Indi Chocolate

Corporate Info: Indi Chocolate is a small batch, bean-to-bar company in Seattle, producing not only dark chocolate but also cacao-infused skin products. A generous co-taster spotted Indi's small storefront in Pike Place Market and brought me a sampling of its dark chocolate bars.

Today's Bars: Four in total: plain, dried cherries, dried cranberries, and crystallized ginger. All include only cocoa beans, cocoa butter, sugar, and cherries/cranberries/ginger.

Appearance: Indi's plain bar comes in a fancy mold, imprinted with leaves and cacao pods (and some air bubbles around the edges). The others involve spreading chocolate out in a thin sheet, sprinkling on the inclusion, then cooling and breaking up the pieces. Either way, the chocolate has a nice, low-shine sheen and a deep, rich, medium brown color. 

Smell: Surprisingly buttery, and even the plain chocolate is deeply sweet, like dried fruit.

Taste: The plain chocolate starts out sweet, but is followed by a thin, bitter edge that adds complexity, and there's an underlying dark, fruity flavor like dried dates or plums. The chocolate under the inclusions tastes like it might be lower cacao, but I wouldn't swear to it. The cherry and cranberry both work really well, sweet and moist against the bittersweet chocolate. The ginger is surprisingly subtle, more than I personally would like, but for the ginger-wary it would work well. 

Conclusion: Indi Chocolate is a Seattle-local company making a fine chocolate product with good inclusions, especially the fruits.

Chocolate Shops: Grendelsweets

I'd been meaning to visit Grendelsweets since I wrote up my posts on tasting chocolate in Seattle, but I rarely make it to the area where the shop is located. The other day I had an appointment nearby, so I stopped in the shop and bought several confections, though I have yet to try the hyped (and tasty sounding) hot chocolate. Here's a brief review.

Grendelsweets is a small shop inside Crossroads Mall, just a confection counter to the left of the door and a prep area in the back. The woman who helped me was positive and patient, but more importantly, the chocolates are made in-house with many organic, fair trade (etc.) ingredients and in interesting flavors. I chose a half dozen, which I came home and split with my co-taster. We were both pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of the ganaches and coatings and the complex, balanced flavors, but I was most impressed by the fact that none of my selections turned out to be too sweet—even potentially cloying dipped marzipan and buttercream-filled orange cream, the latter of which was flavored with spicy, rich orange oil.

So okay, this is just another confection store, not one of our local bar shops or bean-to-bar producers, but in the end I decided to review the shop because it deserves it: For those in the area, Grendelsweets is a worthy destination for high quality confections.

Chocolopolis Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt

This smallish house-brand bar from Seattle's Chocolopolis has no label other than the store's, so I don't know anything about it, including the ingredients, how dark it is, or what brand they use, though it includes "vanilla sea salt." I was in there anyway and have been wanting to try more salt-topped chocolate, so there you go.

Appearance: Smooth, medium-brown, and blocky.

Smell: Subtly fruity, not at all intense. Maybe dried fruit, not caramelized like raisins, more like dried cherries or dates, or a light honey.

Taste: They know what they're doing over at Chocolopolis. This is a pretty dark chocolate, with a percent cacao somewhere in the mid-70s (hope I'm not wrong about that!), and it's well balanced: not over-roasted or weirdly sweet or challenging with smoke or sourness or any other pungent flavors. A very medium bar with just enough salt to make things interesting.

Because this isn't a very sweet bar, it doesn't have the same salty-sweet, caramelized vibe as salt caramels or caramel corn (though I love those too); to my mind, the salt enhances the flavor of the beans here, not the sugar.

Conclusion: Chocolopolis Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt is very well balanced. I'd be curious to find out whose chocolate they use for their house bars.

A Chocolate Tour of Seattle, Part II

You've looked at the must-visits from last week's post, picked the ones that work best for you, and now want to know what else is around to fill out your tour. The shops here are those that I haven't been to myself or that have a particular specialty, followed by some tips for a happy chocolate tour.

Other Shops

I visited and reviewed Marie & Freres when it was simply the flagship store of Claudio Corallo, and the chocolate was unusual, excellent, and expensive. When I visited the other day it was similar, but with a smaller selection of Claudio Corallo and a few additional bars and items like macarons. Marie & Freres isn't in an especially walkable neighborhood, but it is very central (e.g. a couple blocks from the local Whole Foods) and not hard to find if you're driving around town.

The Confectionery is like an upscale, modern version of the old penny candy shops you romanticize, with big glass jars, a panoply of colorful sweets, and whimsy in abundance. The chocolate counter is attractive and fun, and while the prices are high, just being in the store is cheering and it's located in the same outdoor mall as a Fran's Chocolates (discussed in part I).

Already visited Fran's and Chocolate Box, and now you're walking around Pike Place Market? Try Chukar Cherries, whose stand is right in the middle of the market. I don't think the chocolate enrobing their dried fruit is the best, but the fruit is local and the nice folks behind the counter are happy to give samples.

Based on the Eastside? You can find a Fran's and an Oh! Chocolate there (both in Bellevue Square mall) as well as a couple small shops I've never visited, Amore Chocolates and Grendelsweets. I'm seeing good reviews, so if these stores are convenient to you, give them a try.

[Update 9/28/12: I have now visited Grendelsweets and found it to make high-quality, not-too-sweet confections. I wouldn't call it a necessary stop on a Seattle-specific chocolate tour, but if you're touring in that area, it's worth a visit.]

To round out this list, here are three more Seattle chocolate shops that I've never visited but are getting good buzz: Chocolate Shoebox is part leather-free shoe store, part vegan chocolate shop; Intrigue Chocolates makes truffles infused with interesting flavors; and My Divine Chocolates is both chocolate shop and café.

Tips

• Ever read The Chocolate Touch? You actually can overdo it on chocolate, and you'll enjoy it more if you're not sick to your stomach. Many of these stores are in lovely, walkable neighborhoods, so stop for a sandwich or something and fill up on real food.
• Hungry or not, a chocolate tour can give you an excuse to walk around Green Lake, Queen Anne, Fremont, and other neighborhoods you might not otherwise see as a visitor. Go for it!
• There's good chocolate all over this town, in bakeries with chocolate counters, big grocery stores with both high-end and mid-range bars, and little gourmet shops with shelves and shelves of imports. Keep your eyes open and you can find almost anything you could want.
• On a (relatively) low-sugar diet? At confection shops, ask for the darkest truffle they have. Theo and Fran's both make smaller confections than others, but their darkest truffle centers are so high-quality and complex that you won't want to gorge.
• Or you can forget the whole self-tour thing and just pay someone else to run the tour for you.

A Chocolate Tour of Seattle, Part I

This past week we hosted some visitors who asked me to take them on a tour of local chocolate shops. I took into account our home location, the amount of time we wanted to spend, neighborhoods that might be interesting, and Seattle's hellacious rush hours, and we ended up making a nice loop through town. I had fun, and I think they did too.

Considering the city's fancy bar shops, confectionary stores, and numerous small chains, add a car and a good relationship with Google Maps and any visitor or resident can make his or her own tour. This week I'll cover what I consider must-visits and bonuses for bar lovers; next week I'll list specialty shops and those I haven't seen myself as well as a few additional tips.

Must-Sees

These stores are must-visits because they fulfill one or more of the following criteria: meaningful to Seattle, easy to fit into your route, generous with samples, or a way to break up a bonbon-heavy tour.

Theo Chocolate produces its chocolate from bean to bar right here in Seattle. (Most companies buy elsewhere and blend with flavorings or use to coat confections.) It's fair trade and organic, which are a taste of Seattle in and of themselves and simply good besides. Theo holds inexpensive factory tours several times daily; if you're interested, make reservations well in advance. Whether or not you're going behind the scenes, the shop displays most of its bars with a pile of sample pieces, so you can taste as much as you want before you buy. Don't ignore the small case of confections: They're high quality, the flavors are interesting, and some are vegan. On your tour, Theo is the best place to fill up on samples.

Fran's Chocolates is a local institution best known for salt caramels. Flavors are not especially unusual but are all high quality. There are three locations, two in Seattle and one in Bellevue, and one of the Seattle options is downtown near Chocolate Box (below) and tourist mainstay Pike Place Market, inside the Four Seasons—very swank. Visit because it's local, everything you get will be good, and it's a good place to buy gifts for the folks back home.

Oh! Chocolate is a familiar-feeling confectioner: big glass cases filled with chunky chocolates, a large assortment of fun fillings, and whole chocolates as samples. There are three locations, one in Seattle, one in Bellevue, and one between the two on Mercer Island. (There's actually a fourth in Georgia, but that's neither here nor there.) Not every flavor is a standout, but there's something for everybody, they're cheaper than many others, and the experience will make you smile.

Chocolati and Dilettante both sell chocolates that I think are just okay, but they're on this list because of their hot cocoa and number of locations, Chocolati's mostly in Seattle and Dilettante's also beyond city limits. Some of the other stores I'm mentioning also offer drinks, but I appreciate the café style of these, and between the two I prefer Chocolati's more relaxed feel and especially its dark hot chocolate with cayenne. With 11 locations between them and as a break in the bar/confection monotony, I think it's both easy and worth it to work at least one hot-chocolate-focused stop into your chocolate tour.

Good Bars

These stores are my reliable sources of fancy bars—those other than the ones at Whole Foods or random finds around town and elsewhere.

Chocolopolis is where to be if you want serious high-end bars. They shelve their stock by origin, so you can look at separate sections for Africa or the Caribbean and so on and another section for bars with inclusions. It's not comprehensive or anywhere near cheap, but like a well-edited wine shop, it'll help you find the good stuff. At the counter, peek behind the glass at the shiny confections (unlike in the shops above, most of these aren't house-made) and take a couple home with you.

Chocolate Box is kind of a hodgepodge store, but it's fun and the location makes it super easy to combine with a visit to Fran's or Pike Place Market. They have tons of confections from a wide variety of regional brands and a bunch of high-end bars, some of which I haven't seen elsewhere in the area. They also have gelato, cookies, and mini cupcakes, and they recently incorporated the wine bar next door, so this is a great place to indulge. Note: Tourist-friendly also means higher prices, as I've seen some of the same confections at Chocolopolis for less. Chocolate Box apparently offers a AAA discount that might make purchasing more attractive, though I haven't tried it yet myself.

Chocolate Shops: Chocolopolis

Several months ago I visited Seattle's Chocolopolis and bought several interesting-sounding items including Venchi's intriguing absinthe bar and Amedei's subtle red fruit bar. I also bought a hazelnut bar from famed Valrhona, and when I finally got around to opening it, it tasted “off.” I thought it might be rancidity; though the expiration date gave me another month and a half, perhaps the hazelnut oil had gone bad. Valrhona ain't cheap, so I hoped I could return the bar. I called Chocolopolis and they told me they would allow me to exchange it, but when I finally brought it back in, I realized I'd forgotten the receipt!

Fortunately, Lauren overheard me mentioning my predicament. She remembered my call and had opened another bar from the same batch for quality control purposes. She compared it to my bar and found that it tasted the same. She suggested that Valrhona might just not be to my taste, but she wanted me to be happy with what I bought from the store, so she offered me a trade anyway. I swapped for a new-to-me bar from Olive and Sinclair, and out of impulse and goodwill also bought two of the chocolate confections behind the counter. (I don't remember the brands, only that one was a caramel-truffle hybrid and the other a ganache-filled and chocolate-coated fig.)

Chocolopolis is somewhat sterile, with no dishes of samples and only a limited selection of some brands, but what's there has been tried and approved by a knowledgeable staff. The shelves are labeled by origin and separated into plain bars versus those with inclusions, and as mentioned there is a counter containing high-quality confections. In Seattle it is one of only a few excellent multi-brand chocolate shops, a destination for those willing to splurge and looking for quality and expertise.


[Update: See Lauren's comment below for more on the confections I tried as well as Chocolopolis's free tasting sessions.]

Chocolate Shops: Claudio Corallo

I was perusing Seattle Weekly's annual Best of Seattle issue a couple weeks ago when I zeroed in on the category “Best Place to Taste Chocolate,” and found that their pick surprised me: Claudio Corallo, a store I'd never heard of. I was even more intrigued when I visited the company's website, because all of Claudio Corallo's products are 70% cacao and higher—score!—and I vowed to visit the Seattle flagship store post haste.

On the weekday afternoon when I pulled up to Claudio Corallo, I was surprised to see that the shop was full of people. It turned out that a group from a nearby business had come in for a semi-private tasting, and I'd barged in mid-presentation. The proprietor was rather occupied but also gracious, and she suggested I come back in ten minutes, by which time most of the other customers had left and I was able to try samples and ask questions.

Let's get something out of the way: This is expensive chocolate, more than $4 per ounce for a single bar. But that's not really bad news, just an indication that it's a whole different product from most of the other bars you see on grocery store shelves. Most of us don't eat at three-star restaurants frequently, but on the occasion that we do, we appreciate the effort and artistry that makes it something our Wednesday night stir-fries are not. It's this perspective from which I approach pricey, high-quality chocolate.

The company

Claudio Corallo the person is a gentleman who operates his own plantation and chocolate processing facility on the islands of Sao Tome and Principe, off the coast of West Africa. His operation is essentially dirt-to-bar, because it involves everything from farming all the way to choosing sugar and inclusions. Claudio Corallo the company imports Corallo's finished products and sells them in a selection of retail stores and online. The current Seattle flagship location opened late in '09, though online reviews indicate a previous storefront in another part of town.

The tasting experience

When I first stopped in at Claudio Corallo, I watched as the organized group ate every offered sample excitedly and, at the conclusion of the presentation, immediately began dropping $20s on the items that had impressed them the most. It's a vivid illustration of why every high-end chocolatier ought to offer plentiful samples: Sampling done right can engender goodwill, encourage informed questions, and produce repeat customers who bring friends. There's no better way to up-sell than to have customers come up with the idea themselves, and on a personal level, if I'm going to pay dearly, I want to walk out with something I absolutely love.

Claudio Corallo offers a more guided tasting than Theo Chocolate. Rather than piling pieces up for unlimited self-service, Claudio Corallo's proprietor stands behind the counter with a pair of tongs, describing the choices and doling out slivers of bars and confections. The options, slightly broader than what's listed on the website, include a 100% chocolate bar; several other high-cacao options; an 80% bar with coarse sugar for textural variation; bars with orange pieces, ginger pieces, or nibs; chocolate-enrobed coffee beans or candied ginger; loose nibs; whole roasted beans; and a couple more complicated bars that involve nuts, dried fruit, and spices combined and sprinkled on top of chocolate. Additionally, the store has partnered with a nearby restaurant to occasionally offer chocolate pastries and other desserts.

I didn't want to spend too much, and so was left to narrow down among several favorites. I put off buying the whole beans, though I loved them: A new experience for me, they were nutty-crisp and not nearly as intense as I had expected. Similarly, I enjoyed the nib bar's contrast between the nibs' texture and near-airiness and the sweetness of the chocolate that surrounded them. I finally bought a box of chocolate-covered coffee beans and the outstanding orange bar (reviews to follow), and definitely plan to stop into Claudio Corallo again.

Chocolate Shops: Theo Chocolate Factory Tour

Today I took the factory tour at Theo Chocolate, one of the few American chocolate companies that makes its own chocolate from scratch. Years ago the founder worked on an organic cacao plantation; today he maintains relationships with the cacao growers who supply the company and makes sure the farms are up to organic and fair trade standards.


Here in Seattle, Theo's warm factory floor is home to a variety of large machines and tanks where the beans are roasted and ground and the chocolate is conched, tempered, and molded into bars. The cooler kitchen next door was busier while I was there, as employees were washing marble slabs in preparation for making some of Theo's confections: ganaches, caramels, and pralines.


The best part, of course, was eating the chocolate. I cheated a bit on my low-sugar diet, trying the excellent milk chocolate bar (at 45% cacao, darker than most milk bars) along with a number of other bars I'd had before. My favorite items were both limited-time-only ganaches, one flavored with lime and coriander and the other with citrusy Earl Grey tea. Both were tart, not too sweet, and worth straying from my dietary path.


If you're visiting Seattle, Theo's factory tour is a light activity you can squeeze into a longer day of sightseeing or a few hours walking around and dining in the charming neighborhood of Fremont. The tour costs only $6 (reserve ahead), and even if you don't want to take the time, you can still stop in the shop and try most of the bars before you buy.