Through Thick and Thin: How Li-Lac Chocolates Keeps Improving its Craft

By Anthony Paradiso

Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and Li-Lac Chocolates owner Chris Taylor is still standing.

A few days after the chocolate industry’s ‘Super Bowl,’ I called Taylor who gave me the scoop on how it went for the 103-year-old chocolate house. “It was good but not great. I still see a bit of a tourist recession…it’s not as bad now as it was say three, four months ago but tourism is definitely not back to where it was and during non-holidays that’s a big driver for us, at Chelsea Market, Grand Central, and Hudson Yards, but then the gifting business seems to be doing just fine and that’s what’s important to us around Valentine’s and Easter.”

Taylor also said that Li-Lac’s chocolate is “on par with Swiss and Belgian chocolatiers,” but Li-Lac “seriously need to upgrade” their packaging and branding to Swiss and Belgian standards.

Some of the things Li-Lac’s employees are doing to move the company towards that upper echelon include working long hours during holidays. Taylor said, “Valentine’s is all about truffles and strawberries” and the crew stayed “until midnight the two nights before Valentine’s to make those strawberries.”

Li-Lac makes its chocolate-covered strawberries the night before the day they hit the shelves at 8 a.m. The planning for major holidays like Valentine’s Day, Chanukah or Christmas, however, starts six-to-eight months before. That’s when Li-Lac orders the raw materials.

There’s also the caveat that the strawberries Li-Lac uses must have thick skin — literally. “You can’t have strawberries with any weakness in the skin because the chocolate immediately penetrates that. You have to seriously pay up for high-quality strawberries,” said Taylor.

This is a big cost because the wholesale market price for strawberries went up significantly two weeks before Valentine’s Day. Still, Li-Lac didn’t cut any corners and bought the best quality strawberries ─ and that’s how Li-Lac has gotten to where it is today ─ a locally-owned New York business with seven locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Retail prices for chocolate have gone up over 75% over the last five years according to CBS News. To make matters worse, President Trump’s new 15% tariff on all foreign goods will also drive up the costs. For Li-Lac, that mainly includes packaging, as chocolate will likely be exempt from the tariffs.

Taylor described what Valentine’s and Easter/Passover look like from the business point of view. “Passover and Easter are very big for us. Our molds, our Easter bunnies sell like crazy…We make our product fresh, so it’s not like we can make it months ahead of time. I love to complain because the chocolate business is 90% logistics. It’s 10% fun on Valentine’s Day and a few days before Easter when you see the customers buying. But it’s all about ordering the raw materials six months ahead of time and making sure you get it in. These tariffs have caused delays in shipments so we need to be ordering earlier than we used to.”

Despite the market’s volatility, Li-Lac has kept its pricing flat for the past two years, ensuring that the sticker shock doesn’t hit customers as hard as it does at other chocolate shops.

For Easter and Passover, which are both in April, Li-Lac factory employees will soon be making hearty chocolate matzoh and beautiful molds of chocolate Easter bunnies and eggs.

Taylor described why Easter is his favorite holiday. “Valentine’s is fun because it’s like two days nonstop of people buying truffles, strawberries, all that stuff, but Easter for me is just the most rewarding holiday. It’s not as crazy as Christmas, it’s not like several weeks nonstop and something about our bunnies, customers just love them… it’s something about Li-Lac and Easter just works for me, I really enjoy it.”

Stop by and support your locally-owned Li-Lac Chocolates this Easter and Passover where employees will greet you with a friendly smile.