Birmingham, ALChocolatiers and Candy Shops

Chocolatá is Kathy D'Agostino's chocolate shop in Forest Park, where she tempers chocolate and fills the molds for her bonbon shells herself, working from ethically sourced Latin American cacao and bringing in new recipes with the seasons. The shop is known for its bonbons, among them an evil eye design whose dark version holds coffee and Bailey's and whose milk version holds chai ganache. The signature bars run to white chocolate matcha and milk chocolate with rosemary and brown sugar-roasted pecans. Order a box of bonbons and one of the bars.

Elizabeth Moore Chocolates is the Pelham shop of Susan Notter, a pastry chef who has coached the U.S. Culinary Olympics team, and everything in the case is made by hand in the store from single-origin chocolate supplied by a Swiss maker. The range covers bonbons, truffles, single-origin bars, chocolate-covered almonds, cashews, hazelnuts and pecans, and chocolate wafers by origin, and the shop runs chocolate classes in its own kitchen. Sea salt caramel and the Dubai pistachio bar are the favorites. Order a box of bonbons and a sea salt caramel.

This Cahaba Heights chocolate shop makes its truffles, dipped pretzels and chocolate-covered popcorn in house. There is also gelato if you want something cold before picking out a box. The chocolate-covered popcorn is the signature; buy a bag to share, then look through the case for a few hand-dipped pieces.