Woodhouse Chocolate in St. Helena, CA

On my recent trip to Napa County, I finally got to visit Woodhouse Chocolate. It's a gorgeous little shop on Main Street, and it fits right in with the other boutiquey stores lining downtown St. Helena. The store is beautifully laid out, with marble counters, antique furniture, pretty displays (their winter display in the front window was of a fleet of marching black-and-white chocolate penguins across an arctic tundra of billowy cotton), and two glass-walled stations where representatives assist you with your selection of loose chocolates.

Now, Woodhouse Chocolate is expensive. And honestly, for the money, you can buy better chocolate. Recchiuti, for example, has a much more sophisticated line of confectionary chocolates, and I'd say now that Scharffen-Berger has been bought by the Hershey's conglomerate, Recchiuti rules the roost, at least in the Bay Area. The truffles I tried were not as flavorful as I had hoped, and tasted too buttery. When you get pieces this tiny, you hope for a burst of flavor, which was definitely lacking.

What Woodhouse does sell is style. As you can see, the boxes and the packaging are really lovely. Unfortunately, it's a definite issue of style over substance.

Here's a run-down of the chocolates I tried:

Brown Butter - Bland, and too buttery. Tasted fatty.
Fiori di Sicilia - Couldn't taste the marzipan. Orangy flavor more floral than fruity. Vanilla "cream" layer disgusting.
Honey - Good honey flavor. Very buttery ganache. Too mild.
Heart of Darkness - Better than the Sur de Lago (the chocolate ganache was smoother in the Heart of Darkness), but the nibs weren't crunchy; they were too soft.
Pecan Caramel - Terribly salty. Didn't enjoy this at all.
Praline Cream - Disgusting. Vanilla "cream" on top layer, hazelnut praline on bottom layer. Vanilla "ganache" was heinous.
Praline Noisette - One of the best of the bunch. Had a great deal of hazelnut flavor, and the chopped up hazelnuts made it tastier.
Quatre Epices - Tasted vaguely like pumpkin. Could have had a stronger flavor. Not terribly spicy (could taste cloves, cinnamon).
Raspberry Chambord - Too light. Not enough berry flavor, and the white ganache wasn't great. The white chocolate couverture tasted good, though.
Sur de Lago - Dark chocolate ganache with dark chocolate couverture. The ganache wasn't that smooth.
Toasted Coconut - Even with the white chocolate ganache, I enjoyed the coconut. Maybe because I didn't expect too much.
Wild Cherry - Good cherry flavor, but quite sweet. Almost like a cordial in flavor, but with dark chocolate ganache.


As my comments show, I really didn't enjoy these. You'd do much better with mail order from L.A. Burdick, Recchiuti, or La Maison. Those shops have clear, definite flavors, and superior ganaches. And I know this is blasphemy, but in some instances, See's makes better candy than this place. Don't waste your time with Woodhouse.