MATT COURTER/Sun-Gazette Lang’s Chocolates can be found at 350 Pine St., Williamsport.

Finding that perfect sweet treat can be a difficult task, but luckily when the craving strikes, comfort can be found in the heart of downtown at Lang’s Chocolates.

“It’s always been a lifelong hobby for me, so I just had to give it a go as a business,” said owner and operator William Lang, who started the business, located at 350 Pine St., with his father and mother in 2006.

“We’ve had lots of success with local, as well as national sales and selling online,” he said.

Lang is fully involved in every facet of the business, especially the creation of their goodies.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with chocolate and making things out of it, so it’s been fun,” Lang said.

“Most of it, I learned on my own, and it actually stretches back further for me, to elementary school when I was playing around with chocolate,” he said.

Although there are some items they purchase outside of the company, most of them are made in house.

Always looking to expand their customer base, the company began work on sugar alternatives in 2017.

“Now we have a limited selection of low carb and sugar free items,” Lang said.

“A lot of times when people think of sugar free, they don’t think it tastes good. But, we’ve worked really hard to make our stuff taste good and still be sugar free,” he said.

Taking customer service to another level, Lang’s Chocolates produces and packages all of their products not involving the nine major food allergens.

Some of Lang’s most popular items include their sea salt caramels, peanut butter flowers, chocolate covered Oreos and caramel pretzels, according to Lang.

Other customer favorites include chocolate cups and shot glasses.

And, while most items are available through their website, Lang stressed that there are always new sweets that are available only at the store.

“I was just making up a mango cream the other day that I don’t have on the website because I like to see how the general public likes it before I spend all the effort and time to put it up online,” he explained.

Lang is enthusiastic to keep that experimentation going.

“A few years ago, we tried a bunch of hot and spicy things, and that was all very much driven by the oil and gas crews that were coming in, so we made a spicy peanut brittle. We did some spicy chocolates. Unfortunately those kinds of things tend to not please everybody,” he said.

“I was working on a Turkish taffy kind of candy. I haven’t quite perfected the recipe yet, but I’m working on it,” Lang said.

With a fully functioning website with shipping options available, it is perhaps no surprise that Lang’s has moved into the international market.

“We ship to Canada on a regular basis, but we’ve had orders go all the way out to Australia, England, France and Germany,” he said, crediting Little League with helping to get the business’ name out to countries far and wide.

While Lang stressed that his chocolate is the best around, he also pointed out that they’re the only candy-maker in Lycoming County.

“There’s nobody else who’s selling chocolate at a retail level that actually makes anything in Williamsport. They’re buying it in from everybody else and then reselling it,” he said.

“We’ve got the ability to do custom chocolates, custom flavors, get things turned around in quick order., so, if we get an order in on a Monday or Tuesday, we can have it ready for somebody Wednesday, Thursday,” Lang said.

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, Lang’s is gearing up for customers coming in for fresh chocolate-covered strawberries, an offer that differs from area competitors, Lang said.

“They’re going to be liquid chocolate that morning, and then by afternoon, you’re going to have a strawberry ready for Valentine’s Day, whereas, other people around here are not going to be using high quality chocolate, or they’re going to get them from somebody who’s dipped them days or maybe weeks prior,” he said.

Lang is extremely thankful that those in the area embraced the fruits of his passion so long ago.

“We love the community. We love working with people. We have several different relationships with local companies that we cross promote and try to work with other local people,” he said.