Malley's mouthwatering chocolate is unbeatable

An amazing combination of sweet and salty. Check the slideshow for more pictures!

I can distinctly remember sitting on a bench one day in France, waiting for the bus, and eating a European chocolate bar—sounds like the perfect pastime for a chocolate lover, right? Well, it would have been, except that all I could think of as I ate was the nostalgic taste of smooth, rich Malley’s milk chocolate from home! I sampled plenty of chocolate during my time abroad, but nothing could hold a candle to a Malley’s Milk Chocolate Pretzel Crunch Bar. Milka, Côte d’Or, even Lindt Intense Mint (my second favorite chocolate bar of all time) all looked downright plain next to a Malley’s creation. The very next day, I wrote an e-mail to the company to tell them how much I loved and missed their chocolate.

So what makes this local, relatively small company’s chocolate better than any other kind I’ve ever tried? I’ve long struggled with this question. It could be that the chocolate is so creamy and thick and soft, not melted, and not hard or brittle. It could be that the ingredients mixed in with the chocolate, like pretzels, cashews, and almonds, are all fresh and added in just the right proportions of chocolate to other stuff. It could be that the quality is consistently amazing. I’ve never, ever had a bad Malley’s experience, and I’ve had a lot of Malley’s chocolate in my life.

Malley’s Pretzel Crunch Bar comes in dark and milk chocolate varieties, and though I really like dark chocolate, in this case I have to stick with the old favorite. The sweeter milk chocolate contrasts better with the salt of the pretzels for optimal taste. This chocolate bar is by far my favorite Malley’s confection, but they have so much great other stuff too, including a line of sugar free chocolates. Just the scent of an empty Malley’s chocolate-covered pretzel box is enough to make me swoon. Chocolate truffles, nut clusters, Malley Ohs!, NutMallow—full of sweet marshmallow and nuts and topped with a liberal layer of milk chocolate—mint squares, fudge sauce, Breakup Chocolate (my boyfriend claims he didn’t see what it was called when he bought me some of this), coconut haystacks, and chocolate-covered potato chips are just some of the reasons Malley’s makes me proud to call Cleveland home.

Malley’s has been creating impossibly good chocolates since 1935, when Albert “Mike” Malley opened a chocolate and ice cream shop in Lakewood. The business has remained in the family but grown considerably, and now there are 17 locations throughout Northeast Ohio, some of which sell ice cream, too. You can read more about the history of Malley’s here. And if you can’t get to a Malley’s store or find a kid selling the chocolates for a fundraiser, check your local library—they often have a variety of Malley’s chocolate bars behind the counter, waiting to be sold for a mere $1 each. And you can always order online and get it shipped to you. It’s totally worth it for this amazing chocolate—it’s truly the best I’ve ever tasted.

As a final note, if you’ve seen those oval bumper stickers around Cleveland with pink and green stripes and the word CHOC, that’s Malley’s Chocolate Club contest. Each month, $25 gift certificates and one $500 cash prize are given away to people in cars spotted sporting the bumper sticker. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.