Kee Ling Tong

South Street Seaport
222 Front Street, New York, NY
917-647-5060
Visit Kee’s Chocolates

Fresh Ingredients at the Heart of New York Chocolate

Kee Ling Tong has built her reputation on an approach to chocolate that values freshness, simplicity and unexpected flavour. Since founding Kee’s Chocolates in New York City in 2002, she has developed an ever-changing collection of handcrafted bonbons and truffles influenced by ingredients from around the world.

Her creations have included black sesame, green tea, yuzu, saffron, ginger and blood orange alongside more familiar chocolate flavours. Rather than relying on an enormous permanent collection, Kee’s has long allowed seasonal ingredients and freshness to help determine what is available.

From Corporate Life to Chocolate

Tong’s route into chocolate was unconventional. Before opening her business, she worked in the corporate world. In 2002, she left that career to pursue a different idea: a New York shop combining flowers and handmade chocolates.

Chocolate quickly became the star. Within about a year, the response to Tong’s confections encouraged her to concentrate entirely on chocolate, transforming the original concept into Kee’s Chocolates.

That small-scale beginning helped establish an identity that remains important to the company today: chocolate made by hand rather than designed for mass production.

Flavours Without Borders

One of the defining characteristics of Kee’s Chocolates is Tong’s willingness to look beyond conventional confectionery flavours.

Current and past creations have drawn on ingredients including black sesame, Earl Grey tea, elderflower, ginger, green tea, champagne, coconut and cognac. The company also uses ingredients sourced internationally, including yuzu from Japan, sea salt from France and saffron from Spain.

These ingredients give the collection an international character while remaining grounded in Tong’s New York chocolate kitchen.

Made for Freshness

Freshness plays an unusually visible role in the Kee’s philosophy. The company advises customers to refrigerate its bonbons and truffles and consume them within one week of purchase.

That short window says something important about Tong’s approach. These chocolates are intended as fresh confections rather than long-shelf-life products.

The company’s Omakase boxes extend that philosophy to the selection process. Instead of choosing every flavour individually, customers can order a chef-selected assortment of premium bonbons and truffles.

More Than Two Decades of Handcrafted Chocolate

Kee’s Chocolates has now been producing chocolate by hand since 2002. Over those years, Tong’s work has attracted attention for both its craftsmanship and its distinctive combinations of ingredients.

Yet the underlying concept remains remarkably straightforward: fresh chocolate, carefully selected ingredients and flavours that encourage curiosity.

In a city filled with luxury confectionery, Kee Ling Tong has created a recognisable identity without depending on elaborate spectacle. Her chocolates instead place flavour, freshness and handcrafted production at the centre of the experience.