Sweeteeth: One Sweet Southern Chocolatier
During Yahoo Y’All week, we’re celebrating the food culture of the American South. Expect profiles of cooks, makers, and bartenders, plus recipes showcasing the classics (and twists on those classics) you love. Today we’re spotlighting an artisan featured in the gorgeous book Southern Makers: Food, Design, Craft, and other Scenes from the Tactile Life, by photographer and writer Jennifer Causey.
You’ve gotta love a chocolatier whose dream home is ”in the mountains or in a magical forest with a Hansel and Gretel candy kitchen where I can make chocolate all day and make fires with Liam [my son] all night—and have Internet.” So says Johnny Battles, the heavily tattooed and wonderfully talented North Charleston, South Carolina–based gent behind the chocolate company Sweeteeth.
The native Alabaman spent 90 percent of his professional life in kitchens, largely as a cook, but the birth of his son inspired him to pursue a way to set his own work hours. Truffle-making was the answer.
Battles’s concoctions are known for their curious combos: One chocolate might be laced with sweet port wine caramel, another with ruby-red grapefruit, and yet another with basil. (The curious can find his candies at shops coast to coast.) Here’s how Battles got his start, what motivates him, and where that wacky shop name came from.
Johnny is as fun and energetic as the candy he makes. A true Southerner, originally from Alabama, he has lived in Charleston since 2002. He began experimenting with chocolate while working at EVO Pizzeria in North Charleston. His truffles made it to the dessert menu, and word spread fast. Soon, other Charleston shops began asking for Johnny’s chocolates. In 2008, when he found out he was going to be a father, he decided to branch out and start his chocolate and sweet business, Sweeteeth.
Johnny uses single-origin Colombian chocolate for all his treats, carefully crafting each bar or bonbon through small-batch production. A self-professed flavor maker, Johnny’s innovative pairings are shaped by his ideas regarding Southern life and enjoyment, particularly notes that remind him of his childhood. “Nothing fancy,” he explains. “You can just effortlessly enjoy certain things, and those are the bites I like best.” Johnny’s “crazy addictive” fillings, as he calls them, are today satisfying sweet teeth across the country.
"Lauren, my wife, came up with [the name] as a play on a mouthful of sweet teeth. We used to call it Johnny’s Sweeteeth and just shortened it to better separate it from my personal identity. Like my son, I want my business to grow up to be better than me!"
Photos and text excerpted with permission from Southern Makers: Food, Design, Craft, and other Scenes from the Tactile Life, by Jennifer Causey (Princeton Architectural Press, 2013).
More crafty Southern makers:
7 Questions with Chef Sean Brock
The Southern Company Inspired by a Hard-Living Grandpa
Vivian Howard Tackles the Veggie Burger on ‘A Chef’s Life’
How weird do you like your chocolate? Or are you a straight-up chocolate-chocolate person?
