Schocolat – Part I

Earlier this month, my friend Rita received a package from her mother with the following note:

“Hi Rits, I’ve been meaning to send these for ages to Rosa for evaluation. They looked so good, maybe she’ll share some with you.”

Inside the package was a lovely box of chocolates from Schocolat. I love Rita, and I love her mother, and I loved these chocolates. And don’t worry – I shared them with Rita and a third friend, Katie. Let me tell you, an afternoon sipping wine and tasting fine chocolates is great for catching up and bonding with your girlfriends.

Schocolat is a chocolate boutique located in Leavenworth, Washington, and they make all of their beautiful chocolates by hand. The Easter box was jam packed with 14 chocolates. So jam packed, in fact, that I couldn’t figure out how to get them all back in after I took them out to photograph them. I’ll review them in chunks over the course of the week.

I know how chocolatiers make pretty molded truffles – they just use pretty molds – but I’m not sure how they painted the hearts and bunnies on. Impressive, and adorable.

The pink-hearted chocolate is the Harlequin: “dark chocolate enrobes a duo of milk chocolate and creamy white chocolate ganache infused with fresh lemon.” The orange flavor was light, with a slightly bitter, zesty finish that I attributed to the lemon infusion. I’m not a white chocolate fan, so this wasn’t really for me. An O.

The other white chocolate was painted with bunnies and wasn’t in the chocolate guide. It turned out to be a stiff piece of caramel coated in white chocolate. The caramel was super sticky and had a nice brown buttery flavor. An O, but only mostly they make a better salted version of this that you’ll hear about later.

The Raspberry Crown was “dark chocolate ganache folded in with raspberry puree and a splash of Chambord covered in a dark chocolate.” The bright fruity filling was a thin, creamy ganache. It had a lightly seedy, super genuine raspberry flavor that gave way to a dark chocolatey finish. Quite enjoyable and worthy of an OM.

Last for today is the Earl Grey, “double bergamot tea infused in fresh cream and milk chocolate finished in a milk chocolate coating.”? The ganache here was a bit thicker than that of the raspberry crown. It was still creamy; just thicker. It’s definitely Earl Grey all right – floral and perfumey with a light cocoa finish. Earl Grey isn’t my cup of tea (har har), so also an O.

Come back on Wednesday and Friday for the rest of Schocolat week!