Bar of the Week: Domori's Teyuna

Our Bar of the Week is a longstanding favorite around the shop.  Made by Domori, an Italian maker known for the impeccable texture of its chocolates, the Teyuna bar is a 70% dark chocolate from Colombian cacao. The flavor is simple but seductive, with notes of honey and toasted cashews and exactly the right amount of sweetness.

We also know from experience that Teyuna's best qualities translate well to drinking chocolate; if you're already a Teyuna fan, keep in mind that for only $1.50 extra we can take this bar (or any other) and transform it into a hot, frothy, hand-warming treat. 

Stop by on Saturday, December 3rd, for a sample of Domori's Teyuna. 

Bar of the Week: Original Beans' Esmeraldas with Salt

What do you get when you combine a German conservation entrepreneur, a Dutch fair trade pioneer, and an American organic food marketer?  It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke, but it was actually the start of a great chocolate company.  Founded in 2006, Original Beans produces environmentally-friendly chocolate focused on conserving types of cacao that grow wild in the company's partner communities.  For every bar of  chocolate sold, Original Beans plants in a tree in those communities; a number on the package allows you to look up the tree associated with any of their bars.

Our bar of the week is Original Beans' Esmeraldas with Salt, a 42% Ecuadorian milk chocolate made from indigenous Arriba cacao rather than the more prevalent industrial hybrid.  Mixed with just a hint of fleur de sel, this bar is velvety-smooth and every bit as a rich as a butter caramel.

We'll be offering samples of Original Beans' Esmeraldas salt salt on Saturday, November 26th. 

Bar of the Week: Madecasse 63%

Hungry for a chocolate that'll make you feel as good as it tastes?  Then give one our Madecasse bars a try!

The company was founded by two former Peace Corps volunteers who leveraged their experience in Madagascar to start a chocolate company that trades directly with rural farmers.  Even more unusually, Madecasse chocolate is made in Madagascar itself; as Madecasse's website notes, "85% of the world’s cocoa comes from Africa. less than 1% of chocolate is made there."  By basing their operations in Madagascar, Madecasse ensures that more of its profits stay in the country.  Although Madecasse isn't certified "fair trade", the company estimates that localized manufacturing has even more benefits for its farmers than would certification alone.

Our bar of week is Madecasse's "sweet & smooth" 63% bar, a rich-textured dark chocolate with a softened take on the notes of cherry and citrus so characteristic of Madagascar.  Come by for a sample on Saturday, November 19th.  

Chocolopolis + Kiva, Part 2

 

We just accumulated enough change in our unofficial tip jar to make another microloan through Kiva!   Last time we funded a fudge maker in Nicaragua; Juana used the loan to expand her production facilities and has already started to make repayments. 

This time we chose Elizabeth, a cacao farmer in Peru who will use her loan to buy more cacao plants. What could be more perfect?

If you're one of those who has told us to "keep the change," we hope that you'll approve of our choice.  Thanks so much for helping us to help others.

And go, Elizabeth, go!

Bar of the Week: Valrhona's Tanariva

Milk chocolate lovers, we haven't forgotten about you!  Although we have a lot more dark chocolate than milk chocolate in the store, the milk chocolates we do carry hold up their side ably, with tons of personality in a creamy package.  Case in point, our bar of the week:  Valrhona's Tanariva. 

Tanariva is a 33% milk chocolate made from single-origin cacao grown in Madagascar.  The cherry and citrus notes typical of the region are present, but muffled by rich, warm layers of cream and caramel. 

Be sure to stop by on Saturday, November 12th for a melt-in-your-mouth taste of Valrhona's Tanariva. 

Bar of the Week: Patric's In-NIB-itable

If you're a fan of chocolates that bite back, be sure to come by and try Patric's In-NIB-itable, our current bar of the week.  Missouri-based small batch maker Patric combines zingy 70% Madagascan dark chocolate  with crushed, roasted nibs from the same origin.  The nibs add crunch and a pure hit of flavor to the smooth, refined chocolate, adding up to a two-layered texture and a double-pow taste.  

We'll have samples of Patric's In-NIB-itable available on Saturday, November 5th. 

What a Weekend!

Customers often ask me if Seattle is the leader in the artisan chocolate movement. While Seattle certainly has a vibrant artisan chocolate community and a lot of local pride, I've always felt there were other cities like San Francisco, Portland and Washington, DC, that deserved equal credit. Until this weekend.

I'm very proud to say that the Northwest Chocolate Festival, held last weekend at Seattle Center, has firmly established Seattle as a leader in the artisan chocolate movement. There are chocolate festivals held all around the country, so what makes this festival so unique and successful? Its focus on cacao and education.

Unlike most festivals, it's not just another feeding frenzy where attendees eat as much chocolate as they can without really getting to know the artisan. The Northwest Chocolate Festival educates chocolate lovers by putting them face-to-face with craft chocolate makers, not just for samples, but for interesting talks about how chocolate is made from the bean and what defines quality chocolate. You can learn about the magic of conching, taste the fruit of the cacao tree or meet an Ecuadorian cacao farmer, all while tasting great chocolate.

Admittedly, it was a bit of a hard sell at first. Craft and artisan chocolate makers are often on shoestring budgets with little money to travel across country for another chocolate festival that sounds like a feeding frenzy. The team that put together the Northwest Chocolate Festival did a great job convincing 19 craft and artisan chocolate makers to attend, many of them from places like North Carolina and Massachusetts. These artisans, all passionate about chocolate, filled up a room with tables offering samples of their chocolate. I looked into the room on Sunday afternoon, and there was a line snaking out of the room waiting to file by every table. Sales were so brisk that many of the artisans ran out of chocolate to sell.

But don't let me leave you thinking the festival was too serious. There was plenty of chocolate fun to be had as well. The Culinary Kitchen Stage offered great demos from local chocolatiers with plenty of samples to try as well as booths for purchasing local bonbons and confections. And the Aphrodisiac Room was, well, aphrodisiac, with chocolate body painting and wine and chocolate pairings, to name a few activities. There was something to enjoy for chocolate lovers of every ilk, be they chocoholics, chocophiles or just curious.

I'd like to thank the organizers, who did a fabulous job of putting this event together. Brian Cisneros, Brie Moulton, Kate Selting and your many staff volunteers and volunteers, great work! I'd also like to thank Seattle, for demonstrating to the world of chocolate what we've known all along, that Seattleites enjoy learning about their food as much as they enjoy eating it.

Happy chocolate tasting,
Lauren Adler
Chief Chocophile