At Thanksgiving my grandnephew, Sam, and I took a self-directed tour of some chocolate makers in Seattle, where my wife and I were visiting her sisters and family. I had previously visited Theo Chocolate's factory and wanted to see more makers. During our trip I tweeted some updates.
Our first stop was the largest of the makers we would visit that day,
Frans Chocolates.
The neighborhood where Frans' factory/story was located felt industrial/transitional. The store itself was elegant and well designed, and the employees were dressed in sharp, classy black outfits. The store was clearly wanting to communicate: style, upscale, refinement, quality. In the back we looked into the factory portion of the story.
A large window looked into a floor where chocolates were being processed and packaged. In the picture looking through the window can be seen molded items being prepared of trees and santas -- Christmas season was soon to come.
It was an enjoyable visit. I purchased a small item for my wife and we carried on with our tour.
Next up was
Intrigue Chocolate in the Pioneer Square section of Seattle.
Sam and I sidled up to the bar and looked over the offerings. Like Frans, Intrigue does not specialize in single-origin bars. The items in the store was mostly flavor infused chocolates of various types. Their bar, however, offered some chocolate drinks, so we smacked down our nickel and ordered up a couple of cups of an espresso-like "sipping" chocolate, served with a side of cream. Delicious!
After visiting the store we walked across the street to visit the Gold Rush National Monument. It was a nice insight to a piece of Seattle history.
Our third and final stop was in bustling Pike Peak Market,
Indi Chocolate.
It took a little hunting to find the store, as it was downstairs in an area away from the main market area. We found their store tucked into the back of an open area for a few other stores. Walking into the store area, I immediately noticed a woman stirring a pot of chocolate, dipping in tasting sticks and handing them out a samples. This was the owner, Erin.
We chatted a bit about the work to open the store and the interesting variety of products offered. In addition to chocolate, they sell lotions and other skin products that have chocolate as one of their ingredients. Erin said that as they were working to begin chocolate production, the skin care products brought in revenue that kept their business open. They also hold classes in chocolate making and of course the cafe has tasting offerings as well.
I purchased one of each of their single-origin bars, all of which are made at 72% cacao. I will be posting reviews of these bars in the coming weeks. I also picked a couple of copis of a book on chocolate making (one for me and one for Sam), and a couple of bottles of Indi lotions.
It was fun to tour Seattle and visit several of the city's chocolate makers. There was one or two other stores we were not able to get to on this tour, but they will hopefully till be there for my next visit. Thanks to Sam for accompanying me on the tour!
This bar has a smooth surface, but when a piece is snapped off the interior of the bar has a granular appearance. This carries through to the texture of the chocolate when tasted -- somewhat granular. This texture might have been fixed with better tempering. The taste is fairly bitter. The bar does not list the cacao percentage, but I would estimate at least 75% cacao. Side flavors are minimal. The aftertaste is persistent due to the level of bitterness. 6.7
