Family-run Peter’s Chocolate Shoppe offers handmade Valentine’s Day favorites
Peter’s Chocolate Shoppe in Butler began receiving orders for its Valentine’s Day specialties — fresh strawberries hand dipped in chocolate and fresh raspberries covered in chocolate — in late January.
“We got a few orders from the well-prepared,” said Lori Steinheiser, who, along with her husband, Aaron Steinheiser, owns the business that has indulged people’s chocolate cravings since 1938.
Starting early in the morning Feb. 13 and Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, extra staff will hand dip 120 pounds of fresh strawberries — one berry at a time — into bowls of melted chocolate.
Eighty pounds of raspberries will be spread on the conveyor belt of an enrober that allows meted chocolate to flow over the berries as they slowly pass underneath.
After cooling and drying, the chocolate-covered fruits are placed in heart-shaped boxes for customers.
“We recommend making an order. We make some extra in case people forget,” Steinheiser said.
She said three or four people work at the shop on most days, but eight people, including Aaron, will be working Valentine’s Day weekend. The shop is closed on Mondays when employees come in to make other chocolate treats.
“Mondays are definitely production days,” Steinheiser said.
The shop also carries hard tack candy made by Hard Tack N’at of Butler.
“We started carrying their products in the fall to support local creators,” Steinheiser said.
To make its own products, she said the shop melts 10-pound gluten-free chocolate bars purchased from Peter’s Chocolate, an unaffiliated supplier owned by Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate of Minnesota.
Melted chocolate is poured into bowls that employees use to dip the strawberries. The bowl is used to avoid cross contamination with nuts so people with allergies can enjoy them, she said.
Every year, the shop uses 7,000 to 10,000 pounds of milk chocolate and 2,500 pounds of dark chocolate to make peanut butter meltaways, truffles, turtles, creams and other products. The fillings are made from scratch.
The enrober is the shop’s newest piece of equipment, purchased in 2023.
“We call it ‘happy’ because it works much better than the other one,” Steinheiser said. The old enrober dates to around 1978, she added.
A refrigerator and mixers also have been replaced with new models since the Steinheisers took over the business in 2020. They acquired it from Aaron Steinheiser’s aunt and uncle, who bought the business in 1999 from its original owners, the Meliotis family.
The shop benefits from its long history.
“Customers say my grandparents brought us here, our parents brought us here,” Steinheiser said. “People know where we’re at and what they’re getting from us.”
She said an online order was recently placed by someone from California who came from Butler.
“That’s the biggest compliment. It makes you feel like you’re doing something right. Remembering to come here instead of Walmart feels good,” Steinheiser said.
She said her two daughters, mother and father and mother-in-law all help out at the shop.
“We are small, family-owned and we like it that way. We all work very well together,” she said.
She said her daughter, Katie, who just graduated from Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport with a degree in baking and pastry arts, is working at the shop while she pursues her own career. She brings new ideas and new life to the business, she said.
However, the business also faces challenges.
Over the last three years, buying the chocolate the shop uses has become difficult. The cocoa beans used in the chocolate are grown on the Ivory Coast. A lack of rain has hindered the harvest, Steinheiser said.
Despite that, the shop will not change ingredients.
“We’re not willing to sacrifice quality and taste for cheapening it. We’re not willing to bend quality,” she said.
