KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Annedore's is about wonderful chocolate. That’s the key to the company’s rich 20 year tradition in Kansas City. For the past two years, the company's been owned by Sheri Weedman.
"I loved Annedore's and went to Annedore's often," Weedman said.
With a background in cooking and small business, Weedman bought the company and moved it to a new location at 45th and Stateline. Together with Master Chocolatier Aaron Dearinger, they continue to produce some of the finest craft chocolates in the metro.
“Annedore's Chocolate is different,” Dearinger explains. “Because of the fact that it gives you an experience that's pleasurable, whether it's milk or dark. We have people who don't like dark chocolate from anywhere else, but they love Annedore's dark chocolate, because it doesn't have that bitterness.”
Everything at Annedore's is still done by hand, from beginning to end. That quality and attention to detail keep their customers coming back.
“We do a lot of corporate businesses and corporate gifting,” Weedman says. “We also do a lot of customer products, such as logos and chocolate business cards.”
There are wholesale clients as well, along with brides and grooms. One thing Sheri didn't anticipate was every day retail - but customers came calling.
"I'll have to be honest,” Weedman says laughing. “We actually tried to hide a little bit because I actually wasn't sure that that was a fit for us, or at least my lifestyle. But we would have walk-ins all the time and so we finally said 'Alright, we're going to do retail.'"
The retail trade allows Sheri and Aaron to take customers along a chocolate journey - whether it's sampling a potential new flavor, or picking out one of their signature treats.
“I usually direct our customers to what we call an Imperial,” Weedman says, selecting a tray from the case. “It's the dark chocolate Imperial. The milk chocolate and the vanilla bean Imperial.”
