Austin, TXChocolatiers and Candy Shops

Nicole Patel's chocolate shop specializes in ruby chocolate, the fourth type beside dark, milk and white, made from a cocoa bean that gives it a pink hue and a berry-like tartness. She fills ruby truffles with ginger, chipotle chiles and merlot cherries. Order a box of the ruby truffles, starting with the chipotle.

Intero is a farm-to-table Italian restaurant, and Krystal Craig, one half of the couple behind it, runs a chocolate counter inside for her seasonally focused truffles and barks, in flavors like vanilla bean brown butter and roasted white chocolate strawberry. The chocolates are made by hand each week in small batches, to eat with dinner or take home. Order a few truffles after dinner and a bark to go.

Big Top Candy Shop has been a circus-themed candy counter on South Congress since 2007, and this is the original of its two shops. It is known for quirky, nostalgic stock: international candies, old-fashioned floats and sodas, chocolate-covered bacon and the pickle lollipop. Order a float, then a bag of the chocolate-covered bacon.

Kesshō sells single-origin chocolate bars as well as gelato from its South Austin trailer. The bars draw on cacao from Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania; flavors include yuzu, boba tea and a chile-spiced lamb skewer bar. Start with a bar to taste the chocolate itself, then try the gelato.

Edis makes chocolate truffles at its Northwest Hills shop, which also sells cakes and pastries. The truffles are the reason to stop: choose a few individually or take a box home. The shop has kept its Spicewood Springs Road address since opening there in 2011.