In Milène Jardine’s world, even mistakes are sweet

Settling into a tiny conference room with my own microwaved serving of this morning’s mistake, I ask Jardine about the fundamentals of chocolatiering. More than 2,500 years ago, the Mayans were drinking chocolate—though they preferred theirs bitter and cold. In the 16th century, European colonizers mixed these Mesoamerican beans with Southeast Asian sugar cane. Now, the sweet stuff is on every street corner. But what Jardine does with her cocoa is different. 

Truffles, her first love, are geometric delights, she explains, defined by their depth. There’s an outer shell of tempered chocolate and a flavored ganache suspended inside. When the perfect ratio of cream to chocolate is achieved, the ganache will never solidify, 

ensuring every bite-sized delicacy starts crunchy and ends with a satisfying ooze. “Chocolate should melt,” Jardine says. “In your mouth! Not your hand.” 

Jardine worked at Macy’s Private Label Headquarters for over a decade. She traveled the world, looking for new trends, sourcing materials and meeting with a global network of producers. But two years ago Macy’s eliminated her team, and Jardine found herself seeking an entirely new pursuit. Looking back on a childhood spent baking in her homes in Douglaston and Bayside and salivating over glistening treats at the pink-and-black Fauchon store in Paris (her mother’s hometown), she decided to build her future on chocolate cubes. 

With kitchen assistance from her father, whom everyone calls “Pa,” Jardine and a small staff produce 800 truffles in an average eight-hour shift. They retail online, host tasting events pairing their chocolates with wine and sell to companies looking for tasteful gifts for employees or clients. 

Jardine’s fashion background remains evident in everything she does, from her own deliberate dress, to the way her fingers glide over a ribbon, and to one of her brochures. She loves her company’s cherry blossom logo almost as much as the chocolates themselves, and obsesses over the look and feel of every piece of packaging. (The truffle box, which I call “a really nice blue,” is actually Pantone 2766.) But her previous career is most obvious in her flavors. 

The company’s signature collection, “Live by Love,” has five distinct truffles. There are a few classics, like the standard dark chocolate; a warm, orange Harvey Wallbanger number; and the whiskey sea salt. But the others are inventive—sometimes shockingly so. “Sanctuary,” a flavor inspired by her many trips to Japan, is a searing mix of ginger, turmeric and black pepper plugged right into a hollow chocolate heart. “Goddess,” inspired by business trips to Egypt and time spent in the shadow of the pyramids, is a mint-hibiscus medley so resonant I actually gasped when my teeth hit the shell.