"When people see chocolate, taste chocolate, you walk in the door and you say, 'Oh! Chocolate!' "

And that's exactly what Nola Wyse's mother named the chocolate shop when she started it 40 years ago. Nola and her family have since taken over the business with locations in Mercer Island, Bellevue and most recently, Madison Park.

"There's not one of us that doesn't have our fingers in it at all times," says Nola. "Some people are just born chocolatiers, and we are."

Dipping their hands into the family business is Nola, her sister Margo, her nephew Nick, Nick's brother, his brother's wife, and Nola's oldest son, Conner.

The entire family was born and raised in Hawaii, moving to the Northwest to help keep the business going.

Nola says her mom, Gertie Krautheim, was making chocolates for the entire neighborhood when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Nola's father was away in the military, so Gertie took it upon herself to keep everyone's spirits up.

She says her mom was way ahead of her time.

"All the base recipes that we use are her originals. She has things that today are just now becoming popular in the regular chocolate market that she'd been doing when I was a little girl," says Nola.

Nick Masaoka oversees production at Oh! Chocolate and is also a master at creating new flavors.

"The best seller would be our Tiramisu truffle, followed very closely by the Latte truffle. The Figaro is another one that's picking up. It's a layer of fig with a layer of Cabernet truffle. But, caramels are also picking up, like our Portuguese Kiss, which is a port and orange zest caramel. And the Kentucky Colonel is a bourbon caramel with pecans."

Nola's 84-year-old father, Carl Krautheim, who she refers to as the modern day Willy Wonka, is technically retired from the business, but you'd never know it.

He's the handsome man with white hair and matching mustache that hands out free chocolate like crazy when he's in the shop.

Nola says, "it's because he has such a good time with it. He is really like a little chocolate grandpa! He made chocolate for years, too. And even though it started with my mom, he quickly picked up on the whole thing."

Nick says his grandfather has the keenest palette of anyone he knows, "He doesn't hear that well, so I think he substitutes his hearing with a phenomenal sense of taste. He can tell you exactly when something was made and what's in it. It's like a bionic sense that he has."

At the Madison Park store, there is something that is sure to satisfy every sweet tooth. It's a french drinking chocolate made of milk, cream and chocolate. No preservaties. And it's so decadent, a small demitasse cup is all you need.

Nola explains why it's so darn good: "We have special cream done for us that's extraordinarily heavy and hormone free. We use it in all of our chocolate."

Right now, the family is getting some special chocolates together for Valentine's Day.

"The Pink Champagne truffles as well as the Mango Habanero. In Mexican culture chilli and chocolate is an aphrodisiac."

Gertie worked at the Bellevue store from the time it opened in 1986 until she became ill two years later.

Nola says if her mom were alive today she'd be ecstatic over how well her family has carried on the chocolate tradition.

"She really, really would be, and there are so many times we talk about it. She would have just LOVED all this!"

Places Nola and Nick like to Go Eat!: Cedars, any Tom Douglas restaurant, Salumi, Bing's, Madison Park Bakery.

For More Information:

www.ohchocolate.com