What’s in store: Glow Healdsburg opens with chocolate and candles

From street construction nearly cutting off all business, to an amicable but necessary name change, Holly Hunt has seen her first business, the Russian River Tea Co., grow and change in Healdsburg.

Now, to capitalize on the products she finds flying off the shelves, she has opened a second store, Glow Healdsburg, just across the street. The store is stocked with candles, chocolates, Christine Rosamond prints, vintage Moroccan textiles and local art.

After seeing a rise in chocolate sales at Russian River Tea Co., once Dragonfly Tea Co., the idea of a shop to feature them, along with candles, began to foment in her mind. By the time chocolate rose to become the No. 2 sales item, a nearby storefront came on the rental market.

Hunt, 58, said she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to extend her niche. Glow Healdsburg moved into the Center Street location recently vacated by Ret-ro-fit Home.

Hunt is joined by her daughter-in-law, Heather Hanson, 30, who inherited 500 Christine Rosamond prints. Rosamond’s paintings became an “overnight sensation” in 1972. She created well-known works until her drowning death at age 46 in 1994 in Carmel.

Glow Healdsburg will feature local chocolatiers Healdsburg Toffee and Wine Country Chocolates, as well as Moonstruck and Recherche du Plaisir. Hunt also will carry lines of drinking chocolates from Devine and Moonstruck.

The store will also sell candles, Moroccan textiles from Antevasin, and personal care products from her private Glow Healdsburg line and from Healdsburg Bath and Body and Country Suds. In addition, Hunt plans to include the works of Healdsburg artists and artisans for sale.

Hunt will include chocolate tastings at the location, as well as wine and chocolate pairings at local tasting rooms. Tasting rooms will include Banshee, Windsor Vineyards, Cartograph and Mueller.

She also brews the iced tea featured at Valette restaurant nearby.

Glow Healdsburg is located at 336 Center St. Store hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 473-8256, visit russianriverteaco.com or follow Glow Healdsburg on Facebook.