Christopher Elbow refers to himself as an “accidental chocolatier.” 

The Kansas City native, who got his start as a chocolatier after deciding to move back home, opened his third chocolate shop on Main Street in Breckenridge in July.

Elbow had finished a stint working in Las Vegas as a pastry chef when he began the same gig at The American restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri. The American would send patrons chocolates with their checks at the end of the meal. Elbow said patrons enjoyed the chocolates so much that the restaurant would frequently get inquiries about whether they could be purchased. Yet, the chocolates weren’t necessarily for sale. They were just something Elbow made at the request of his then employer. 

“I thought to myself, ‘OK, maybe I should give (being a chocolatier) a shot,'” Elbow said. “That was 21 years ago now.”

He opened Christopher Elbow Chocolates in Kansas City five years later. Next, he expanded further west, opening a location in San Francisco, before landing at his third location in Breckenridge.  

Although all three locations are Christopher Elbow Chocolates, he said the brand varies slightly for each based on the location. 

What drew Elbow to the High Country and keeps him coming back is fly-fishing and the mountains, so that’s what he based the Breckenridge store’s brand on. One of the first noticeable traits of the Breckenridge location are the wooden accents on the walls that mimic mountains.

In the few weeks the Breckenridge location has been open, Elbow has already created products that fit the region’s interests and his own. He recently rolled out the salted caramel fly-fishing collection, which is unique to Breckenridge but also can be purchased on his website for $26. 

Aside from classics like peanut butter cups, Elbow gets experimental with his chocolates. 

“The original thing that drew me to it was the fact that you could treat it like an art medium,” he said. “Some artists use clay or copper oil paint. We do the same thing, just with chocolate.” 

Elbow’s chocolate bonbons is where he really gets creative, with flavors like strawberry balsamic and rosemary. These assortments are bright and uniquely designed to be eye-catching, making the experience visual, as well. A four-piece assortment starts at $15.

When it comes to the basics, such as chocolate bars, Elbow sources cocoa beans out of Central and South American farms, many of which he has been to in person. 

Purchasing a bar from this collection also gets people the backstory of where their chocolate is from, whether it be a farm in Venezuela or Mexico.

“Really, the focus of this program is to make people aware of where chocolate comes from and how it’s processed and how hard it is to process,” Elbow said. 

Christopher Elbow Chocolates, 100 N. Main St., is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.