July 23, 2008 - Oxford--Some people may be eating out less often, taking shorter vacations and forgoing some guilty pleasures to deal with tighter budgets, but there's one discretionary item that many say they won't sacrifice: chocolate.

Patty Shay, for example, goes every week to The Chocolate Bar in Oxford, where she satisfies her sweet tooth.

"I get a box of b.sweets ... it's a dark chocolate that is very, very good, not very sweet," she said of the gourmet chocolate that Oprah Winfrey has featured in her magazine. "I'm not necessarily a big Oprah fan, but this chocolate is fantastic. When I go have coffee or champagne, it goes really well with it and it helps me to relax."

Michelle Sutton, who last fall opened The Chocolate Bar with her sister, Carmen Bond, said business has continued to grow at the shop on Van Buren Avenue off the Square.

And some industry analysts say candy, including chocolate, is recession-proof.

"We've been open for less than year, so we really don't have anything to compare," Sutton said. "But I can say that our traffic has been good. People are still finding out about us."

America's sweet spot Opening a specialty shop might be a gamble these days, but if you have a product that sells, you've found a good spot.

And with chocolate, it's a sweet spot, too. According to the National Confectioners Association, Americans gobbled up more than $29 billion worth of candy last year, about 3 percent more than 2006. Research company Package Facts, in a report issued last year, said the U.S. market for chocolate was primed for growth from $16 billion to $18 billion in 2011.

Growth in the premium chocolate category jumped from 13 percent of the total market in 2002 to nearly 17 percent in 2006.

Clearly, chocolate sells.

Henry Daniels, who's owned Margarete's Fine Chocolates in Tupelo for 12 years, has gone through one recession and a couple of other economic downturns and said chocolate demand never wavered. He doesn't expect that to change this time around either.

Chocolate is "absolutely" recession-proof, he said. "People are still buying premium chocolates. We're catering mainly to the middle- and upper-income groups, and they're the ones who are still buying. Right now, we're busy with a lot of weddings. Chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate-covered pineapples, Tupelo honey ... they're all selling very well right now."

Another reason for the growth in premium chocolates is the surging interest in dark chocolate.

The American Heart Association conducted a study that suggested that flavonoids, the natural antioxidants found in chocolate, can lower blood pressure and improve insulin resistance.

Dark chocolate also contains lower fat and sugar content--another boon to confectioners and chocolate lovers.

So it's no surprise that The Chocolate Bar has plenty of dark chocolate, along with other chocolate goodies to satisfy what Bond calls "chocolatesseurs."

And to find the best chocolates to sell, Sutton and Bond have traveled across the country scouring trade shows and visiting other gourmet chocolate shops, getting good ideas along the way.

There have been hits and misses, but like Daniels, the sisters say there is no shortage of demand.

"Chocolate is THE craze," Bond said. "It seemed like there were at least two or three gourmet chocolate shops everywhere I went, and then you have department stores opening chocolate shops inside their stores."

Indeed, Daniels caught onto the trend more than a decade ago and has seen demand for gourmet chocolates continue to grow.

"We've seen our sales increase every year," he said. "Of course we're busiest during Christmas and Valentine's, but nine months of the year, it's steady. During the summer months, we do a lot of weddings that also keep us busy. Even when the economy has gone up and down, we've done well, and I think it will be the same."

Consumers may balk at $4 gas, $5 milk and $3 eggs, but when it comes to treating themselves, there's just something about chocolate that they can't resist.

And so far, the numbers seem to be bearing that out.

Added Sutton with a smile, "when it comes to buying chocolates, you can afford to come in and spend $15 on a gourmet box of chocolates ... and you won't feel bad about it at all."

Shay doesn't disagree.

"It just makes you feel good to go in there," she said. "I just love that shop and there's always something new and different."

Chocolate indeed may be recession-proof--and irresistible, too.