A Gourmet Lobster Chocolate Bar Is a Thing You Can Buy in Boston

Beacon Hill Chocolates sells a new lobster-flavored chocolate bar. / Photo courtesy of Chocolatasm by Paul John Kearins

Ice cream, fried seafood, hot dogs, lobster rolls—summertime in New England is synonymous with a long list of iconic seasonal cuisine. So when summer rolls around at tourist-frequented Beacon Hill Chocolates, store owner Paula Barth has to get creative to entice customers to save some room for artisan chocolates. The candy store offers ice-cold gelato, but for the first time, Beacon Hill Chocolates just brought in a truly unique, summer-ready offering: Lobster-flavored chocolate.

Yes, lobster chocolate. The Cape Cod Bar, a new product crafted by chocolatier Paul John Kearins of Provincetown wholesaler and online shop Chocolatasm, is a low-sugar white chocolate bar blended with essences of real Atlantic lobster, lemon, and parsley. The treat is buttery, just slightly sweet, and has a subtle crunch thanks to the addition of Cape Cod sea salt.

Kearins uses a powdered lobster-flavor extract, made from cooked, wild-caught lobster (so no chunks of crustacean meat in your candy bar, thanks). He ups the amount of cocoa butter he would normally use, while lessening the amount of added sugar, to invoke that sense-memory of sitting down at a Cape Cod lobster shack and cracking into the real thing with a squeeze of lemon and a side of drawn butter.

“I wanted it to be nostalgic,” the chocolatier says.

Kearins is not afraid to get a little weird with his chocolate bars and bonbons, and he’s earned a following for it, says Beacon Hill Chocolates’ Barth. Heirloom apple spice, blueberry cheesecake, Hawaiian black-salted marzipan, and mango Prosecco are some of Chocolatasm’s best-selling flavors at her shop, she says. Beacon Hill Chocolates now carries trendy ruby chocolate thanks to the Provincetown maker, too.

It was fellow Cape Cod chocolatier Josiah Mayo of Chequessett Chocolate in Truro who first suggested the idea of lobster chocolate to Kearins, because bringing uncommon flavor combinations to life through chocolate is Chocolatasm’s specialty.

“I have what I call a very keen olfactory memory, or ability to remember smells,” Kearins says. “I can create an aroma [in my mind] just by thinking about it. That way I can combine flavors you wouldn’t necessary expect go together [in chocolate].”

The lobster bar is really just another riff on sweet-and-savory chocolate, says Barth. Like chocolate-covered pretzels—her personal favorite snack—and chocolate-covered bacon, it won’t be for everybody. But with “Cape Cod” on the label, and real Atlantic lobster on the ingredient list, it’s proven to be appealing to many people visiting her shop since Beacon Hill Chocolates started stocking the bar earlier this month.

“It goes hand-in-hand, Boston and lobster,” Barth says. “We try to select the most creative things you can’t find everywhere.”

And unlike summer in New England, the lobster chocolate bar isn’t necessarily a fleeting treat: “As long as people want it, it’s going to be [available],” Kearins says.

The three-ounce Cape Cod Bar is on sale now for $10 at Beacon Hill Chocolates, as well as Provincetown’s East End Market, and Chocolatasm’s online shop.

Beacon Hill Chocolates, 91 Charles St., 617-725-1900, beaconhillchocolates.com.

Chocolatasm’s lobster-flavored Cape Cod Bar has souvenir-level packaging. / Photo courtesy of Beacon Hill Chocolates