Matthew's Chocolates

Located at 107 North Churton Street in downtown Hillsborough, Matthew’s Chocolates offers chocolates, confectionaries, gelato, coffee drinks, and more. A customer loyalty program allows for purchases to accrue toward free products.

For anyone with a sweet tooth, this place is a must. One look at the display cases is enough to inspire Homer Simpson-style drooling. Barks, truffles, and other blissful bites come in different shapes, colors, and chocolates dark and milk and white. All are homemade, and those sampled have tasted every bit as good as they looked. The clusters, for instance, have a good nut-to-chocolate ratio while spicier offerings pair ginger and Asian seasonings to bring a little heat to the sweet. Such is the quality that it absolutely justifies what seems at first to be overly ambitious pricing. You may balk at spending $2 to $3 for something that disappears in two bites, but when said bites are through, you’ll be glad that you did so.

If Matthew’s Chocolates has one Achilles’ heel, it isn’t the layout (the brightly marked chalkboards are easy to read) or the staff (quirky and typically friendly if occasionally harried) but rather the establishment’s own success. This isn’t a big space, and when it fills, lines will form, your view of the goods will be obstructed or blocked, and your patience may wear thin. Remind yourself that the chocolate is worth the wait, and you’ll appreciate it even more when that wait is through.

9/10