Our customers say nice things about us all the time, but every now and again those nice words make their way into print and media. When they do, we like to put them on this sight so everyone else can see it too.
Check out our reviews on Yelp.com - See what the chocolate loving community is saying about us, and feel free to leave review yourself!
We placed at the 1st Annual Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon! If you want to know more about the event, check out the blog post titled "The Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon was a success! Phew!"
We 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
Not bad for our first competition! Considering the other companies present (Theo, Amano, Guittard, etc), it was a honor to be recognized at all.
The French Confection
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice? Not for this Seattle Chocolatier.
In the 2000 film Chocolate, Juliette Binoche plays Vianne, a French traveler whose exotic chocolate ingredients lure even the most skeptical village critics. If you watched it, you might have found yourself wondering, "How could anyone enjoy a cayenne pepper truffle?" Answering that question in Seattle is chocolatier Aaron Barthel, a former baker who once considered making chocolate truffles little more than a hobby. Barthel, an ecology and botany graduate from Saint John's University in Minnesotaa, began his education long before college on his family's dairy farm. As the confectionary craftsman behind Intrigue Chocolates (206.335.6336; intriguechocolates.com), his cocoa-dusted truffles "emphasize the freshness and balance of the French tradition" and come in surprising flavors like Smokin' Scotch, Peppercorn, Coriander the Great, Vrai Chai and more than 40 other flavors. Just as bold as the names themselves is the range of ingredients added to the pure chocolate base - the Vrai Chai contains black pepper, ginger, gingko and cardamom. Barthel's truffle menu varies according to holidays - and his own personal whim - and can be purchased as two-piece party favors ($2.76), in six-to 48-piece gift boxes or in bulk (prices vary). While Barthel's decadent goodies may be inspired by France, we certainly hope he's not planning to leave Seattle anytime soon.
-Tara Spicer, Seattle Magazine Jan. 2008,pg. 142