On the Chicago Chocolate Trail

-By Mark 

 The first Food Babies guest contributor, Mark is obsessed with four things: chocolate, bonobos, violence prevention programming, and his wife, Julie. They don't overlap a whole lot, except that eating chocolate is good while doing just about anything. That said, if you do find yourself hanging with some great apes and eating chocolate, please give Mark a call.

Recently, I took a walking tour of chocolate shops provided by Chicago Chocolate Tours. Before I review the tour, and more importantly the chocolate, I need to confess my biases. I am an unapologetic chocolate snob and addict who craves “dark chocolate,” by which I mean chocolate with greater than 70% cocoa content. The words “dark chocolate” aren’t regulated well. Popular American dark chocolate, like Hershey’s Special Dark, is actually just Dutched chocolate (chocolate altered with an alkali to make it less bitter and more smooth). Special Dark however, only contains 45% cocoa! To a chocolate snob, this is like buying sharp cheddar containing only 45% cheddar. 

In addition to taste complexity, there’s the pleasure of cocoa to consider. Chocolate contains many psychoactive ingredients, including caffeine, theobromine (like caffeine), anandamine-like compounds (think THC), tryptophan (which can increase serotonin), and phenylathylamine (think amphetamines and the passion side of love). A higher cocoa content means a higher dose of these chemicals. All these components exist in small doses (except theobromine); so, although chocolate addicts swear they can feel these effects, some scientists are skeptical the compounds could affect anyone but highly sensitive people. All I know is I’ve made some hot cocoa recipes that I certainly wouldn’t drink with women other than my wife.  Now that you know more about chocolate and my personal issues than you probably need to, on to the tour!

Valerie Beck - CCT Founder

Chicago Chocolate Tours (CCT) was started in 2005 by Valerie Beck, a chocoholic Harvard educated lawyer who left the legal biz to lead people around chocolate shops in her hometown Chicago. With a mission of “Uplift through Chocolate;” CCT donates to charity organizations like CARE and supports Chicago-owned chocolate shops and lesser known chains. Our tour guide provided chocolate history along the way and although she was incredulously perky (giving the tour a Willy Wonka-like feel), as your sugar-high grows its easier to empathize. 

Truffle Selection at Tuescher's

The first stop was Tuescher’s, a Swiss owned, internationally-renowned chocolate maker. Their signature chocolate is a Champagne truffle - a milk chocolate truffle dusted with confectioners sugar, filled with dark chocolate ganache and a Dom Perignon Champagne-buttercream center. Happily, this was our sample. The first bite of any truffle is always a surprise, but not always a delight. With some truffles, the outside is so distinct from the inside that the taste becomes as confusing as trying to make out two names said at the same time. Considering it contained milk chocolate, dark chocolate and a laced buttercream, the Champagne truffle was surprisingly blended. No astringency, very creamy, and a low enough sweetness to taste the chocolate. That said, the taste was too blended to have much chocolate complexity, though I could make out some vanilla or rose. The Don Perignon tasted like a good dry white but without any acidity or bubbles. The finish was creamy and with a champagne flavor. Although I normally prefer more complexity in my chocolate, the flavors perfectly complimented each other. How they managed this combination without too much sweetness or acidity is a mystery to me, but the truffle certainly is one of the best I’ve tasted. 

After sampling the milk chocolate Champagne truffle, I quickly bought the dark chocolate version, which is the same except confectioners sugar is substituted with chocolate powder and the milk chocolate with dark. Despite my obsession with dark, I preferred the milk. The dark chocolate was even less sweet, which should be good, but I didn’t find the earthy notes complimented or blended well with the Champagne buttercream. Also, I didn’t get much more complexity out of the dark chocolate which leads me to assume the chocolate is from mid-range, but not high-end beans. So, it didn’t live up to my dark chocolate expectations. I then tried the dark chocolate hazelnut gianduja. Gianduja is an Italian blend of ground nut paste and chocolate (Nutella is a variation on the theme). Again, I was happy it wasn’t too sweet and allowed the hazelnut flavor to mix well with the coffee and floral notes of the dark chocolate. There was no bitterness at all and it had a great long finish. However, it still tasted creamy, which is odd for dark, but as milk chocolate was invented by the Swiss, this isn’t too surprising. Although they have a wide variety of dipped nuts and fruit, pralines and marzipan, this tour was all about chocolate for me; so, I didn’t indulge. Overall Teuscher may not have the most complex chocolates, but they are sure to please everyone but the most ardent chocosnobs.

Cupcakes at More

The next stop was More, a cupcake boutique in the Gold Coast that looks like an art museum with cupcakes lining lit shelves. More is Chicago-owned, won Best of Chicago 2010 cupcake and has received a number of other accolades. More has unique ingredients such as bacon, crème cheese and foie gras. They gave us the Chocolate Chocolate cupcake — a Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with chocolate buttercream and a tiny chocolate dot. I don’t know how to judge cupcakes but it had a rich chocolate taste without being too sweet and was moist but not overly so. It made me desperately crave more, meaning there was some serious chocolate in there. It wasn’t a complex taste but Belgian chocolate is known for being more bold than complex. More’s signature piece is their Valrhona cupcake with a chocolate ganache topping and crème filled center. Though the cupcake I had was very good, not having the Valrhona was a bit of a tease. Like a true addict, I will return later and let you know how it is.  

Peanut Butter Bar at Sarah's

The third stop was Sarah’s Pastries and Candies. For many on the tour, Sarah’s was a delight. Sarah is a Chicago native and educated pastry specialist who grew her shop to Martha Stewart-loving proportions. The shop serves numerous treats and baked goods, and we tasted both a chocolate delight (cluster) and a piece of chocolate peanut butter bar. Both were delicious, and we were treated to a kitchen tour. If you love chocolate-covered sweets, Sarah’s is definitely the place to go. As I am more of a chocolate bar sort of person, Sarah’s wasn’t as exciting for me. The chocolate was sweet (but not obnoxiously so) with little complexity. My guess is a forastero bean, which is fine, but the chocosnob part of me wanted more. 

The Offerings at Leonidas

Our fourth stop was Leonidas, the Belgian company famous for quality. Like other Belgian chocolate, Leondias is not a bean-to-bar company; the ingredients come from non-Belgian sources. So, despite having high cacao content, there is considerable chocolate variability. I had three tastes - a dark chocolate, an orange chocolate and a milk chocolate caramelized with coffee cream. Despite Belgian chocolate’s reputation for low sweetness, all these pieces were overly sweet for my tastes. The dark chocolate was less sweet of course, but had little complexity. Leonidas is also known for their pralines, which I’ve heard are quite different than the sugary pralines Americans consume. However, I decided if I already had three pieces and not been satisfied, I’d had enough. If you want to take the jump into fancier chocolate, but fear bitterness or being overwhelmed with complexity, Leondias is probably a safe bet. The cacao content is high and it’s sufficiently sweet and creamy enough to seem familiar. It’s not my priority to try their chocolate again, but they do have some chocolate-coated waffles that sound delicious. 

Last on the tour we went to Argo Tea, though I don’t really understand why. Argo is Chicago owned and we had both a chai chocolate tea and a piece of chocolate brownie; however, Argo is not a chocolate specialty shop. I love tea, but chocolate tea is out of the realm of my experiences and I’m also not a chai person. So, all I can tell you is that several people said the chai chocolate tea was their favorite chocolate on the whole tour, so, I refrain judgment and recommend you try it for yourself.

 The price of the tour was $40. However, had you bought all the samples separately, you’d have still spent $20, know nothing about the chocolate you were eating, and wouldn’t have supported the CARE charity. I enjoyed Chicago Chocolate Tours and think it’s worth it to go.  Every tour is a little different, so, do your homework to decide which tour you want. But if I were you, I’d stop by Teuscher’s afterward and have more Champagne truffles.

-Mark