Rose's Chocolate Treasures
In England, "chocolate Roses" are lumpen nuggets of Cadbury's most popular over-sweet, over-creamy "chocolate" varietals, swaddled in festive foil and stuffed into festive boxes to await purchase as lowest-common-denominator gifts for people one doesn't know or like all that well.
In Seattle, Rose's Chocolates are fresh, hand-made buds of high-quality chocolate waiting to burst forth with imaginative and well-balanced flavor combinations: tangerine and beet, blueberry and basil, wasabi and nori.
Score one, Seattle.
From a cozy shop in Post Alley, Rose's dispenses a wide range of truffles and bonbons at $2 a piece. There are primo takes on the usual sweet and boozy flavors, but the house specialties reward the adventurous. The "Mexicali" is an almost savory dark chocolate truffle warmed up with cinnamon, nutmeg, chilies, and cumin, and dusted with gold powder. The Rose truffle pictured above is infused with rose petals and a touch of aniseed. And if these flavors become old hat, chocolatier Vie Sweet is also an astrologer, and regularly invents an astrology-based "truffle of the month". In addition to truffles, Rose's sells both drinking chocolate and cocoa, teas, chocolate balms and body butters, chocolate pasta, and roast-your-own cocoa beans ($1/oz).
In keeping with the shop credo that "chocolate nourishes the body as well as the soul," Rose's offers social and educational events. At the West Seattle kitchen, Vie Sweet leads classes on truffle infusion; each group of six students gets to choose their own flavors and take home the fruits of their labor. The shop premises are also available for chocolate tasting parties from 6pm on Friday and Saturday nights. Self-selected groups of of four or eight guests enjoy a guided tasting of 20 chocolates for $15 a head; b.y.o. wine is welcomed.
And in case you're having trouble coming up with a fourth or eighth person---I'm definitely free that night.
Rose's Chocolate Treasures
Pike Place Market
1906 Post Alley
Seattle, WA 98101
866/315-ROSE
1 comment:
They sound amazing Julia!
Post a Comment