On a recent afternoon, Deena Beliso took rum truffles from a tray and hand dipped them one by one into dark chocolate.

Beside her, daughter, Tia, placed mint dark chocolate truffles into tiny paper cups.

“It’s a real treat if you can get it right off the tray,” Deena said of customers who come into Amore Chocolates and get a fresh taste test.

There’s a lot of love that goes into Amore Chocolates, said long-time Bellevue resident Brenda Archuletta, who owns the store with husband, Isaiah. Faithful patrons really can taste the difference between week-old chocolate they get at other shops, and Amore Chocolates that are made fresh, she said.

The small, 400-square-foot store has been on Main Street for five years this month. The space was previously Bloomers flower shop for many years.

With more than 50 different flavors to chose from at any given time, the shop offers truffles, caramels, butter creams and specialties, such as key lime coconut joys, mozarts and scotch kisses (caramel covered marshmallows). While the shop features the obvious milk chocolate and strawberry truffles, there also are the off-the-wall flavors, including chinese 5 spice truffles and bourbon street caramels.

Prices range from $2.25 for a one-piece box of chocolate, to $132 for a 3 pound box. The most popular choice is an eight piece box for $15.

The Reporter chatted with Archuletta about Amore Chocolates and how each product is made with love.

Reporter: What sets Amore Chocolates apart from other chocolate shops?

Archuletta: We make everything here on site from scratch. So all our caramels are cooked here. A lot of other stores bring them in and form and dip them, but we do everything right from scratch. We make the chocolates in small batches and put them on little pans and we will dip the candies one by one.

We’re very particular about our product. We’re more concerned about that than we are sales.

Reporter: What are some favorites?

Archuletta: Our number one chocolate is seriously dark from the day we opened. That surprised us a little, we thought there would be more interest in milk chocolate. When we opened in 2003, there was an article about the healthful properties of dark chocolate.

We have found that our dark is not bitter, so even if people say they don’t like dark, a lot of them go to the dark side. We’ll have them try just a little piece of something and they’ll love it.

The second most popular was white mocha, but now it’s mudslide. It’s sweeter, it’s creamy and addicting. It’s like the cocktail: Vodka, Bailey’s and a little coffee.

The margarita truffle also is one of my personal favorites. It starts off as lime, and then there’s a little tequila, not much. We started off with chili lime because I was just thinking I liked the chips and that worked. So we said, ‘well, lets try a margarita.’ So that one was just a hit.

Reporter: What’s new?

Archuletta: As of November we started doing what’s called a chiffon. It’s an all-white ganache. I was a little resistant at first and thought it would be too sweet, but you know it’s really good. We had several customers who suggested it. My nephew was after me for quite some time to make it.

So then we started thinking, well what flavors would really work well in the white because we had some that didn’t work with dark chocolate. Green tea really didn’t show up in the dark chocolate, but it’s very good in the white chocolate (matcha chiffon chocolate).

We rotate some flavors, but certain ones we just can’t run out of or there would just be an uprising.

Reporter: How did you come up with the concept for Amore Chocolates?

Archuletta: I would never have seen myself doing anything like this ever. But my husband’s owned several businesses, so to him it was nothing.

We have a painting company. I’ve always done bookkeeping and office work. It turns out I have a creative side, too.

So Isaiah came up with the idea for Amore Chocolates. He took care of all the remodel of the space. It is an old building, so we had a lot of challenges when it came to that.

Reporter: Why did you choose Old Bellevue?

Archuletta: We were driving by and I saw the sign that said “for lease.” My husband just whipped that car around. We had been looking at other locations, but I’m so glad we found this. We can really show our personality here as opposed to a mall situation.

We love the neighbors. When we first opened, our fellow merchants were very welcoming and encouraging. So we know all the owners, their family, their dogs. It’s a nice little community feel.

Reporter: How have you been received by the community?

Archuletta: They’ve adopted us, I think. They’ll bring relatives and people who have come from out of town. This is our chocolate shop, I hear them say. It’s sweet.

Reporter: Anything you’d like to add?

Archuletta: It is quite an accomplishment to be here five years. So we’re very thankful to our customers.