MN History Center's top treats from 'Chocolate: The Exhibition'

Monica Wright

Gorging encouraged

Sure, you can visit "Chocolate: The Exhibition" and leave the Minnesota History Center's gift shop with a cocoa-colored magnet or pencil. Or you could get into the freakin' spirit of things and indulge in one of these top five delectable (and totally local) chocolate offerings.

1. Abdallah Chocolates
Swoon! The gift shop has an entire case of locally made Abdallah truffles, caramel s'mores, butter almond toffeettes, sea salt caramels...we could go on and on. These local candy experts have 101 years of chocolate under their belts, so mix, match, and splurge.

2. B.T. McElrath's chocolate bars and truffles
Buy one of chocolatier B.T. McElrath's artisanal bars and you'll never bite into a Hershey again. Sure there's the basic milk and dark chocolates, but McElrath challenges chocoholics with a chile limon bar and a passion fruit/tangerine concoction. And of course, McElrath's classic truffles are always reliably decadent.

3. Golden Fig chocolate-themed spices
St. Paul-based Golden Fig had the gift store's most unique chocolate offerings in the form of sprinkles, salts, mixes and spices meant to enliven even the most basic of chocolate treats. A shaker of chocolate salt (sprinkle on grilled fruit!), a bottle of chocolate balsamic (marinate some chops!) and some chocolate mint sugar (simmer with strawberries for an ice cream topping!) allow for creativity to take over.

Monica Wright

Bundtastic

4. Nordic Ware's Bundt mixes
A classic! Take your basic bundt to the next level with this mix, which throws a rich fudge center into the standard chocolate cake. Or take out the gooey core and go with a more traditional Chocolate Decadence -- your call. But it doesn't get more Minnesota than Nordic Ware's circular goodness.

5. Groveland Confections
For chocolate on the go, History Center visitors can nab the individually packaged treats of St. Paul's Groveland Confections, who have moo pies, coconut truffle squares, giant slabs of roasted pecan toffee and sea salt caramel bars for the chocoholic on the go.