Patricia Le Day, Owner of Chocolate Visions, Scotts Valley, California

As a baker, Patti Le Day was such a believer in fresh, clean flavors that she filled her freezer with summer berries to make purées year-round.

“It could get crowded in my freezer. With The Perfect Purée I don’t have to do that anymore. The purée is always on point and there isn’t any weird stuff in it – just like I would make it myself,” says Patti, now the owner of Chocolate Visions in Scotts Valley, California.

The effort of making purées to meet her standards also meant some flavors, like pomegranate, used to be off-limits.

“Can you imagine having to gather all those little arils, the pomegranate seeds, and making a pomegranate purée?!” she asks incredulously.

The sweet-tart flavor and rich, red color of The Perfect Purée Pomegranate Concentrate makes it ideal for Patti’s signature Valentine’s Day ‘Mallows, which are pillowy clouds of hand-made marshmallows atop a bed of creamy caramel dipped in chocolate. Valentine’s ‘Mallows are charmingly decorated with hearts, love birds and romantic quotes.

Chocolate Visions makes all of its chocolates by hand. Best-sellers like the lavender chocolates incorporate fresh lavender from a farm in nearby Aptos. The same farm produces olive oil for the shop’s Omega chocolates, a luscious ganache of chocolate, cream and olive oil sprinkled with salt from a secret salt pond off Big Sur which, Patti says, is gathered by a man who repels down a cliff to get it.

Patti also works with local vineyards pairing wine with chocolate to create signature collections that are sold in winery tasting rooms.

Patti bought Chocolate Visions from a previous owner who used a different brand of purées. In her search for passion fruit, her distributor introduced her to The Perfect Purée and she was immediately hooked. Every month she features a different flavor of ‘mallow. Along with the Passion Fruit Concentrate, which is her favorite, and the Pomegranate Concentrate from The Perfect Purée, Patricia is developing a caramel apple ‘mallow with The Perfect Purée Green Apple Puree.

“The Perfect Purée makes outstanding, strong flavors that hold up to the caramel and chocolate,” she says.