Sun, 13 May 2007
After my office moved downtown a year ago I went to a store with Kevin. It was a newspaper/magazine store that I would've not noticed had he not pointed it out. In addition to magazines and newspapers they sell some sodas and some chocolate. It wasn't until later after buying magazines one day that I realized he had introduced me to the most dangerous store ever.
Chocolate chocolate chocolate.
Fog City News has probably over 250 kinds of chocolate. And you would never know if you were just walking down
Market Street. I try not to, but I wind up going there about once every other week in the afternoon or right after work for a quick break and to try a new bar of chocolate.
They'll even give you a card to write down what you've bought (if you buy a bar) and on the 10th bar, you get one for free. Quite nice, especially as the chocolate bars cost between $5-$10 ea.
The staff's nice of course and the guy who I think is the owner along with the other people have tried most of the chocolate too and can help out if you're buying some
to start eating on the bus home as a gift for someone else.
I've tried quite a few of the chocolates - Rococo, the special edition Scharfenbergers, and some other local makers- Michael Mischer and Guittard. (Mischer has a surprisingly good sugar-free 61% bar).
I got to meet
Gary Guittard the other day too. I was taking two coworkers to Fog City one afternoon to buy some Pasillo chile chocolate from Vosco(?) and Fog City was having a tasting of
Guittard Chocolates.
At first I just thought the guy near the door was just sampling some free chocolate that was set out to try. I just thought he was financial district dude sporting a nice Panerai on casual clothes day. But after a second I realized he was running the tasting and talking to people about his company.
He had two bars out to try and Fog City carries a lot more of the Guittard line. The two to try were Nocturne and Quetzalcoatl. I was already shoving a small piece of Quetzalcoatl into my mouth (after breaking a bit in half and smelling it) when Mr Guittard was telling someone else that he had sourced the beans for that bar from Africa. That confused me a bit because I assumed it was
non-African cacao due to the name and asked him about that. He said I was the thrid person to pick up on that and that he would need to be more careful in the future when naming his bars.
The Nocturne was actually a "lighter" bar but less sweet. The Q was nicely balanced and dark and sweet.
Guittard Chocolates has a really nice site and really nice products. Mr Guittard was really nice to everyone that day and quite generous with his samples. I'd really recommend giving them a try.
Anyway, keep an eye out for Fog City and Guittard Chocolates. You don't have to be a nerd about chocolate like I am - I've always liked chocolate and
it's very similar to coffee-- and we all know I'm way nerdy about that.
13 May 14:59 | /food_and_drink | 4 comment(s)
