Aphrodisiac Chocolate Among Options As Historic Queens Candy Store Teams Up With Uber

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS - A 90-year-old chocolate shop in Queens has teamed up with UberEATS to deiver confectionery to their customers' doors.

Forest Hills shop Aigner Chocolates began offering the delivery service earlier this month, packaging the candy for particular themes – movie night, a babysitter's companion and even an aphrodisiac bag.

"Chocolate in and of itself is supposed to be an aphrodisiac," Mark Libertine, who co-owns Aigner Chocolates at 103-02 Metropolitan Ave. "We just kind of ran with this theme."

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Items in that bag include a passion fruit jelly and chocolate hearts, though the candies are "not like chocolate oysters or anything like that," Libertini said.

The movie night bag includes an edible Oscar. The babysitter's companion has items both for the babysitter, like chocolate espresso beans, and for kids, such as chocolate gummi bears. The bags cost about $35 each.

They're part of Libertini and his wife Rachel Kellner's efforts to modernize Aigner Chocolates while preserving its best traditions. The couple bought the store from the original owners in 2015 as it faced the threat of closure.

"We’ve kept everything that’s good about it and just made improvements to enhance it," Kellner said. "We really feel if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The couple uses the same equipment that's been at the store for decades, like a 5-foot-wide device called a cream beater where all the marzipan and cream fillings get mixed.

"What makes our chocolate shop different from almost any chocolate shop you've ever been to is we use antique equipment to make our fillings and our chocolates," Libertini said.

The shop also has thousands of moulds that Kellner and Libertini recently photographed. They plan to post them on their website in the coming weeks so customers can choose unique patterns for their orders.

The shop makes German-style chocolate that, unlike French or Belgian varieties, is heavy on nut paste and cream fillings, Libertini said.

Along with using UberEATS, he and Kellner are trying other ways to reach a new generation of customers. They're developing their presence on social media and keeping the store open later than it used to be. It now closes at 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. the rest of the week.

"If you have a chocolate pinch late at night, we can be accessible," Libertini said.

Image courtesy Aigner Chocolates.