Competition gets sweeter

Richard and Carolyn Rosanova are wishing this week they had a few Oompa-Loompas hidden in their basement to stir up a river of chocolate.

The pair, who own Wild Idaho Chocolate Co., are dishing up more than 1,600 handmade candy bars, crafted with a milk chocolate image of a gymnast in motion.

The treats will be a sweet welcome today for gymnasts converging on Coeur d’Alene for this weekend’s Great West Gym Fest competition.

Organizers of the meet commissioned the chocolates to distribute to the athletes, who will compete Friday through Sunday at the Coeur d’Alene Resort and North Idaho College.

“They need a little sugar to keep on going,” said Debbie Keller, a coach and director at Funtastics gymnasium. “It’s a long weekend.”

Since last week, the Rosanovas have been dipping and spreading nearly 300 pounds of chocolate. The 2-ounce bars feature a milk chocolate gymnast against a square, white chocolate background.

The bars depict either a female gymnast – performing a graceful, bent-leg handstand – or a male gymnast on the horse. Of the 1,614 bars, 165 are for boys, the pair said.

Carolyn Rosanova, the designated cook, squeezes melted milk chocolate into a mold using a tipped bottle, then covers it with a dipperful of a warm white chocolate. The bars must chill for an hour before breaking them out of the mold.

“I would jump over a fence for one of these, if I were 10,” joked Richard Rosanova, as he slathered chocolate into a mold at the candy store on Government Way.

With freezer time, it takes two hours to make 60 bars, the Rosanovas said. On Wednesday, the couple planned to finish the last 600 bars in preparation for today’s distribution.

“Hopefully,” Keller said, “they’ll be a couple of extra chocolate bars for us.”