Bridgewater

The Housatonic and Shepaug rivers meet at the southern tip of this town in lower Litchfield County. Originally the Shepaug Neck section of New Milford, Bridgewater incorporated in 1856. Long an agricultural community characterized by tobacco, dairy farming, and animal husbandry, Bridgewater experienced limited industrial development.

In the 1800s, a mail-order toiletries business run by entrepreneur Charles B. Thompson and a hat-making factory were chief among the town’s enterprises. Today, the Sunny Valley Preserve, a 1,850-acre network of wetlands, meadows, woods, and farmland, honors the town’s agricultural heritage by educating visitors about environmentally compatible farming. https://connecticuthistory.org/towns-page/brdgewater

If you have a sweet tooth and love the taste of gourmet chocolate then you have to check out Bridgewater Chocolates and the story behind the very successful business in Connecticut.

Check out the video on Bridgewater Chocolates below filmed at WFSB News studios.

Bridgewater Chocolate was first established by owner and founder, Erik Landegren, in 1995. Erik came to the United States from Stockholm, Sweden to open Aquivit, the highly acclaimed, seasonal Nordic style Swedish restaurant in the heart of New York City.  After many successful years at Aquivit, Erik met his wife-to-be, Patti, and moved to the town of Bridgewater, CT to raise a family. 

Erik began making chocolate while he was running the quaint Bridgewater Village Store.  He loved the American style chocolates he was able to find in the US but missed the handmade, high-quality ingredients and recipes from his childhood.  He missed the creamy rich ganache of European truffles, the caramel that oozed from within the chocolate, the brittle buttery toffee, the handmade marizpan and most of all the creamy, high cocoa, high cocoa butter content chocolate.