Intrigue Chocolates + Zoka Coffee

As part of the Northwest Coffee Festival, Intrigue Chocolates hosted a guided tasting of their flavored truffles paired with specially-selected joe from Zoka Coffee.

In a small kitchen just off Pioneer Square, Intrigue concocts French-style truffles; with no hard chocolate shell to protect them, these sexy little morsels of ganache start to liquefy the instant they hit your tongue. Intrigue's chocolatier, Aaron Barthel (above), is constantly tinkering with new flavor infusions, offering old favorites and new discoveries six at a time on a rotating basis.

For the tasting Aaron matched six of his truffles with single-origin and blend coffees roasted by Zoka and brewed with military precision by Zoka rep Jessica Schmidt. It was a fundamentally delicious experiment, in theory like a deconstructed mocha but so much more interesting. It was fascinating to experience how the flavors of the different chocolates and coffees played off each other, and how that interplay was further complicated by so many other variables--the order of consumption, the temperature of the coffee, the brewing technique used, etc.

Plenty to think about during the long sleepless night ahead...

Intrigue Chocolates

76 S Washington St #M104
Seattle, WA
206/829-8810