Past Newsletters
Vol 3 No 5

In Pursuit of Chocolate

Chocolate Jewels from Seattle

This month C&H Chocolate of the Month Club is pleased to bring you mouthwatering confections from the Seattle Chocolate Company. These tantalizing truffles, packed in beautifully decorated spring boxes are perfect fare for a season that celebrates new life and the women who give it so abundantly. What could be more fitting than flowers and chocolates in the month of May? Bursting with love and appreciation, these truffles come in the flavors of milk chocolate mint; white chocolate orange; milk chocolate hazelnut; dark chocolate espresso and dark chocolate raspberry. A veritable palate of delicious tastes to paint a picture of divine indulgence - for yourself or someone you love (maybe mom?).

But we here at C&H Chocolate of the Month Club know perfectly well that sometimes, even during the hallowed celebration that marks the selfless achievements of mother, there just might not be enough chocolate to go around. We know how you feel. Give up your prized jewels from Seattle Chocolates? Nonsense. Get mom a membership from C&H Chocolate of the Month Club and make up for all those times you were unwilling to part with something you so richly deserved? Brilliance. Your mother always knew you were the smartest one in the class. Happy Mother's Day!

Seattle Chocolate Company Truffles Collection

The Seattle Chocolate Company, founded by Seattle natives Steve Elliott and Steve Abel, starts by using only fine kosher chocolate from Schokinag of Germany, processed to their specifications from the highest quality West African cacao beans. The company's master chocolatier crafts each truffle by blending dark and milk chocolates to achieve the best flavor profile. His ongoing search of flavor houses around the world has resulted in truffles made with double-distilled Northwest peppermint oil, legendary Seattle espresso, pure hazelnut butter, oil of orange and other all-natural flavorings. The smooth meltaway texture the Seattle Chocolate Company is so famous for is created by careful tempering of both the center chocolate and coating. The result is a smooth, creamy confection with perfectly blended flavors that literally melts away when eaten.

Each truffle weighs approximately 1/3 of an ounce and is individually twist-wrapped in gold foil or clear cellophane. The truffle features a center chocolate, created with a blend of chocolate, natural flavorings and coconut oil surrounded by a thin chocolate coating. Formulated in the great flavors of of milk chocolate mint; white chocolate orange; milk chocolate hazelnut; dark chocolate espresso and dark chocolate raspberry, Seattle Chocolate Company's European-style confections are less sweet and more full flavored than most American chocolates.

Tasting Notes

To develop each product, Seattle Chocolates works directly with Schokinag to create a distinct base chocolate which, when formed into a truffle, will enhance and complement the selected flavor. When you bite into a truffle, the center will melt on your tongue, maximizing flavor sensation. For example, Seattle Chocolates' raspberry truffles are created with a dark base chocolate while the mint truffles have a lighter, milky chocolate which offers a sweeter taste. In order to appreciate these delicate nuances, when sampling your chocolates, first take a good drink of water to clear away any other tastes from your palate. Then bite into one of the truffles, giving it only one or two chews before letting it linger on your taste buds for a moment. Experience the fabulous meltdown of tastes. Try this with each flavor of truffle to get the full experience of each memorable chocolate morsel.

The History of Seattle Chocolates

The Tale of two Steves

It all started as a childhood dream - to make chocolates in their very own chocolate factory. In 1992, Seattle natives Steve Elliott and Steve Abel began Seattle Chocolate Company with nothing but marble tables, a copper kettle and a near-antique enrober. Seattle Chocolates was housed in a quaint 1918 brick warehouse near downtown Seattle. The Steves decided that their favorite flavor was mouthwatering mint and set to work to create the perfect chocolate. With the assistance of Bruce Reed, formerly of Frango's, the trio settled upon the secret recipe for what is today's Seattle Chocolates' signature melt-away truffle. First in line for the truffles were local florists and specialty boutiques who found the confection the ideal complement to their flowers and gifts.

The Melting Together of Seattle-Based Companies

Seattle-based Nordstrom caught wind of a mouthwatering treat made in their hometown and had to taste for themselves what the excitement was about. All it took was a sniff and a taste and they wanted their own signature truffle. The sweetness in the air was irresistible, capturing new partners, such as Starbucks, Neiman-Marcus, Marriott Hotels and others. Seattle Chocolates had done it. They were quickly becoming the Willy Wonka of the Northwest.

A Chocolate Factory to Rival Willy Wonka's

Their mission was clear - they must create a factory that could rival even Willy Wonka's and provide their customers with the best chocolate in the world - and lots of it. Business grew and soon Seattle Chocolates was making 3,000 pounds of truffles every eight hours - 350 pieces a minute - with their new state-of-the-art equipment. The machines allowed them to expand their truffle line to include signature truffle bars. The machines were humming and the air was thick with the aroma of chocolate as the confections were whisked off the conveyer belt onto planes and trains carrying the treats to the awaiting mouths of customers across the country.

The Great Chocolate Slosh

It was a typical morning, the factory was buzzing with activity and suddenly the earth shook, the machines rattled, chocolate was sloshing, and truffles were flying. At the center of all this commotion was what turned out to be the February 28, 2001 Nisqually Quake, which registered a 6.8 on the Richter Scale. Employees and chocolates alike were in grave danger as bricks fell and the ceiling began to collapse. Everyone escaped safely, but the quake had potentially devastating effects on Seattle Chocolates and their little brick building. The fate of Seattle Chocolates was as hazy as the dust-filled air.

To Be or Not to Be

While the Seattle Chocolate office and processing facility was "red-tagged" off limits for safety reasons for three weeks, the fearless Seattle Chocolates crew mobilized to assure that their customers were not chocolate-starved. They painstakingly moved 240 pallets of packaging and product from the fifth floor of the quake-damaged shipping facility into a new home in South Park, a few miles south of the original factory. With some people working from home forwarding orders via cell phone, chocolate was sent to customers one week after the earthquake! Five weeks later, the production processes had been moved, reinstalled and were slowly starting up again. All of the production teams smoothly transitioned to the new location.

Chocolate and Beyond

With tenacious efforts of the chocolate team, Seattle Chocolates has risen from the earthquake rubble to become more efficient. The effects of the quake were bittersweet - the factory had crumbled, but their new location allowed them to become bigger, better, more efficient, and sweeter than ever.

Today, Seattle Chocolates continues to expand their company to new heights. Celebrating their 10th anniversary, Seattle Chocolates will continue to intrigue taste buds and sweeten lives for years to come. Their mission is clear - to assure that every person in the world has an opportunity to find the best chocolate they have ever tasted.

Chocolate for a Mother's Heart

Understanding the importance of giving chocolate on Mother's Day entails knowing the true meaning and history behind the holiday itself, and how two historical watersheds - Mother's Day and chocolate - became inextricably intertwined...

While many people could assume that Mother's Day is a holiday invented by the fine folks at Hallmark or Nestle's Chocolate Company, it's far from the truth. The first Mother's Day celebrations can actually be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece, honoring Rhea, Mother of the Gods. The Romans called their version of the same event the Hilaria, and celebrated on the Ides of March by making offerings in the temple of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. Even early Christians celebrated the festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ. In 17th century England, the holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was named Mothering Sunday. Besides attending church services in honor of the Virgin Mary, children returned home from the cities with gifts, flowers, and special Mothering Day cakes that were important parts of the celebration. The celebrations and offerings were an attempt to reflect and pay homage to the ultimate kindness, love and sacrifice that these Holy Mothers and all mothers everywhere embodied.

In the United States, the tradition of honoring mother started with one woman named Anna Jarvis. Jarvis was an Appalachian homemaker who organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community. She thought the day would be best advocated by mothers, so she called the day "Mother's Work Day".

After Anna Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter (also named Anna) began a campaign to memorialize the life and work of her mother. Anna remembered that her mother had commented many times on the fact that there were many days dedicated to men but not to mothers. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, which happened to be on the 2nd Sunday of May that year. By the following year, Mother's Day was also being celebrated in Philadelphia. The younger Anna began to lobby the politicians of the time to support this day dedicated to mothers, including Presidents Roosevelt and Taft.

In the fifty years before this big push to honor the female parent began, manufacturers of the cherished "chocolate drink" underwent a breakthrough of magnitude - the first chocolate bar had been created. Up until 1849, there was no such thing as "edible" chocolate. Although it took several years of refining and experimentation, by 1900, Milton Hershey's milk chocolate bars finally appeared on the market. Two separate roads in history were about to meet.

Meanwhile, deciding to have all or nothing, Ms. Jarvis and her supporters continued to write to businessmen, ministers, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. Finally, in 1912, the Mother's Day International Association was incorporated for the purpose of promoting the day and its observance. By the year 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in the nation. President Woodrow Wilson made it official in 1914 by proclaiming Mother's Day a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

By this same time, specialty chocolate shops began to spring up all over the country and most towns had at least one well-respected establishment producing handmade chocolates. Suddenly, there was a confection sweet enough, indulgent enough to somehow give back to mother what she had always relayed readily to those around her - happiness, pleasure, love, gratification, solace and complete dependability in times of need. All things that chocolate can be to anyone at anytime. There is no other confection that exists today that matches the beauty and sweetness of the female form called "mother." Hence a tradition was born - and will survive until the richness of chocolate can be surpassed.