The first thing that happened when we came in was that the counter lady rushed out to offer us a sample tray filled with an assortment of items, so we started out with a good impression. That lasted until I asked which flavor truffle I was tasting, and was told that she didn't know. The truffles are all decorated uniquely in order to be distinguished from one another. So the staff ought to be able to remember that the round truffle striped with orange would be the orange truffle. I was disappointed with the texture of the truffle itself, expecting the soft creamy consistency of most truffles and getting rather hard crumbly texture instead. Hopefully it was older and not perfectly fresh, or that it had been cut in half for a few hours to get dried out. I hoped for another sample in order to determine that, but it seemed that she didn't want to offer more than the one half truffle And that's fine, you can't give away all your product and stay in business!
I then asked one of the standard questions of an artisan chocolate shop: where the chocolate comes from. Unfortunately she did not have that information handy, but she could tell me that they had been in business for 47 years. I come from a part of the country that is full of artisan chocolate shops. Every little town has a hand crafted chocolate shop, run by folks who hand-dip small batches, who know what country or even what farm their chocolate comes from, and what variety of beans are used in the production... 47 years ago that was not the case. But this is 2017 and that is the direction the industry is moving.
So we looked around at the case to see if there was something intriguing to take home. Several of the trays were missing labels, and there was some confusion when asking what they were.
We did end up purchasing a few more things, and I was not expecting to be blown away by anything, so we limited ourselves. I got a couple of sea salt caramels, which were nothing like I expected. They seemed to be truffles made with caramel in place of cream, because they did have a slight caramel flavor, but were definitely not caramels, and I failed to detect a salty flavor either, other than the sprinkling on top. I got a dark chocolate truffle. This one was molded, so the center was creamy and soft, quite a contrast with the orange truffle. But it was a milk center, when I was expecting dark. The extra thick shell was dark. Hopefully someone mixed up the filling.
Jellies were actually quite nice. And the sea foam had a good flavor and interesting texture that I had never encountered before... very structured, and I would love to know how that was achieved. But over all I was disappointed with the experience. They seem to want to present themselves as being an artisan chocolate shop, with truffles and creams, and salted caramels in their case, but we can look through the window at the machinery used in their production, so it is obviously not hand made.
If you come in with the expectation of getting a lot of average quality chocolates for a good price, or if you stick with chocolate dipped chips, then you shouldn't be disappointed at all. Their pricing of 18.99 a pound is shockingly low, and probably a big draw for their customer base. I have never seen truffles priced that way; typically good quality truffles, even ones that use Guittard, Callebuat or some other standard industry chocolate, are going to be at least 2.00 each at approximately a half ounce, (or even smaller, down to about a quarter ounce) and up to 2.75 or more in some locations. So, that works out to over 60.oo a pound, and I have been happy to pay over 100.oo a pound for really excellent truffles.
So the price is right for what they are doing. But quite frankly, Lindor truffles at the grocery store are going to be a better bet for something that comes off a factory line.
It seems that they sell mostly chocolate dipped potato chips. Stick with them and you'll be happy here. read more