Matthew's Chocolates - Hillsborough

Not only are the truffles and bark amazing but gelato and hot chocolate is also incredible! Absolute jewel

The second part of my adventure was visiting this spot. My friend surprised me for my birthday month and brought me some things to try. Because I loved it so much, they brought me here to check it out in person. It's a cute shop with a plethora of options. I will warn you, this is in the downtown area and I went during Mother's Day weekend. When we arrived he was pretty cleaned out but since I've had some of the chocolates already, I really wanted to try the pie pops. I opted for Key Lime. It's literally key lime ice cream with meringue and a graham cracker crust dipped in chocolate. This hit the spot on a warm day. If you're in downtown Hillsborough, check him out as there are a variety of options from gelato, sorbet, pie pops, drinks, and chocolates. I'm sure they get a lot of traffic and they rotate some options so get there early. Enjoy!

We love to stop in here for gelato and coffee when we've been walking on the river walk. Such yummy treats. Staff are great, and make the place so warm and inviting.

I was excited to try this place because it looked like it had good reviews. But I 'm sorry to say that the quality of the desserts were nothing exceptional. I would never recommend this place, especially considering the owner appropriates other countries that he has never visited nor has any connection to, simply for profit. For example, he named a bark called Kerala Krunch because it has toasted coconut in it and the owner believes Kerala, India is the coconut paradise . While that may be true, he mentioned that he has been pronouncing Kerala incorrectly for years and only very recently started pronouncing the name correctly after hearing about the Covid-19 crisis happening in India right now. As an Indian who 's family is from Kerala, I 'm offended and ashamed that someone wants to profit and appropriate my culture without having ANY basic knowledge of the region. I have nothing against sharing cultural experiences and appreciating other cultures. But this kind of experience for such low quality product wasn 't worth that level of disregard and disrespect he has for my culture.

The owner of this chocolate shop is a tad eccentric but has made great relationships with the people of this community and the locals love this shop. The chocolates are TO DIE FOR of course but it's really a lovely experience of a shop and every element of the place is nice. If you're passing through hillsborough and want a chocolate treat, stop here!