, is open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.  We are open Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons for private parties.  For more information, call 822-0500, or visit their website at: www.ChocolateDreamsCandy.com