I was a little familiar with Christopher Elbow Chocolates
since Mel had given me a box of artisanal chocolates when I had last visited but
this was my first time in the actual shop. It’s definitely worth seeing in
person and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to do so. The chocolates were
literally a work of art, every single piece. I had to snap pictures of nearly
every display as they were so beautiful. I’m in awe of the vision to create
each kind of chocolate; they were quite artistic.
Some of the flavors were also rather exotic. This is
where my plain taste buds don’t necessarily come up to scratch to the artistry
and more sophisticated palate probably needed to fully appreciate artisanal
chocolate but I found enough to satisfy not just my eyes but also my taste
buds.
You can buy the chocolates by the piece and either go for
a 4-box, 9-box or 16-box. Or, if you don’t want chocolates in those numbers, you
can buy any amount you wish to put in a bag but then you end up paying the
individual chocolate price, $4 each. It’s slightly cheaper to buy the pre-fixed
amounts in the different-size boxes.
I liked the turtles Mel had us try at her house but I
went for a box of the milk chocolate ones instead of the dark chocolate. I’m a
milk chocolate imbiber. Then I had to get 4 of the pretty chocolates because
you know, chocolate. My “impulse” purchase was a milk chocolate hazelnut
praline from a display of individually wrapped ones conveniently near the cash
register, meant to target weak-willed chocoholics like me. I obliged.
If you want to know prices, the box of 6 milk chocolate
fleur de sel pecan turtles was $22, the 4-box chocolates were $10, and the milk
chocolate hazelnut patty were $4. So it was not a cheap indulgence but worth
it.
I managed to keep myself from eating any of it until I
was on my way home the next morning. The milk chocolate hazelnut patty ended up
being my breakfast as I caught a 6 am flight out of Kansas City the next day. I
held out until we were landing for my connecting flight. Took one bite and
cursed myself for only getting one of these. It was freaking amazingly
delicious. WHY did I only get one?? What was I thinking??
By the second bite, I was already thinking I
needed to go to the Christopher Elbow shop that the Kansas City folks told me
was in San Francisco. San Francisco! Not close but not as far as KC. Seriously,
the praline patty was amazing. I had thought it would be hard like a chocolate-covered
toffee but it wasn’t. It was slightly more firm than the chewy caramel of the
sea salt turtle but not hard like toffee. I can’t describe it very well. I
think I need to go get another one to refresh my memory and be more
descriptive.
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| Best Hazelnut Praline Ever |
For the 4 individual chocolates, I got a variation of a
caramel flavor for each one. The insides were the soft, flowy caramel, my
favorite kind. I don’t mind the chewy caramel but the flowy, oozy kind is best.
After you bring yourself to break through the gorgeous chocolate shell, you
encounter the smoothness of the best caramel. Each flavor was subtle with just
the right balance of flavor and sweetness. If you’re a chocolate connoisseur,
you have to give Christopher Elbow chocolates a try.
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| Coconut Caramel |
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| Vanilla Bean Caramel |
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| Milk Chocolate Turtle with Sea Salt |
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