Lavender Is the Springtime Answer to Pumpkin Spice

A year ago, Jonathan Grahm, a chocolatier, visited Paris and noticed the ubiquity of lavender in French soaps and lotions. He wanted to add a floral-leaning chocolate to his lineup at Compartés, a confectionery shop in Los Angeles established in 1950, and figured that lavender was his way in.Mr. Grahm harnessed his inspiration into a lavender white chocolate bar using flower buds from farmers’ markets in California. It was a tricky experiment, but now the pastel-purple bar is one of the company’s most popular, with more than 10,000 sold in the last year. For Mother’s Day, Mr. Grahm…