For Easter, it's solid bunnies only at Harvest Moon in Tarentum

At Harvest Moon Coffee & Chocolates in Tarentum, all the chocolate Easter bunnies are solid.

Hollow bunnies are “a waste,” owner Desiree Singleton said.

“It’s deceiving. You’re not getting a solid piece of chocolate,” she said. “It was always so sad when you get something you think is whole and there’s nothing inside.”

While coffee and other drinks get made and sold from the front of Singleton’s Corbet Street shop, she’s often in the back melting, forming, dipping and drizzling chocolate.

“It’s my happy place,” she said.

When she first opened Harvest Moon just over a year ago, Singleton had only one small tempering machine with which to make her chocolate. She now has a bigger one that can handle more and do more — it vibrates the molds to get air bubbles out, and has a conveyor to cover foods such as Oreos in chocolate.

With the smaller machine, “I couldn’t keep up with chocolate making, especially with the solid molds,” she said.

Singleton said the Easter business started picking up two weeks ago. “This past week has been crazy,” she said.

She figures people don’t buy Easter chocolates sooner because they don’t trust themselves, figuring they’d eat them before the holiday.

Singleton creates her chocolates by melting down Callebaut Belgium chocolate, some of which comes in 11-pound blocks. In addition to milk, dark and white chocolates, she uses ruby chocolate, which has a pink color and a tart, fruity flavor.

While her shop has chocolate year-round, there are certain things she makes only for Easter. That includes a variety of solid chocolate bunnies — including classic tall “standing” bunnies, squat “chubby” bunnies and bunnies on Vespa scooters, as well as ducks, lambs and crosses. They range in size from 1 to 15 ounces.

She’s been dipping Peeps in chocolate, which she thinks makes them better. “The chocolate cuts the sugar on the outside, and they’re delectable,” she said.

The chocolate bunny lollipops “are going like hotcakes,” she said.

Singleton said grandparents often buy the chocolate crosses, a tradition in some families, so their grandchildren get one in their basket. “I have to keep filling them up,” she said.

The next busy chocolate holiday will be Mother’s Day. Singleton said she dipped 1,200 strawberries last year and sold them all.

“So many men want to give their wives strawberries,” she said.