Intrigue Blog & Chocolate Shop!

This past week we received a rare treat – an invitation to share our chocolates with the audience of a Capitol Steps show performed at the Kirkland Performance Center (where we sampled our chocolate nearly two months ago for the first time). The show, dripping with political satire, was a big hit. Most of the people we talked with had attended a Capitol Steps performance before, so there was a loyal following in the audience to really cheer on the performers.

(Not the Seattle show. This was just the best image of them I could find!)

Plus, we were invited to stand in the back and watch! Lucky us! We all laughed heartily, enjoyed the wines provided by Precept, chatted with the performers in the lobby and tasted chocolate. The Italian Sea Salt truffle was still the most surprising flavor for people, but it was the Jamaican HOT Chocolate and Roza Red that really stole the show… at least, at the tasting table.

As of today, Intrigue Chocolates has over 64 unique chocolate truffle flavors to offer, ranging from the favorites of Saint Basil, Orchid (vanilla bean), Jamaican HOT Chocolate, and Lemon to the more exotic flavors like Tequila-Lime, R. Valentino (rose petal), Italian Sea Salt, and Hibiscus. Unfortunately, we are only able to feature six different flavors that change every month. We call these “seasonal flavors”, and they are offered to our customers in gift box options of set sizes (6pc, 12pc, and 24pc). If the flavor is not a seasonal flavor, it is still available in order quantities of four dozen for each flavor.

Lately we have received a number of requests for flavors we have not offered in a while, and we want to share them with you! In an effort to do so, we have come up with the idea to start the Truffle of the Month Club.

The idea is similar to other monthly club memberships. When you sign up, we will send you featured chocolate truffles at the beginning of every month. With enough people involved in the club we will be able to make those out-of-season flavors in addition to the seasonal flavors, and ship them to you to enjoy.

Before we start offering this club membership we need your help to work out the details! Your feedback will help us design the right subscription package to meet your needs. Please take a few minutes to fill out the Truffle-of-the-Month-Club membership survey.

Thank you for your continued support!

Over this past Labor Day weekend, Aaron and I had the opportunity to table at Silver Lake Winery’s tasting room in Zillah for our second year during their annual Harvest Festival - Return to Vinoritaville. Click here to read the introduction to the event.

We definitely could not have asked for better weather. It was blue skies and high 70’s all day long. The band played for most of the day while people lingered on the lawns. Silver Lake has also just completed the first stage of a major remodel, so there is a fancy new waterfall backed by a large sign that you can see from up the road.

Then there were the events: the limbo and the grape stomping.

Earlier in the day, the competition was a race where the contestants tried to squash as many grapes as fast as possible. The winner was the one who could squeeze the most juice out in a minute. Later in the day there was a group stomp in a large barrel, and the winner was the one who could stay the cleanest. This last minute wrinkle in the rules took many people by surprise and a few bailed out to save themselves from the sticky mess. BE WARNED FOR NEXT YEAR!

Wine maker Bill Ammons cooked up a kalua pig that was served for lunch, along with salads and small desert cakes. Great work with the pig, Bill!

That’s Aaron and I in the picture above. You can see we were able to find just enough shade for the chocolate to keep it from melting! The big flavors for us this weekend were the Roza Red truffle (made with Silver Lake’s Roza Red wine) and the new Italian Sea Salt truffle. Most people were surprised by the way the intense minerality of salt brought forward the natural fruit character of the chocolate, and quickly went back for a second sample. Unfortunately, we did not identify an outstanding wine paring, but it was fun trying to find one anyway.

Big thanks to the Taynea, Meridith, Vinny, and Sal for making our experience there in Zillah an enjoyable one! Also, a big thanks to Louis Strutton for providing the photos for this blog. Your camera rocks!

Come out to Zillah for Labor Day weekend! Silver Lake is hosting their annual harvest party at the Silver Lake Winery at Roza Hills in Zillah, Washington. The party will be held from noon to 6pm on Saturday, August 30th, and feature a pit roasted Kalua Pig, cold vinoritas and grape stomping. Last year was a blast, and this year is shaping up to be the same.
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As a special to our patrons, Silver Lake has provided us with a coupon to pass on to you. Simply follow the link below and print and fill out the coupon so you can hand it to the persons pouring the wines for a FREE RESERVE TASTING!

FREE RESERVE TASTING COUPON

If you can’t make it on Saturday, don’t fret! The winery will be open all three days with some special tasting options to keep you entertained. We will be there pairing chocolate truffle samples with the various Silver Lake wines on Saturday and on Sunday. Make the most of your holiday weekend. Come say hello, taste the chocolates and wines, and sit on the lawn with a cold drink and listen live band music.

The Kirkland Performance Center is located in a charming neighborhood blocks away from the lake. Specifically, here:
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The theater opened in 1998 and since then has hosted numerous artists from around the world. It turns out that Bobby McFerrin performed there a few weeks ago and we missed him! Too bad, because Aaron and I both think he is incredibly talented, and KPC would’ve made a for a very interactive, up-close-and-personal experience. Below is a peek at the beautiful interior.

The event this past Saturday was a thank-you to all the members who renewed their subscription or just started their subscriptions with KPC. They were treated to a backstage tour and a video presentation about the theater’s history. They were served sushi, wines from Precept’s winery portfolio,

and of course, gourmet chocolate truffles!

We had a great time hanging out with everyone, and look forward to working with the Kirkland Performance Center again during performances and other wine tastings.

Special thanks to Stephanie and Jenn with KPC for getting us involved with the event, and Autumn with Precept Wines for really pushing the chocolate and wine tasting experience!

You would think that working at Starbucks would be a coffee lover’s dream and that corporate employees would never want for another beverage again, but you would be wrong. It turns out many of their coffee connoisseurs also enjoy a glass or two of fine wine. So corporate has included a wine club among the many other social clubs the company offers its employees.

Every year the club organizes an event for its members. This year was their 3rd Annual Starbucks Partner Wine Tasting Cruise on Lake Washington, and it the 2nd year we provided chocolates to pair with wines offered from various wineries: Chandler Reach, Covington Cellars, Dobbes Family Estate, Russell Creek Winery, and a few from the Precept Wine portfolio.

We sailed on the Emerald Star, one of Waterways Cruises’ four ships that tour on Lake Union and Lake Washington. The weather was perfect, and the views spectacular. But even better than all that, we were able to find a spot for our table located right under the air conditioning system! No need to worry about the chocolate truffles melting this year.

The most popular chocolate truffle flavors this time around were the Lemon and the Saint Basil. Tip: If you try them both together it’s like a chocolate basil mojito – lots of fun for everyone aboard the Emerald Star.

Big thanks to Susan at Waterways and Carrie and Teri with Starbucks for having us back again this year, and of course all the people who were so supportive again. It was a blast!

In addition to The Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon, we tabled at Silver Lake’s Sangria Weekend this past Saturday, July 12th. This is the second Sangria Weekend Silver Lake has invited us to attend, and boy-o-boy was there some exciting Sangrias being served.

Louis Strutton, Silver Lake’s Marketing Specialist, was the mastermind behind the recipes (which he may send you if you ask him nicely). This year, he had three Sangrias on tap:

Sauvignon Blanc and White Tea Sangria – A light sangria with a blend of white tea, lemons, mango, ginger ale, and many other ingredients. Aaron describes it as tasting like white peaches.

Chocolate Basil Merlot Sangria – So interesting! It was not a sweet sangria by any means, but instead a fruity, full-bodied flavor that left you wanting more and more. I visited this sangria many times over the course of the day.

Berry & Watermelon Sangria – The weekend favorite. It was an interesting blend of fruits and the sweetest drink on the table; just what the crowds wanted on this hot Saturday afternoon.

Docco’s also had a table set up on the patio.

They were serving meatball sandwiches made with their BBQ sauces. Docco’s has a range of heat in their BBQ sauces from original to hot to extra hot. My favorite is their merlot blend though. If you’ve never had a BBQ sauce made with red wine, be sure to visit Docco’s when they are tabling at Silver Lake again.

Thanks again to everyone that visited us at the event!

In our last blog entry we invited all of you to visit Intrigue Chocolates and 22 other chocolate companies from around the northwest at The Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon. The event was hosted by TasteTV.com which hosts various foodie events across the country. This was the first chocolate event they’ve hosted in Seattle.

When we first arrived there was a bit of a scare – the fire alarm went off! Aaron and I did our best to keep our chocolate out of the sun until the doors opened up and everyone was allowed back inside. Due to the delay though, we had to do a rushed set-up before crowds of chocolate lovers came rushing through the doors. Fortunately Carla volunteered to help for the day, and she was able to hurry the process along. (Thanks, Carla!)

The event was a huge success. TasteTV.com reported attendance of over 500, so needless to say we stayed busy at the table from opening at 11am to closing at 5pm. Saint Basil ended up being the favorite at our table, and the new flavor Tequila-Lime received a good amount of attention as well. The only request we have for next year is a better air conditioning system. By 1pm it was hotter inside the conference room than it was outside and chocolate was melting quickly! It turns out that a passing cruise ship had triggered the earlier fire alarm, which shut down all of the facility’s systems and no one was on hand to reboot the air conditioning.

Awards were announced at the end of the show. Intrigue Chocolates placed in the following categories:

Tie for 1st place: Best Chocolate Flavor
Tie for 2nd place: Best Chocolate Truffle
Honorable Mention: Best Chocolatier (Go Aaron!)
Honorable Mention: Best Chocolate for Wine

You can see all the event awards here a TasteTV.com’s salon awards site.

Not bad for our first competition! Considering the other companies present (Theo, Amano, Guittard, etc), it was a honor to be recognized at all.

It was also nice to have several friends visit us at the event. You all made the day far less stressful for us, and it was nice to have a cheering section when our names were announced for the awards.

This Sunday is a big happening for Intrigue Chocolates! We’ll be participating in an event titled ‘The Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon’, hosted by tastetv.com. This is their first major chocolate show in the Northwest and it’s happening here in Seattle at Pier 66.

Talk about a lot of work! Since this is the first time we will be squaring off our chocolates against other amazing Seattle based chocolate companies, we want to make sure we have all our bases covered. That includes a couple fancy embroidered shirts, new stamps for the chocolate boxes, new signs, and a line-up of all time favorite chocolate truffle flavors:

• Roza Red – made with Roza Red wine, a Cabernet-Merlot blend from Silver Lake Winery
• Lemon – made with fresh lemon zest
• Saint Basil – fresh organic basil
• Jamaican HOT Chocolate – our signature spicy truffle
• Tequila-Lime – tequila añejo (aged tequila) and fresh lime zest
• Vrai Chai - black tea, ginger, black pepper, cinnamon, orange peel, astragalus, cardamom, coriander, galangal, gingko, gotu-kola, fo-ti, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla beans

If you are interested in learning more about the event, check out the events page or go to tastetv.com. At the show there is a $20 fee to participate, but you can bet you’ll get your fair share of chocolate. Plus, we would really appreciate all your encouragement and support!

Welcome to the Intrigue Chocolates blog! Intrigue Chocolates Co. was created on September 1st of 2006 by chocolatier Aaron Barthel. He had a vision: create chocolate truffles in the original French tradition. In essence, there are no tempered chocolate shells, no wax, little sugar, and no artificial fats or preservatives. This way the truffles are able to showcase its delicate, creamy flavor without distraction.

We have created this blog as an informal way to showcase past events, feature new truffle flavors, promote upcoming events, and most importantly to thank the many people that taste our specialty chocolate truffles. We will post event pictures; you may even appear in one or two! Feel free to send some our way as well and we’ll try to include them. We will also post “letters from the chocolatier”, sharing tips about making your own truffles and advice on pairing them with food & wine.

This blog is also an opportunity for us to stay in touch with the chocolate-loving community and offer you a forum for honest feedback. We want to hear what you have to say! There are a couple ways to do so. Your first option is to leave a comment attached to any of the blog posts. Simply click on the ‘comments’ link a the bottom of the entry. Your second option is to email us directly at info@intriguechocolates.com. All other contact information is listed on the Contact page.

Thanks!