This Halifax Couple Celebrates Valentine’s Day Making Chocolates For You
This story is part of a series on Maritime chocolate and candy companies gearing up for Valentine’s Day.
HALIFAX — Call it one of the perils of running a chocolate shop: Nathalie Morin and Julien Rousseau haven’t celebrated Valentine’s Day in 13 years.
The couple co-own Halifax’s Rousseau Chocolatier. As Morin explains, in the chocolate-making world Valentine’s Day is like the Super Bowl, Christmas and about a dozen other holidays all wrapped together.
She and Rousseau work so hard over the holiday filling orders for other lovestruck couples they rarely have time left over for themselves.
“We’re always just so exhausted and there’s just really no time to even think about it, or plan it,” Morin says. “For us, Valentine’s Day it’s more like a good meal at home with a good bottle of wine.”
But they still love playing a part in other couple’s celebrations.
Rousseau Chocolatier opened its first permanent location in Halifax in 2014 and quickly became a go-to for Haligonians seeking sweet hearts for their sweethearts.
Few things scream Valentine’s Day louder, after all, than a hand-made, heart-shaped, rose-petal infused chocolate.
Morin says it’s one of Rousseau’s most iconic Valentine’s Day treats: a silky, white-chocolate ganache that’s infused with wild Nova Scotia roses hand-picked by a local forager, then dipped in dark chocolate.
Over the years, Rousseau chocolates have also played even bigger roles in people’s lives, including when an eager young man entrusted them with his engagement ring so they could create a chocolate dome for the ring to sit in.
Morin says helping people celebrate their love is one of the most rewarding parts of the job and she is grateful that so many people want to support them.
“It’s very comforting because we built this business from nothing, from scratch. We spent the first four years working our butts off to create something of a certain standard here in Halifax and think that work has paid off,” she says.
That has proved even more true during Covid-19, she says, when online orders have taken off as Haligonains have rallied to support Rousseau and other local businesses.
“We’re counting our lucky stars that we’re still around. I don’t think our business would have survived in other parts of the world, or even our other parts of Canada,” she says.
“I’ve lived in different provinces and different countries and the ‘support local’ movement here is just so much stronger than anything I’ve ever witnessed.”
Rousseau and Morin are just as busy this Valentine’s Day as they’ve ever been, but this year Morin says there is one thing that’s different — and it’s not Covid-19.
For the first time ever, she says, Rousseau has “taken the reigns,” wrangled a babysitter, and booked a night out for dinner for the two of them.
“So there you have it: romance is not gone,” Morin says with a laugh.
Other stories in the series:
- Adorable Chocolat Made In The Tradition Of French Chocolatiers
- 2021 Can Only Be Sweeter For McGuire Chocolate
- Wild Flours Sweets and Treats Happy To Report Pandemic Not Dampening Enthusiasm For Valentine’s Day
- Podcast: Bryana Ganong And The Chocolate Factory