When a girl on a diet gets invited to visit a chocolate factory to eat chocolate -- some of her favorite chocolate, no less -- she tells her diet to take a hike and heads over to Emeryville. That's how I found myself at Charles Chocolates last week, enjoying a preview of their new tea-infused chocolates.
Developed in conjunction with Teance Fine Teas, a local importer of premium, whole leaf teas from boutique growers throughout Asia, the Tea Collection includes five flavors. Each one consists of tea-infused chocolate ganache enrobed in 65% bittersweet chocolate that is "painted" with the Chinese character that best represents the flavor inside. There are five chocolates in all, and we tasted four:
Formosa Baochong -- made with a variety of oolong tea that is the signature tea of Taiwan. This had the most pronounced tea flavor of the four. It was smoky and pleasantly bitter.
Special Jasmine -- this was very floral in character.
Osmanthus -- this is the favorite of Charles Chocolates' founder Chuck Siegel. It was delicately floral and didn't taste much of tea. A hint of salt brought out the flavors of the ganache.
Lichee -- this chocolate was strong, boldly floral, and tasted to me of roses.
Matcha -- this chocolate was not available for tasting, but it's made with "the highest quality, traditional Japanese tea used in tea ceremonies."
All the calligraphy for the chocolates was done by the father of Teance founder Winne Yu. He is a master calligrapher, and in addition to the Chinese characters, he also painted the image of the Yellow Mountains that adorns the edible chocolate box that houses the collection.
The collection will be available beginning in the next few weeks at www.charleschocolates.com and Teance, as well as a few select locations like Gump's. $60 per assortment of 18 chocolates in an edible chocolate box
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psst...Teance Fine Teas, formerly Celadon Fine Teas, is opening their new Berkeley location on November 10, 2006. There will be a tea bar with tea flights, similar to wine flights, as well as classes and a selection of more than 65 teas from Asia, India and beyond. 1780 Fourth Street, Berkeley.
This sounds just wonderful! I wish I had the money to spend on a box...
Posted by: ilva | October 31, 2006 at 06:03 AM
Gorgeous. What a great holiday gift! Lucky you.
Posted by: Jennifer Jeffrey | October 31, 2006 at 10:01 AM
I have to get myself a box as a big drinker of tea and big eater of chocolate it would be the perfect present.
Posted by: James | November 02, 2006 at 02:42 AM