Want to treat your darling (or yourself) to something sweet for Valentine’s Day? These Hudson Valley shops are here to help.
By Olivia Cambalik and Raphael Beretta
Valentine’s Day always provides an opportunity to indulge in delightful sweets. The most iconic treats for the lovey-dovey holiday have to be chocolates, and the Hudson Valley offers high-quality candy in spades.
However, cocoa-centric confections are certainly not the only way to show that special someone you care. From themed wines to smoked jerky, here are our outside-the-box picks for treating the foodie in your life.
Brotherhood Winery
Washingtonville
Our Pick: “B” Sparkling New York- Rosé Cuvee
America’s oldest winery crafts a particularly delicious line of sparkling vinos. Aiming to produce wines with the “essence of celebration,” Brotherhood blends Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes for its Rosé Cuvee. This delightfully on-theme rosé showcases pleasant, fruity notes. The chosen varietals are harvested early, which helps them maintain a crisp acidity. In addition, the grapes undergo two separate fermentations. This leads to an amazing carbonation level, and the perfect bottle of bubbly for date night.
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Decadent Ales
MamaroneckÂ
Our Pick:Â Double Blueberry Pancake IPA
Decadent Ales carved out a niche in the booming Hudson Valley craft beer industry. The Westchester brewery earned a reputation for imaginative IPAs and stouts that taste eerily like classic sweets, such as the Double Blueberry Pancake IPA. To remind you of brunch dates with your sweetheart, Decadent Ales’ mosaic dry-hopped DIPA features a concoction of blueberries, sugar, and Madigascan vanilla bean to recreate the texture and taste of blueberry pancakes with whipped cream.
HÃ…KAN Chocolatier
Beacon
Our Pick:Â Valentine Completeness
It wouldn’t quite feel like Valentine’s Day without chocolates. However, Beacon’s HÃ…KAN Chocolatier brings something completely unexpected to the table. Swedish chocolate master HÃ¥kan MÃ¥rtensson crafts remarkable heart-shaped bonbons in the Valentine Completeness box. Each box contains 16 bonbons (universally recognized as the number of completeness), with the flavors Sudachi, Kalamansi cardamom, lychee rose, and passionfruit raspberry.
CheeseCake Heaven
Poughquag
Our Pick: Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cheesecake
There is something so appropriate about the pairing of delicious strawberries and decadent chocolate for Valentine’s Day. This take on the classic treat features a buttery graham cracker crust, followed by a decadent layer of sweet strawberries. The strawberries are then doused with a layer of dark Belgian chocolate ganache. The cake is finished with a layer of CheeseCake Heaven’s original creamy cheesecake batter.
Krause’s Chocolates
New Paltz, Rhinebeck, Saugerties
Our Pick:Â Edible Chocolate Heart Box
Sometimes, simplicity speaks the loudest. Grab a heart-shaped box full of assorted Krause’s Chocolates. Then, eat the box! This fun presentation of Valentine’s treats includes an edible box made from high-quality milk chocolate. Interior candies come in milk and dark chocolate form (though you can select the all-dark option for fans of rich, decadent, semi-sweet chocolate).
Papa’s Best Batch
Red Hook
Our Pick:Â Assorted Beef Jerky Gift Box
On the other end of the spectrum, there are savory snacks to share. Papa’s Best Batch is known for delicious smoked nuts and other tasty items. For the carnivore in your life, try Papa’s assorted beef jerky gift box. Sliced whole top rounds spend a night in creative marinades like sweet molasses or chipotle lime before becoming scrumptious jerky. Each box comes with one 3.5-oz bag of each jerky flavor, including hot garlic, dill pickle, and the two mentioned above.
Wendy’s Vegan Kitchen
Phoenicia
Our Pick:Â Garden of Eden
Whether your loved one is on a completely plant-based diet, lactose intolerant, or just hungry for something different, Wendy’s Vegan Kitchen delivers. The nut-based cheeses are as satisfying to eat as they are to look at. The Garden of Eden is especially breathtaking on a snack board. Lovely pinks and greens adorn this cashew-based creation. Beets, carrots, white truffle, miso, and other interesting flavors play together beautifully.
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C. Cassis
Catskill
Our Pick: C. Cassis Liqueur
C. Cassis is a delicious, not too sweet, lightly fermented black currant liqueur made in the Hudson Valley. Containing half of the amount of sugar that’s found in most liqueurs and sweetened with honey, this can be served on the rocks with soda, enjoyed as a mixed cocktail, or sipped neat at the end of a meal (treated as an aperitif, like in Emily in Paris on Netflix). In short, it’s the perfect addition to any Valentine’s dinner. Further impress your sweetheart this holiday by adding the libation to classic cocktails such as a Negroni or Manhattan. Find your bottle at select locations, such as Sipperley’s Grog Shoppe, Hudson Wine Merchants, and The Bottle Shop at Astor Square.
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Seek North Kombucha
Kingston
Our Pick:Â Seek Harmony
Of course, there’s no reason your Valentine’s Day treats can’t benefit your health. Seek North in Kingston crafts a beautiful certified organic kombucha called Seek Harmony. This smooth sip features the boldness of hibiscus while featuring other zesty flavors such as ginger. This immune-boosting beverage is a great option for kombucha newbies because of its soft, dry flavor. In addition, the beautiful pink-red color (100-percent natural from the hibiscus) of the drink is so on theme for Valentine’s Day.
Related: Valentine’s Day Dates for the Hudson Valley Foodie in Your Life
