It’s seven years today since I was sat at Sea Tac airport, returning from what had been an awesome 4 day adventure in Seattle; catching up with old friends, making new ones, immersing myself in the North West Chocolate Festival, exploring Seattle’s amazing food scene – in all its forms – and getting in some pretty cool hikes.
Seven years since I started this blog post…
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Arriving at Heathrow and through security (after a bit of a faff with a re-useable water bottle) I tuck into sushi for breakfast, which I successfully spill all over myself after just one mouthful. Covered in soy sauce, and too frustrated to properly clear up my sea food decorations now adorning Heathrow Airports’ freshly cleaned floors, I flounce off to the departures gate; embarrassed, hungry and too annoyed to look back. In Departures I hangrily eat what is left of my edamame beans, so aggressively that beans frequently shoot in all directions and I only eat about half of them, much to the amusement (or possible annoyance) of the man sat next to me.
After a brief yet tedious interlude in LAX, we touch down in Sea-Tac airport, where my buddy is there to pick me up. It’s November 2016 and given it’s 9 years since we’ve seen each other, it seems like it was only yesterday as we head into town cracking jokes over the despair we share on both British and American politics!
Turning in around 1am, I’m then up bright and perky at 5am finalising plans for the next days’ North West Chocolate Festival. But today it’s time to get my city fix! After breakfast we set off to explore some quite remarkable chocolate shops, and, since it’s now legal in Washington state…the Weed Emporium – they really give a whole new meaning to the term ‘chocolate truffle’! Curiosity got the better of me, and so we had to stock up on some ‘edibles’ and ‘drinkables’ (for market research, obviously), before heading over to Snoqkuilane Falls, a remarkable feat of hydraulic engineering.
One of the first stops we make in the city itself is actually, strangely, just a brick wall – a wall that has become hidden under many many years of sweet smelling candy. This is just a normal wall, that really looks far from normal as it is covered in a bright array of different coloured chewing gum! And trust me when I tell you, you can smell it long before you see it! For an unbeknown reason (including unknown to many locals) it is a main attraction of central Seattle. Another core attraction is the singing and dancing fish mongers who sometimes throw fish at you, in Pike Place Market, located right next to the chewing-gum wall.
The market has much more than chewing gum walls and singing fish mongers to garner your interest though. Leading up from ‘the wall’ there is Ghouls Alley Espresso and, tucked away in a little corner behind the singing fish monger is a magic little honey store – The Sunny Honey Co with an amazing selection of honeys. Wander a little further through the market and you’re met with a fine display of colour and smells, as you see the vast array of fresh produce stalls featuring a collection of remarkable foraged wild mushrooms, nuts and veg sourced locally from the surrounding area.
Oh and you know there’s three floors of Pike Place Market, right? On the third level down you will find Indi Chocolate – one of my, if not my actual, faves that I discovered in Seattle! One of the two local legendary chocolate shops I visited in Seattle, Erin’s shop has such a community focus to it, it envelops you in this wonderful warm homely feeling, and that’s before you’ve tried any of the cocoa butter-based body products. This place is home to the chocolate orange hand cream that seriously smells good enough to eat (that I managed to eke out for almost 2 years!!), and a delightful range of amazing chocolates and drinking chocolate made with beans from around the world. Erin makes her own bean to bar chocolate too, so if you want a world-wide bean to bar to bonbon (to body butter) journey through chocolate, head to Indi and you will not be disappointed.
Now we were suitably stocked up with Indi chocolate delights, and powered by coffee, it was time to hit even more chocolate shops, in the Downtown district of Seattle. First up was Intrigue Chocolate Co. It’s safe to say these guys also fit the ‘local legends’ bill of the Seattle chocolate scene. Starting up in 2006, they’ve been busy creating exquisite flavours through carefully infusing select ingredients infused gently in cream to make some of the most decadent and soft ganache chocolate truffles. With an ever-growing library of flavours that was sitting at around 250-odd at the time of my visit (though only a dozen or so are available at any given time), it’s likely there will be more now as the owner was more than delighted to tell me about some of the latest experiments he was working on. It’s not just the truffles they put their heart and soul into though, (each one is made by hand), their hot chocolates are also worth writing home about with their unique blend of chocolate and fine flavour combinations, the perfect pick me up on a cold November Seattle morning. No wonder these guys have reached legendary status in the city.
Suitably warmed by the hot chocolate and inspiring chocolate chats, it was time to head to a chocolate shop I didn’t think I’d get a chance to visit in Seattle. Fran’s Chocolates are well established across the US – founded in 1982. Not on such intimate or bespoke scale as Intrigue or Indi, Fran’s have stores all over the US, but I was very impressed not only by their presentation, but also their flavour profiling and combinations. Although I shouldn’t have really been that surprised, given the founder used to be the official chocolatier for the Obama’s – how’s that for an accolade!!
With impeccable customer service, including many free samples, to match the vast French-style immaculate displays, this is really one chocolate shop you don’t want to miss if you are on a ‘bonbon’, ‘couture chocolate’, or caramel-hunting mission. Known for their delectable soft, buttery, sea salt caramels (remember that craze?), they compliment this well with a vast array of other chocolates to choose from – perfect for that selection box.
The next morning I was up for another offensively early start to head to the North West Chocolate Festival, yet another opportunity to catch up with my chocolate industry buddies from around the world. With a whole two days ahead of me to indulge in chocolate workshops, talks, debates, experiences, as well as work my way through as many of the stalls as possible, I just couldn’t wait to get started.
Day one of my attendance included the Un-Conference, and an entire 4 hours debating tempering and the different processes and factors to consider. There was also the Aphrodisiac Room, the Wine Room, not to mention discussions on Cacao and Mythology and Medicine, and how to make conscious (and delicious) decisions around the chocolate you choose to consume. We also heard from more of the science perspective, particularly around tasting cacao, with an exceptional talk from Brian Wallace on the science of tasting chocolate – From Tree to Tongue – A Cacao Science Primer (a topic I was more than happy to geek out about). Brian is a fascinating individual in the chocolate world, with degrees in an impressive array of subjects, including but not limited to; neuroscience, ethnobotany, medicine and culinary arts. I have to say, I was more than a bit in awe!
When I made it back out and around the stalls sadly I only remembered to take one photo, and luckily it was of one of my favourite products I discovered at the show; Cafe con Leche by Madre Chocolate in Hawaii. Everything these guys produce is just divine, but this one is particularly exciting and was a winner of an International Chocolate Award in 2016. On first glance I was hoping they did bigger bars of these, but on closer inspection it’s actually just as well these bars are done in a snackable size, given the expertly fermented, dried and ground beans aren’t cacao at all, they are it’s cousin – coffee. These guys went and made a chocolate bar using only coffee, and as it says on the label it contains 5 shots of coffee, and really does taste just like a latte! They still use cocoa butter, and milk powder to create the solidity and texture, but the result is a cute little snack bar that tastes just like a latte and is perfect for a late afternoon pick me up!
On my final day in Seattle, yet another crazy morning start for me after a very late one the night before, I headed off with another buddy to explore Mount Rainier National Park. Luckily I had a fine amount of chocolate-related snacks that would definitely do us well should we get stuck on the hike, or locked in the car park. It was hard to tell if the park was actually open or not, and we did get back a little after dark, so it was potentially a bit of a close shave and I wasn’t entirely sure if I was up for us getting trapped in a park in the dark with a Sasquatch around – he probably would have smelled the chocolates too!
What a treat it was to get out in the wilderness though, after exploring Seattle’s chocolate and city magic for the past few days. This is a part of America I do hope to return to one day, to catch up with friends, check out the market again, and the roastery, the chocolatiers – old and new – and feel the stillness of the forest. Until next time, Seattle.
The Adventures of Elle Coco 