Now that I’m all moved in and more or less settled into my new home, I’m back. Hooray! I thought it would be fun to re-kick things off with a review of a local chocolatier: Encore Chocolates in Rochester, NY.
In my first week in Rochester, I got a bit lost trying to find the DMV to get my NY license. Fortunately, getting lost included stumbling upon this little locally owned and operated chocolate shop.
While they had a wide selection of truffles, candy, and molded chocolates, only a few of their truffles were made on site. I picked out one of their musically named Virtuoso Chocolates, the Minuet, and a dark chocolate almond cluster. I would’ve bought more, but it was a hot day, and I didn’t want them to melt.
The Minuet is “dark chocolate ganache infused with blackberry, enrobed in dark chocolate, with a zest of blueberry infused white chocolate.”
The sweet ganache has a slight grain to it, so much so that it’s almost chewy. The fruit infusion of the blackberry definitely comes through. In fact, it’s a bit too much. I found it overly sweet with not enough cocoa flavor, though I did appreciate the berriness. An okay O.
The dark almond cluster was a much better balance of flavors. Mine had one whole almond, plus a bunch of little bits of almond. It was a good contrast of flavors with the salty and sweet, and the mix of smooth chocolate with crunchy almond was nice as well. The dark chocolate was good: strongly flavored and deep, completely lacking fruitiness. A basic treat, but well executed. An OM.
So, I won’t go out of my way to revisit Encore Chocolates again, but if I happen to drive past it again, I’d pop in to try a different Virtuoso.
Varsha