Chocolate Champion finds a new home on East Passyunk Avenue
Favors and Flavors—the purveyor of gift baskets and chocolate confections—has a new home on East Passyunk Avenue featuring a wide variety of holiday gift options.
Angela Zuccaro, the lively proprietor of Favors and Flavors, 1800 E. Passyunk Ave., is excited to showcase her shop’s new home this holiday shopping season. The shop, which sells chocolates by the piece or pound, specializes in custom, made-to-order fruit, chocolate, and snack-filled baskets and cakes for all occasions. They’re also offering pastries, cookies, and much more. And there’s ice cream on the way next Spring!
Zuccaro loves the holiday season in general, but she’s especially thankful for the Christmas season of 1994 when holiday sales kept her fledgling shop afloat. “I had opened in April that year, and very little went right in the beginning,” Zuccaro recalled. “I gave myself through Christmas to have some kind of breakthrough—and it came. I’ve never looked back since.”
In the 26 years since, the South Philadelphia native and resident has become a chocolate champion through her shop’s varied offerings. “I have this amazing personal relationship with chocolate that I just have to share,” she says. While she confessed that one piece of the delight is good enough to make her happy for the day, patrons will likely find it hard to limit themselves to a single selection since her wares are so welcoming and delectable.
“Everything we do here is intended to make people happy, and that’s how I’ve always operated,” said Zuccaro, who has helmed Favors and Flavors in five locations. She moved the shop to 1800 E. Passyunk Ave. in August.
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With the holiday shopping season upon us, this is the perfect stop for gifts. “I think that the holiday and chocolate just go together,” Zuccaro said as she walked past the “Chocolate Makes Me Happy” sign that rests above a table of assorted wrapped goodies. “However, I don’t think people ever need an excuse to enjoy chocolate.”
Those who agree with her sentiment can indulge in the shop’s intricate chocolate-covered fruit or snack towers that feature apples, bananas, cherries, pineapple, popcorn, and pretzels. The pretzels are particularly popular, Zuccaro noted. The shop’s pretzel varieties include cookies and cream, coconut, and and almond crunch topped confections.
Favors and Flavors also offers cakes, coffees, cookies, and pastries. All the offerings make great gifts for loved ones and colleagues. Or, Zuccaro notes with a wink, “You can’t overlook the need to treat yourself, you know.”
For the holidays, the owner, who described herself as “a 24-7 businesswoman,” is offering a plethora of creations, including packages and baskets that will make spirits bright and stomachs content. Hot chocolate bombs, Ferrero Rocher wreaths, kiddie candy canes, and personalized Santa milk-and-cookies sets complement those items.
“This hasn’t been the most pleasant year, and nobody can deny that,” she said. “People need as many pick-me-ups as they can find. We happen to think they’ll find plenty of them in here.”
There are more treats on the way this coming Spring. Zuccaro revealed that she will be opening an ice cream parlor along East Passyunk Avenue. The soft-serve spot will give her yet another outpost on the street that’s been home to Favors and Flavors for 23 of its 26 years.
As she looked over the shop’s displays of cards, stuffed animals, and candles, Zuccaro reflected on the unique bond she shares with her customers: “Each day, it gives me a nice feeling to know we’ve been helping each other out for this long. I’m still grateful beyond belief that they helped me out way back in 1994. I can’t ever think about anything other than giving them my best.”
