Maine’s Isle-au-haut encompasses 12.7 square miles and supports a year-round community of about 80, most of them engaged in the lobster fishing industry. Large portions of the land are designated as Acadia National Park. One wouldn’t normally think of finding a chocolate shop and café there, but thanks to Kate and Steve Shaffer, locals and trekkers can enjoy award-winning chocolates in the wilderness.
That coincidence has its origins in Kate Shaffer, who moved to the area several years ago to take on a job as a chef at one of the local inns. As she told a Boston Globe reporter in 2011, Kate was thrilled at the opportunity of serving up “a dinner party every night.” She, however, found preparing desserts with chocolate a challenge. Determined to learn how to make truffles for her hotel guests, Shaffer, described in the article how the process “cost them [the hotel] a lot of chocolate.”