You may remember reading about the Oakland sister duo, Wendy and Susan Lieu, the founders of Socola Chocolatier several years ago on Bay Area Bites.

They're still going strong, and Wendy and Susan are celebrating the upcoming launch of their new Sriracha Chili Truffles that are making their debut this fall with a wacky and whimsical online video series. For the Love of Chocolate is a "telenovela about how Miss Artisan Chocolate Bar ("Yes, I am dressed up as a giant chocolate bar," said Susan in her press release) and racy Sir Ra Cha Cha from the Tender Loins of SF find and fail at love in the Foodie World."

Susan took a break from her comedic Miss Artisan Chocolate Bar duties to answer a few questions about her project.

What inspired you to create this series?

Socola Chocolatier is a very small artisan chocolate company in San Francisco. We don't have huge marketing budgets. But we do have a lot of creativity, energy, and access to amazing artists in San Francisco. When I went to a Kearny Street Workshop - 18 Reasons show "A Sensory Feast: Local Flavors" featuring Amy Ho's costumes, I knew we had a match in art and humor. Since we were about to launch our Sriracha Chili truffles, I thought this would be a creative way to show how these specific chocolates were "born": through a telenovela series!

What was the best part of working on it?

The best part was the adventure creating it. We shot all three episodes in 3 days with a Flip Cam and the camera function on a Canon camera. No fancy equipment; just a vision with a storyboard, great costumes by Amy Ho, props by Jessica Sum, and videography by Kelly Robinson (my intern for the summer Harvard Class of 2013, majoring in Neuroscience no less!). The best part was having the storyboard and shooting for the day. During the "mugging" scene, we found the actor for the Piñata on the street. If you look closely, there is a man in the background thinking I am actually getting hurt and need help. We ran into Wilfred the Dog (FX) at the Embarcadero and did improv with him. We partnered with local businesses like Bi-Rite Market, Barber Lounge and even Gondala Servicio at Lake Merritt (Episode 2!) to shoot some hilarious scenes. The best part is it's San Francisco -- most people didn't even give us a second glance -- just another day in San Francisco with a giant bar of chocolate running around!!!

Have you received any real-life invitations for a date?

3. LOL. I think the dog owner of Wilfred was trying to hit on me to take me out to dinner. And at the screening I got some post Facebook "hit-ons" (definitely not a poke though!) which was awkward since I introduced them to my boyfriend. But it's San Francisco -- anything goes!

Their three-part series, which launched last week, can be viewed on their YouTube channel. A new episode will premiere on Tuesday. Don't miss Susan's priceless chocolate meltdown montage that includes a hilarious moment with Claes Oldenburg's "Cupid's Span" sculpture.

It's no secret that the Bay Area has a bounty of food artisans and purveyors. But did you know that we also have no shortage of innovative premium chocolatiers? From small shops like Sôcôla, Chocolatier Blue and Coco Delice to larger and more established San Francisco companies like Recchiuti and Charles Chocolates; the Bay Area abounds with locally-made, hand-crafted truffles and chocolates for every taste and preference.

It's not surprising that our home-grown chocolate shops all seem to use the highest quality ingredients, with many utilizing organic local creams and butters alongside fruits and nuts purchased from nearby farmers. And, as all truffles should be, these confections are also made with trained and sure hands, often artistically sculpted or topped with elegant etchings. Overall, the chocolates and truffles produced locally use the finest ingredients, are superbly made and are lovely to look at.

So if you're shopping for a little chocolate indulgence this holiday season, keep it local. You won't be disappointed.

Following are my top-ten picks for local holiday chocolates.

Photo credit: Emiko Taki

Sôcôla
And if you're in the mood for some familial holiday warmth this season, Sôcôla offers a hearty dose. Susan and Wendy Lieu are two charismatic local sisters who live and breath chocolate. And just to keep their product really local, these sisters purposely use other Bay Area family-owned products to make each handmade truffle, including organic Strauss Family Creamery products and E. Guittard chocolate.

This holiday season Sôcôla is showcasing four special treats in their By the Fireside Holiday 2010 collection:

• Chai Baba Chai -- an exotic blend of Assam tea with cardamom, cloves, black peppercorn and cinnamon
• Hazelnut Praline -- sort of a refined Nutella
• Hot in Hia -- a delicate champagne truffle made in honor of the Lieu sisters' grandmother Hia
• Pumpkin Burnt Caramel -- a blend of holiday pumpkin pie spices, burnt caramel, Hawaiian sea salt and a splash of brandy

You can buy Sôcôla online or at various locations, including:
San Francisco: Bi-Rite Market; Whole Foods Potrero Hills and SOMA;
East Bay: The Pasta Shop; Market Hall

Coco Délice Fine Chocolates
If you're in the mood for a truly French-style traditional truffle -– chocolate filled with ganache that is hand-rolled and finished with cocoa powder -– you'll want to seek out Coco Délice. In addition to making extraordinary chocolate, this Emeryville company also works to find a balance between business and environmental conservation. Dedicated to using local ingredients, Coco Délice uses fruit and nuts from Bay Area farmers in their ganaches, cream from Berkeley Farms, and wine from the Sonoma Valley in their Wine & Spirits collection.

I spoke with Chef Dennis, who says his favorite holiday treats this year are:

• Bittersweet Cognac and Bourbon Pecan Truffles
• Peppermint Bark -- made with dark and white chocolate, peppermint oil, candy and cocoa (which is sold exclusively at Andronico's Market)
• The Holiday Cube assorted gift box that contains hand-rolled truffles, caramelized chocolate covered almonds, and set of dark chocolate disks with cocoa nubs

Coco Délice can be purchased online or at various Bay Area locations, including many Whole Foods and Andronico's stores.

TCHO
TCHO is making its own batch of high-quality chocolates this year. Always fair trade and always first-rate, TCHO offers various holiday gifts for the obsessive chocolate lover and/or baker in your life. A few holiday offerings are:

• Holiday gift boxes wrapped in designs by Dutch graphic artist Max Kisman
• Hot and Cold Drinking Chocolate -- which is made to be prepared as a thick and luscious European-style drink
• TCHO-a-Day -- a no-nonsense container filled with lovely little chocolate bars

TCHO is available for purchase online, at their factory store in San Francisco (where you can also take a tour), and at various Bay Area locations including: Berkeley Bowl, Bi-Rite Market, various Whole Foods and Real Foods.

Recchiuti Confections
One of my longtime favorite chocolate companies, I have always relied on Recchiuti during the holiday season. The elegant etchings and drawings on their truffles are the first clue to how exquisite these confections really are. Yet as often happens with a favorite restaurant, I think I've gotten stuck in a rut with their truffle menu. So instead of getting my tried and true Fleur de Sel Caramels or Peanut Butter Pucks this year, I think I'll try some of their seasonal selections:

• Caramels to the Third Power -- salted caramel, butterscotch salted caramel, and chocolate caramel
• Peppermint Thins -- a spin-off of Junior Mints, these peppermint thins are made with organic peppermint leaves from the Willamette valley and peppermint oil
• Pairing Boxes (four types of chocolates created specifically to pair with with whiskey, wine, beer and spirits for your holiday celebrations

Recchiuti is available for purchase online, at their Ferry Building store, and at various Bay Area locations including:
Andronico's, Draeger's, Bi-Rite Market, Rainbow Grocery, and Village Market in Oakland.

Chocolatier Blue
Trained in the intricacies of French chocolate making, Chris Blue is dedicated to making French-inspired chocolate truffles at a local level. With an emphasis on classical truffle-making, Chocolatier Blue uses Domori and Amedei chocolate, Five-Star organic butter, and seasonal fruits from the Berkeley Farmer's Market.

Chris Blue has come up with a few holiday flavors this year using various flavors, including gingerbread; sugar cookie; eggnog; rum-soaked currents; and holiday spices.

You can purchase Chocolatier Blue truffles online, at their stores in Berkeley and Mill Valley, or at Palio D’Asti in San Francisco.

Michael Mischer Chocolates
I have a soft spot in my heart for Michael Mischer Chocolates as my family and I like to walk there on hot summer nights for cups of Mr. Mischer's creamy gelato. My husband also usually places a few truffles from this Oakland store in my stocking each Christmas (and I end up eating at least one as part of my holiday breakfast). Made with single-origin chocolate of Grand Cru quality from Venezuela or Ecuador, these truffles have an elegant chocolate taste that if full of nuance. Each is also hand sculpted so they are quite pretty.

In addition to its full range of truffles, Michael Mischer Chocolates is also offering three holiday flavors:

• Gingerbread Caramel -- made with a spice blend that tastes like a gingerbread cookie
• Advocaat -- made with a Dutch egg liqueur
• Mint Marshmallow -- filled with a homemade marshmallow flavored with mint oil

You can purchase Michael Mischer Chocolates at Mr. Mischer's store on Grand Avenue in Oakland, at Cocoa Bella, Fog City News, or Bi-Rite Market. You can also purchase directly through emailing the company (through their web site) or calling the store directly.

Charles Chocolates
A long-time local favorite, Chuck (Charles) Siegel has been making local truffles in San Francisco since 1987. Beautifully crafted, with both sculpted shapes and etched drawings, Charles Chocolates offers various assortments and selections that are perfect for a holiday gift.

This year Charles Chocolates is offering a:

• Winter Collection Collection -- Fleur de Sel Caramels with images of snowflakes and raindrops decorating the top of each
• Holiday Collection Edible Chocolate Box -- an assortment of their most popular confections set in an edible chocolate box

You can purchase Charles Chocolates online, at their flagship Westfield Shopping Center store, and at various Whole Foods locations.

The Xocolate Bar
Located in North Berkeley, Xocolate Bar creates both classic and vegan artisanal chocolates amd truffles using organic, seasonal and local ingredients whenever possible. With new flavors presented weekly, they make sure that at least half their selection is vegan.

Some holiday flavors include:

• Gingerbread Truffle -- made with black currents
• The Salted Chile Makeout Truffle -- made with chai and maca root (an aphrodisiac)
• The Tamarind Mango Agave -– their most popular vegan option

The Xocolate Bar is also offering a Community Supported Chocolate program where can sign up to pick up a monthly box of handmade chocolates at a designated neighborhood location. Each box will contain handmade chocolates made with seasonal, sustainable and/or organic ingredients.

You can purchase Xocolate Bar confections at their store in North Berkeley, or on their site through Foodoro.

Barolovento Chocolates
Peter Bryden started making chocolates after tasting the dried cherry of his dreams from Smit Ranch. He imagined the moist plump fruit encased in chocolate and it was so good, he started Barolovento Chocolates to sell them. Barolovento now sells many different types of chocolates using single-source Venezuelan chocolate at Bay Area farmers' markets. This holiday season Peter has a few specialty items available in addition to his normal selection of shaped chocolates and truffles.

• Chocolate-covered Almonds (from EGB farms, these are panned in chocolate for even coating and sold in tubes)
• Holiday truffles (flavors include gingerbread, Fresh Mint (made by infusing cream with fresh spearmint)
• Meyer Lemon Zest truffles (which are created using fresh local Meyer lemons); and Kirsch Liqueur truffles.

Barolovento Chocolates accepts email and phone orders by calling (510) 238-8787. You can also purchase their chocolates at the following farmers' markets: Marin Civic Center, Grand Lake in Oakland, and Palo Alto. The Pasta Shop in Rockridge and Berkeley also sells their fleur de sel caramels and small logo bars with sea salt.

Because Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, Barolovento Chocolates is opening their kitchen for sales December 20 - 24 from 9am-4pm. Stop by at 638 2nd street Oakland to pick up some holiday treats.

Alegio
Located in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, Alegio makes classic French truffles and chocolates. Panos Panagos, a very charming Frenchman, and Robbin Everson, the talented chef, work together to bring hand-crafted truffles made on site to their little neck of the Bay Area. Alegio also sells truffles by Enric Rovira's and Claudio Corallo. Vegan and organic confections are available and all chocolate used is fair trade.

A few truffles worth checking out for the holiday season are the:

• Sea Salt Caramel Truffle -- a consistent best seller
• Habanera -- which has won a few awards
• Grapefruit Caramel

Alegio chocolates can be purchased online or at their store at 1511 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley

Socola Chocolatier

One look at Socola Chocolatier's whimsical mascot, a flying white alpaca named Harriet, and you just know that this won't be your typical gourmet chocolate. No, Socola Chocolatier is anything but typical. The promising, Oakland-based enterprise is young, exciting, and full of modern day sass. "Delicately Daring" is quite the perfect motto sister entrepreneurs Wendy and Susan Lieu have chosen for their business.

This Valentine's Day, when the market crowds over with cliché tokens of love, surprise your (guy, girl, self) with something witty, something sexy, something Socola.

Socola Chocolatier's Valentine's Day offering is an assorted box of 12 chocolates ($25) featuring playful flavors like:
• Cupid's Coffee Fix: because all that love stuff can wear a cherub out -- sultry Vietnamese espresso ganache with rich condensed milk, topped with French chicory grounds
• Chambord Shimmie: a pretty little number -- dark chocolate ganache with a hint of raspberry liqueur, blushed ready to shine in her pink glimmer
• Give It To Me Guava: unapologetically bold -- dark chocolate ganache kissed with a tender guava reduction
• Matchmaker Matcha: a sweet match made in heaven -- creamy white chocolate truffles infused with green tea matcha, subtly seductive.

If these inspired love potions aren't reason enough to shed your jaded anti-cupidism, Socola's story will certainly warm your heart.

Wendy (left) and Susan Lieu (right), co-founders of Socola Chocolatier

Chief Chocolatier Wendy Lieu is a graduate of UC Davis with a degree in Managerial Economics. A self-taught chocolatier, she juggled her management consulting job with pastry school to gain additional expertise last year.

Chief Chocolatier Wendy Lieu

Sister Susan is a Harvard alum whose passion for activism and social justice are deeply woven into her business plans for how Socola Chocolatier can play its part in improving social capital and engage the community it brings pleasure to.

Susan and I met up at a local coffee shop in SoMa, and as she told me about how Socola (which means "chocolate" in Vietnamese) was born, the story became much more than just about chocolate. She leaned in and her eyes glowed with conviction. She said, "It is in our blood to start something. Our parents were boat people and fled Vietnam in ’81. They came here and they were entrepreneurs. Our parents opened nail salons, a gardening service, and worked seven days a week for nearly 30 years. Wendy and I started Socola because we too wanted to create."

Apparently sweetness is in their blood too. The girls' grandfather had 11 children, and his family lived in the same house as his brother who had 12 children. He fed his family by making pastries and sweets that his wife sold every day at the market.

The inspiration for many of Socola's flavors come from the wandering travels of the sisters. For example, Give it to Me Guava was inspired from the time Susan spent in Baracoa, Cuba as a humanitarian aid worker. Wendy visited her while she was abroad and every morning the sisters would have guava jelly on toast as the morning sun warmed their faces. Susan also recently returned from a year-long stint in Vietnam developing sustainable cocoa production practices with local farmers in the Mekong Delta where her family used to call home.

Socola Chocolatier's Gold-Dusted Truffles

Socola's chocolates are beautiful, sensual, and they make you feel good. The Socola Sisters are living the dream and pushing forward in their quest to create. Memories, experiences, and a desire to keep seeking are intertwined in the flavors of their labor of love.

Socola Chocolatier is Femininity, Strength, and Spirit. Delicately daring? Yes, I think so.

Note: The Valentine's Day Offering can be pre-ordered online. Online orders must be placed by Friday, February 6th, 2009 to ensure receipt by the 14th .

Chocolates can also be purchased at:
• Alameda Natural Grocery Store 1650 Park St. #L Alameda, Ca
• Daily Delectables 3249 Grand Ave. Oakland, Ca
• (Whole Foods in early March)