Castle Hill Chocolate

Sheeran Delights
Castle Hill Chocolate, Newtown
August 2022

I’m on my way
Driving at 90 down those country lanes
Singing to Tiny Dancer
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
When we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill (hill)
Over the castle on the hill (hill)
Over the castle on the hill (hill)

Thanks Ed Sheeran. Watching a sunset over the busy strip mall in Newtown doesn’t give me the romantic feelings you sing about, but I can’t not hear it in my brain when thinking about Castle Hill Chocolate shop. (Which moved to a new location in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown in September 2022, so maybe it’s now more evocative of the song).

I’m not sure why I’m focusing on the shop’s location anyway. For once inside, I was transported to an almost beachy, fresh, clean, wonderfully smelling place of expensive and beautifully artistic chocolate creations. As they say…

Welcome to Castle Hill Chocolate, where chocolate is both artfully crafted and delightfully delicious.

Castle Hill Chocolate opened in 2016 and is helmed by chocolatier Erica Sullivan. I believe she makes all the bonbons and chocolates, and is probably responsible for the shop’s interior design. (To be fair, a chocolate shop is always going to smell good and will leave people feeling good, no matter what the place looks like. But Castle Hill is clean and organized and I appreciate that. I hope they keep the same aesthetic in the new shop across town.)

The lowdown here is that about half of the chocolates are made here, at the in-house commercial kitchen and half are “the best in chocolate making from around the world.”

The other thing about this place, as I understand it, is that what you can get one day won’t necessarily be the same as you’ll get the next time you visit. Sullivan’s pretty little bonbons are fleeting. I guess the idea is that… well… a box of chocolates at Castle Hill is… like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

Which is kind of a shame, because I darn well know I’d want as many of these chocolate cappuccino cups every time I go.

I mean… come on! Look at that beauty! Some of the other varieties I bought were milk chocolate blueberry crumble, milk chocolate pop tart, one with apple pie spices, and others. They didn’t all work flavor-wise for me, but the execution was flawless. The shine and marble-like quality of the rounded bonbons here is simply beautiful. You almost don’t want to eat them.

Almost.

I also bought some sort of “cookie” chocolates, which I was told were “like high-end oreo chocolates,” but I don’t think that’s what they were. Neither my wife nor I could figure out what was really going on in them, and we ate up the whole bag before we could. They were delicious.

Speaking of “eating everything right up,” there’s a FAQ on the Castle Hill website that asks how long the shelf life of their chocolates are.

Most chocolate carries a shelf life of about 6 months (depending upon whether the confection is filled or not). The confections we make in-house (and some that we carry from other chocolatiers) are crafted from only the finest chocolate. Because our chocolate does not contain any paraffin wax, hydrogenated oils or other preservatives, we recommend enjoying our solid chocolate within 6 months. *We will indicate within the description if the shelf life of a particular product differs. Please note that our bonbons carry a shelf life of no longer than 3 weeks.

That’s hilarious. As if anyone is allowing these things to sit around for six months. Six days is a stretch.

Most everything at Castle Hill is just… pretty. And not in that glitzy marzipan way either. No one truly likes marzipan, although we can all appreciate the beauty of those Belgian classic treats. I didn’t buy any, but Castle Hill had these bags of seashell chocolates that look so good that they look almost inedible.

The young woman who was working had the look of someone working at a New York City art gallery. Blonde hair pulled neatly back into a pony tail. Her manner was soft and helpful. It’s like the vibe and feel of the shop itself was also reflected in the employee. And speaking of the vibe here, Castle Hill puts it all out there on their website, shouty caps and all:

WE celebrate our DIVERSE COMMUNITY. WE support FAIRNESS, JUSTICE, EQUALITY, OPPORTUNITY & HUMAN DIGNITY. WE respect WOMEN. WE value BLACK LIVES. WE appreciate our LGBTQ COMMUNITY. WE stand with IMMIGRANTS, REFUGEES & INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. WE love PEOPLE OF ALL FAITHS.

This business is #OpenToAll. We believe that when businesses open their doors to the public, they should be Open to All. We took the pledge to reject discrimination!

It’s funny, I wrote 700 words on how serene this place is, but then they go and get all fired up about diversity and inclusion. And you know what? that’s cool. I wish that was the only thing that got me fired up these days.

I’m in no position to tell Erica Sullivan how to run her business. She’s been doing it for six years at this point and survived a pandemic. These are high-end products and that is reflected in the pricing (trust me). Clearly the market exists for her chocolates. But with the September 2022 move to a new space, I’d suggest that she should try to always have the “greatest hits” available, and perhaps chill out on some of the wackier flavor combinations. Pomegranates and pears and Pop Tarts are great, but I’ll always want to fall back on the classics too.

Take us home, Ed Sheeran, take us home…

And I’m on my way
I still remember these old country lanes
When we did not know the answers
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
When we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill (hill)
Over the castle on the hill (hill)

Over the castle on the hill

Castle Hill Chocolate
CTMQ’s Connecticut Chocolate Trail