Editor's note: Since this entry was posted, Mary Butler has opened her chocolate shop in Chapel Hill. To see more, go to www.carolinaconfectionery.com.
This is what happens when you decide to become a chocolatier: Your backyard fills up with hundreds of chocolate molds since that’s the best place to wash and dry them. A hulking stainless tempering machine and its baby clone roost in your dining room. And you return from a West Coast research trip with a suitcase full of chocolate. Naturally, friends and neighbors stop by to offer advice and counsel, based, of course, on some serious sampling.
Last Thursday, Mary Butler invited six of us to a chocolate tasting. Mary is owner of Carolina Confectionery, a small chocolaterie which will open soon in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Already famous for her rich, buttery English toffee, she has now set her sights on darker pleasures. A trip to San Francisco’s Farmers Market, home to some of America’s finest chocolatiers, followed by a master class at Cocoa West in British Columbia, sent her home with visions of cacao beans, spices and other exotic flavorings dancing in her head.
This is how we did the tasting: On her kitchen island, Mary laid out around 30 chocolates from eight small, artisanal shops. There was a chocolate teacup and a gold-brushed Mayan mask as well as simple truffles rolled in cocoa and wrapped in colorful tissue paper. Most came with cheat sheets identifying the flavors, but there were a few mystery selections. We were a little shy about getting started, but once Anna cut a truffle six ways and passed it around, the tasters bravely jumped in. Cries of “Let’s try that one!” were followed by a moment’s gustatory meditation, smiles (or frowns), then a palate-clearing sip of cold water.
As it turns out, picking the right flavors to go with chocolate isn’t easy, mainly because taste is so subjective. One of the few clear winners was Michel Recchiuti’s dark chocolate ganache infused with fresh lemon verbena, a perfect balance of citrus and bittersweet cacao. Christopher Elbow’s dark chocolate with aromatic Vietnamese cinnamon pleased some tasters, but others found it too highly spiced. Knipschildt’s Hawaiian Pink Sea Salt Caramel won raves from salt lovers in the group, though others found the large flakey crystals overwhelming.
Good looks weren’t always a guarantee of good flavor: Everyone went wild for Recchiuti’s green apple slices roughly dipped in chocolate, while another artisan’s perfect pyramid failed to impress. Cocoa West hid a wicked caramel-coffee filling in a plain dark chocolate shell. One alarming trend: shiny rainbow-hued white chocolate with fruity flavors—perfect for the pre-teen set, but not for serious chocoholics. But we loved Chocolate Arts’ upscale trail mix bar—a glossy dark chocolate log filled with roasted almonds, dried cranberries and rice crisps. Just the thing to stash in your backpack.
Here are websites for chocolatiers whose wares we sampled:
www.chocolatearts.com
www.cocoabella.com
www.cocoawest.com
www.elbowchocolates.com
www.goldleafchocolatier.com
www.knipschildt.com
www.overthemoon.ca
www.recchiuticonfections.com/