More V-Day Chocolates
Photograph by our intern, Robyn Lee, aka The Girl Who Ate Everything.
Another day at Serious Eats world headquarters, another box of chocolates delivered to our door. On Friday, the chocolates that came our way were from Sahagún Handmade Chocolates (10 Northwest 16th Avenue, Portland OR 97209; 503-274-7065). Brian Spangler, the co-owner of our favorite Portland pizzeria, Apizza Scholls, turned us on to Sahagún on his website. It turns out that Brian knows chocolate just about as well as he knows pizza.
Here's what we have tried so far:
Luscious Caramels: Aptly described on the flyer that came in the box as "soft, buttery, salted caramel encased in a bittersweet thimble and topped with a nut. Corn-syrup free. Best eaten in one exploding bite!" How right they are. These were so good, so buttery, just salty enough, that you will notice that the photo that Serious Eats managing editor Adam Kuban took of them (left) and the one that our intern, Robyn Lee, took (above) only have two instead of the three that were sent. I couldn't help myself. I grabbed one and popped it in my mouth before they could stop me.
Sahagún owner Elizabeth Montes also makes stupendous barks (as seen in Robyn's photo above). The Pepitiapapá Bark features toasted pumpkin seeds and just enough jalapeño to give it a little heat at the end of each bite.
The Palomitapapá Bark features what they call "exploded corn," chile Japonés, and flor de sal. Imagine the best CornNuts ever surrounded by really good dark chocolate.
The Salt Peanuts! Salt Peanuts! product (presumably inspired by the Charlie Parker–Dizzy Gillespie tune of the same name) features Spanish peanuts, salt, and chile Japonés. In the same vein, imagine the best Goobers you've ever tasted.
The chocolate-covered candied ginger was also killer.
If Serious Eats world headquarters were in Portland, we would be making weekly pilgrimages to Sahagún.
We'll add this to our list of serious chocolate sources. For other spots we haven't covered yet, visit chocomap.com.
By the way, it's only Monday. There are two days to go before Valentine's Day. Is there such a thing as chocolate poisoning?
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3 Comments:
Ed: You are a serious photographic hindrance to the Serious Eats operation! First, you neglect to carry your SE-approved camera with you and thereby miss out on shooting what you claim is the best pizza in the world. (I would more readily believe you if I had some visual evidence.) And now, you eat the props for our chocolate shoot before Robyn and I could even power up our cameras!
Adam Kuban at 1:04PM on 02/12/07
Adam, apparently it is our fault for not stopping him! Next time we break out the tasers.
I liked the exploding corn bark the most.
roboppy at 2:12PM on 02/12/07
Tasers: On order. Good idea, Robyn!
Adam Kuban at 2:20PM on 02/12/07