David Sherwin and I tested an idea for a chocolate crawl and learned that six truffles is about the max a person can eat before having to call in reinforcements. Here are my rough notes from the excursion.

Stop 1. Chocolati Chocolate Cafe, Wallingford
A warm and cozy neighborhood chocolate shop where people meet and work. A great chocolate stop when you want a satisfying treat. They serve chocolates they make at their Aurora factory using Guittard and El Rey couverture.

Overall experience: Big truffles. Creamy, smooth, and consistent. Shell creamy and tasty and not too hard.

• Aztec, chocolate truffle with cinnamon
  Smooth, creamy, and sugary, with just the right infusion of cinnamon.
• Cocoa Beware, chocolate truffle with nutmeg
  Instant image of a holiday hot chocolate. Smooth and creamy. A theme?
• Bittersweet chocolate truffle
  Cocoa-y with a bit of back-of-the-jaw bite. Again, smooth and creamy.

Stop 2. Claudio Corallo, Ballard
A strange, dingy hole in the wall that looked like it was a former AAA office or a current money laundering front. The shop sells single source chocolate from Africa. Beans are grown organically and biodynamically. Supposedly the beans have not been conched, or have not been conched much.

Overall experience: The couverture snapped when bitten. Texture of the chocolate is the most salient experience. Chocolate flavor is delicate and matte, earthy.

Stop 3. Cocoa Chai Chocolates at Venue, Ballard
An art shop with a small case of Cocoa Chai Chocolates. Grab your chocolate to go and eat in the park across the street.

Overall experience: Small artful squares with painted or textured designs. The power is in the infusion; the couverture takes a back seat.

• Lemon olive oil chocolate truffle
  A pop of creamy lemon: an instant image of yellow jumper dotted with little flowers. A very sunny, tasty truffle.
• Venezuela 70 percent chocolate truffle
  Almost no flavor at all—very, very subtle. Perhaps at a disadvantage following on the heels of the lemon truffle. Might be best to eat when you've had nothing else to eat for a while.
• Tiramisu chocolate truffle
  Too much going on inside this little truffle. The marsala wine and espresso compete. In a word: weird.

Stop 4. Cadeaux Chocolates at Cafe Fiore, Ballard
Inviting coffee shop in Ballard. If you lived in the neighborhood, you'd go there every weekend.

Overall experience: Processed for consistency and satisfaction. Good for uncertain storage and when you want satisfying chocolate on a whim.

• Milk chocolate espresso
  Shiny smooth and creamy. Lots of espresso flavor. Quotidian.
• Fleur de sel caramel
  Satisfying, but easily so: De rigueur.

Stop 5. Chocolopolis, Queen Anne
A crisp white chocolate shop that makes you feel like you're an international chocolate shopper. They have their own chocolates plus an impressive array of others. A great place to shop for your friends who love chocolate.

• Spearmint chocolate truffle (Lillie Belle Farms, Oregon)
  Taste true to the name, but maybe not a natural pairing. The two tastes, spearmint and chocolate, dissolved to different sides of the mouth and stayed there, irreconcilable.
• Chocolate covered fig filled with anise infused chocolate
  Rich, with nutty and fruity qualities. Satisfying!

Stop 6. Chocolate Box, Downtown
Tourist central: The Las Vegas experience of chocolate—some local, some exotic, some processed for a long shelf-life.

Overall experience: Eclectic, with the risk of being mediocre. Select carefully.

(We were woozy from chocolate and called in replacements to complete this last round. The following is a report by proxy.)

• Earl Grey chocolate truffle (Theo)
  Soft and smooth, mousse-y with a strong bergamot flavor to the point of oversteeped tea.
• Chocolate chocolate truffle (Oh!)
  A crisp bite with a smooth, sugary ganache. "It's good."
  ++

  The body mutinied after all that sugar. I tried to restore equilibrium with a hearty dinner of atsuage tofu and tempura udon. I was stuffed but felt munchy again soon, so I polished off some leftover fried rice. Now I'm hungry again. Next up: leftover curry noodles. I think too much sugar is like weed: gives you the munchies until everything is right again.

  ++

  Ahhh, The Swing Years on KUOW. Feels like the weekend.

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