With Easter right around the corner, you may be preparing your tastes buds for the excess of chocolate that usually comes hand-in-hand with the holiday.If you were anything like me, then as a child, you probably looked forward to Easter with as much excitement as you did to Halloween — mainly because of all the sweet treats that you got. While the vast majority of us don’t still get chocolate rabbits and eggs for Easter, we probably wish we still did.As we’ve matured, so have our tastes buds. Chocolatier and owner of The Chocolate Makers Studio, Steve Lawrence, has tapped into adults’ cravings for chocolate by putting a mature twist on a childhood favorite.While commercial brands like Hershey’s is geared towards a wide variety of people, Lawrence decided to tweak his products a bit to appeal to those with more “adult oriented” tastes.Lawrence, who has been making chocolate for over 20 years, got into the business as a hobby but treats the chocolate making process like an art.In his opinion, the quality of chocolate is directly related to the quality of the products used, which is why he uses chocolate imported from France. In his opinion, one problem with some mass produced chocolates is the manufacturers’ use of low quality products to cut costs. In order to “mask” these lower grade products, they add lots of vanilla flavoring and sugar. This excess of sugar, is what usually gives people the rush they feel after eating most chocolates. “There’s a low sugar content [in my products], allowing you to taste more of the flavor of the chocolate,” Lawrence said.While Lawrence tackled the issue of poor quality hidden by a surplus of sugar in his chocolates, he also experimented with different products, to add flavors that older people could appreciate. “I play off of mixed drinks a lot — different cocktails that people like — that I like,” Lawrence said. This led to some of his most popular flavors such as the Mint Julep, which is a combination of Bourbon and fresh mint, and the Sazerac, which is a combination of Whiskey and Absinthe. Selling so close to New Orleans and many college campuses, where drinking is often a hobby, no doubt spikes interest in his odd flavor combinations.For those not into drinking, Lawrence also offers other populars such as Lemon Grass, Chai Tea, Mocha, Rosemary Caramel, and Ginger, all of which were developed through experimentation with different herbs, spices, coffees, and teas.He currently sells from the Main Street Market, which is located downtown. He says that he usually appears the Saturday right before all the major holidays that you would associate with chocolate, like Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day, which usually gets him a lot of business.He doesn’t deny that his products are more expensive than a run-of-the-mill Hershey’s Bar, but he says that the quality and taste are what warrant the cost. “You can’t get a high quality product, unless you’re using high quality ingredients, so using fresh herbs and fresh fruits, and the best quality chocolate I can get, really makes for outstanding chocolate,” Lawrence said.——Contact the Daily Reveille’s entertainment staff at [email protected]