This South Miami chocolate shop was just named one of the best in the country
Believe it or not, there are some facts you may not know about chocolate.
Venezuelan chocolate is some of the most prized chocolate in the world. It blends well with cardamom or tamarind but not with rosemary (that ends up tasting like barbecue, and not the good kind of barbecue). Infusing chocolate with passion fruit is reasonably easy, but working with mango can be a struggle. It tastes spectacular over candied ginger. And if you don’t believe there’s such a thing as a dream job, let us disabuse you of that notion: You can earn a certification as a chocolate taster to become a true professional.
You don’t need to know any of this, however, to wander into Garcia Nevett Chocolatier de Miami. The South Miami shop, which was just voted one of the best chocolate makers in the country by USA Today’s 10Best, sells some of the most creative and delicious upscale chocolate you’ll ever taste.
Venezuelan-born sisters Isabel and Susana Garcia Nevett, both certified chocolate tasters, started the business in 2012 like so many budding entrepreneurs in Miami: In a home kitchen (in this case, Susana’s). They had a chocolate business back in Caracas, and, as Isabel Garcia says, hoped to introduce Miami to their passion: single-origin Venezuelan cacao.
“We wanted to bring something positive coming out of Venezuela,” she said.
It’s important to know the difference between cacao, cocoa and chocolate. Cacao is cocoa in a raw, less processed form, grown on cacao trees in South America, West Africa and some Asian countries. The pods are harvested and turned into cocoa, then chocolate via a multi-step process.
The Garcias don’t make the actual chocolate; they source it from growers in Venezuela and occasionally other countries. Then they create their candy in myriad flavors.
They also make a few cakes and the occasional cookie, but “We’re not bakers!” Isabel Garcia says emphatically. The heavenly square-shaped chocolate chip cookie and the chocolate cakes, which come in full size for $45 or a mini-serving for $15, would argue otherwise.
The sisters got their first commercial kitchen in 2016 and in 2018 opened their first brick and mortar on 57th Avenue in South Miami, in a plaza where you don’t have to pay to park and passersby are lured in by the tiny, gorgeous chocolates.
The move also marked a change in how they created the candy. Inspired by Miami’s bounty, they started experimenting with new flavors.
“We’re in Miami, such a cosmopolitan city, with a Latin American influence,” Isabel Garcia says. “That means playing around with Miami flavors.”
They began to infuse their beloved Venezuelan chocolate with distinctly Miami elements as well as items sourced from around the state. The sea salt chocolate uses salt harvested in the Panhandle. The Garcias also use coffee from Miami’s own Per’La Roasters, Florida honey and a variety of tropical fruit from South Florida trees, even Papa’s Pilar Rum, which is distilled in Key West.
“Right now we’re getting a lot of lychees,” Susana Garcia says, adding that a friend with a Homestead farm is supplying them. “I’m loving it. Working with local producers for us is a delight.”
You can order a box of Florida flavors or choose your own, like rum apricot, tequila lime, chili caramel, the sweet brown butter crunch or the unusual anis y papelon with fennel seeds, raw cane sugar and dark chocolate ganache. The most popular candy is passion fruit, and if you wanted a box of all passion fruit candy, that would be fine, too.
A nine-piece Flavors of Florida box costs $26, with larger boxes running $45-$62 and a luxury gourmet chocolate chest for $240.
Isabel Garcia likens their products to fine wine or cheese.
“It’s definitely more expensive than what you’d buy at the grocery store,” she says. “We realize we’re an affordable luxury. It’s an exclusive, sophisticated product. It’s in our culture to love good quality chocolate. That’s something we want to make sure people understand.”
The sisters are hoping to expand the business not by opening another storefront but by growing their online presence and increasing corporate gifting. They also plan to introduce an Advent calendar this year and hope to work with other local brands in creating new flavors.
They have no plans to leave the South Miami location.
“It feels very much like a small village, very local with all the small businesses,” Isabel Garcia said. “We live here. We love the neighborhood.”
Garcia Nevett Chocolatier de Miami
Where: 7312 SW 57th Ave., South Miami
Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday
More information: garcianevet.com or 305-749-0506