Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon

Very small event. Ticket is $ 20. In my opinion is not worth it. Barely sample anything. Just a tiny bits of chocolate (smaller than peanut size to taste from each table — around 10 tables). There are just some venders and some chocolatiers came to open to sell their stuffs.
2 of the venders (I prefer not to mention their names) made me feel so embarrassed. Give me sample with the bad attitude. Treat me like a homeless to ask them for food. Seriously dude, $ 20 for entrance fee to get to know these kinds of bad attitude people. Not worth it.
On the good side, I have a chance to know that they have that bad attitude, so I will stop buying their chocolates.
Next year if these venders participate again, I will definitely not go to this event.
ps. To forte chocolate, you might have to consider change the workers that trying to sell chocolate in the event. They are not very nice and a bit rude to me.

Yum yum chocolate! Thank you Unilocal for the tickets. Can’t pass up free fancy chocolate. This was a smaller event than the chocolate festival at the convention center downtown last year. But the chocolate was still delicious. Great options like non gmo and vegan chocolate

Although it’s been months since this even took place– the mouth watering experience and chocolate coma is still very fresh in my mind. Being my first time here (thanks to free tix from Unilocal) I had nothing to compare it to or did not know what to expect. I was almost 6 months pregnant and happily ready for the mouth watering chocolates to explode on my tastebuds.
I wish I could remember the names of the chocolatiers we purchased from, all I do recall is that my bank account was $ 40 lighter and my tastebuds excited as hell. I took my older sister who recognized a Vancouver BC couple from a Food Network challenge show– where they make chocolate into different sculptures and are world renowned. We purchased their salted caramel and their balsamic vinegar chocolate– something I would have never expected to go so well together. I remember that first piece of sample– how I left it on my tongue to melt, closed my eyes and experienced a chocolategasm. Yes– a chocolategasm. It was like fireworks went off I my mouth. My sister had to hush me because I kept saying «hmmmm hmmm hmmm!» Although the sample sizes were a bit disappointing as well as the amount of chocolatiers present– those that did represent their unique chocolates were not disappointing. I literally bought a bar from each table. I look forward to next years event!

Another good time this year with another good chocolate coma. I got to sample from every booth this year, and it was great to see some new stands. I also like how many of the companies offer their bars at better values than stores while you’re there.
Some booths have friendly people, and some are not so much. .. but most are great. If you haven’t made it out yet, you need to go – and if you sign up for the salon emails, you can find out when the cheap tickets go on sale. :)

«Vianne Rocher: And these are for your husband. Unrefined cacao nibs from Guatemala, to awaken the passions.
Yvette Marceau: Psshh. You’ve obviously never met my husband.
Vianne Rocher: Well, you’ve obviously never tried these.»
(Photos here:
)
—
Remember the movie «Chocolat»?
I haven’t been able to forget it. It glorifies one of my favorite things in life: chocolate; it has Juliette Binoche as the free-​spirited, unusual and utterly feminine but strong Vianne; but most importantly, it combines wonderful cocoa with a young Johnny Depp…
I used to dream there was a deleted scene in the movie where Johnny Depp was sinfully covered in chocolate and… ahem!
But I digress.
With no Roux in sight, I came to the Salon with one of my favorite Unilocal friends. We had a wonderful time sampling tens of different, most beautiful sweet confections.
I enjoyed feeling chocolate melt in my tongue, comparing aftertastes, mingling with friends and getting to meet fantastic new people. I also spent a good amount of time photographing some of the participants’ tables.
For me, the «Best in Show» was the Ginger Ball from Claudio Corallo.
Corallo’s small and delicate tiny chocolate ball contained a soft-​as-​mousse, light green ginger paste that flooded my taste buds with sweetness and spiciness. Almost microscopic ginger fibers caressed my tongue (that didn’t want swallowing to happen). It was a flawless experience.
But my tongue didn’t become deliciously numb just by having the ginger balls. She recalls these as unforgettable, too:
* Citrus White Chocolate Truffle from Suess. Creamy decadence.
* All caramels from Forte were divine… and the owner is the nicest, most energetic character.
* Blood Orange Truffle from La Châtelaine Chocolat Co. Very nice owners (and lovely couple).
* White Chocolate with Strawberries from Divine Chocolate (particular congratulations and my admiration to this company, owned directly by the farmers in Ghana). This chocolate is a winning «palate friendly», and I’m sure a pretty wide range of ages would equally appreciate it.
* William Dean’s Fruit Pâté (Piña Colada) and their crunchy popcorn.
* Sweetest ladies at Crave Chocolate. Their pumpkin pie chocolate truffle tasted like holidays to me. I also likes their Yellowstone truffle (perfectly married crunchy and creamy factors).
* Carter’s Chocolates had the best nibs, made with Venezuelan cocoa. Strong, earthy, I left their table wanting more.
* Intrigue Chocolates had the best «aftertaste» factor. I also loved that they make old-​fashion, powdery truffles.
* Posh Chocolate’s chocolate and salts frolicking together (flavor and presentation wise). Interesting offering.
* Oh! Chocolate was my favorite regarding interaction with people. I wanted to bring those wonderful ladies home… and their chocolate apricots were to die for.
* Also, the look and delicate taste of Eat Chocolate were fabulous. The chocolatier was adorable and her confections beautiful.
The best phrase I heard during this afternoon was «what’s not to love about Theo?». Agreed. Also, great to see the lovelies from Chocolopolis around.
Amano’s chocolates are very complex and interesting, but they need someone a bit nicer to interact with the public. The owner was nice to me, but I heard several complaints about their way to handle customers.
Special mentions go to the very interesting tea-​like Choffy brewed chocolate; the cute and elegant Marco Polo Jewelry (got a «chocolate syrup» heart pendant for myself); and the divine and surprising Rimon Winery pomegranate dessert wine.
I was a bit turned off by the fact that most everyone had anything «mojito». I’m not a lover of «trends». Don’t get me wrong: I’m a Latino mama who loves her mojitos… but it’s beginning to get old already.
My last comment is to the place where the event was held. Bell Harbor Convention Center is a nice place, no doubt about that. But having a monstrous cruise ship lurking, while doing something as sublime as overdosing on luxurious chocolate, felt bizarre.
Also, the organizers could use a bit of decoration… it felt very corporate. So much, I had to close my eyes several times while tasting, just to forget we were surrounded by such an impersonal ambiance.
Still, I managed to make some good photos (some of which I’m happily sharing here).
¡Salud!

This was probably the most delicious party I’ve been too. I didn’t think I could ever eat too much chocolate, but these guys proved me wrong. The chocolate that these candy makers brought, are totally different from anything in the stores you can buy. The flavors are so much more rich and strong.
I loved the spa products made from chocolate, but I’m afraid I would want to eat it and not wash my face with it. I got a lot of really good idea’s here, and am even thinking about taking a class from one of the vendors.
Thanks to Katie and Inna for being so friendly and giving me cool stuff. I had a blast, and the conference center was beautiful.

For the second year TasteTV put on an amazing event with 30+ vendors at the Bell Harbor Convention Center.
Jewelry, Spa products, wine… oh how there were so much more than truffles this year!!!
I was sooooo lucky to score a pair of free tickets thanks to M’lady Katie (nothing like a Unilocal Talk contest for free chocolate!!) but would have paid the $ 25 per person gladly!
I have lots of notes and have created a list of all the vendor reviews:

Now I need to sober up and start reviewing :-)!
In summary:
In Coma
Send Milk
& Napkins
There were LOTS of spicy (habenero, cayenne, etc…) chocolates and the ice water just didn’t cut it for cleansing the palate.
Not to mention the folks with the Maytag Blue Cheese truffle should have been next door to the Bacon Caramel people… there is marzipan in the blue cheese people… it’s much more mild than you would think.
We loved the Oh! Chocolate folks rolling FRESH truffles with tempered chocolate on a marble slab… but no napkins? Just waxed paper?
So if you are reading this thinking about going in 2010 (or later) see if you can be a milk vendor and I promise you will make a mint!

This was one crazy delicious event that left plenty of folks in a chocolate coma…
The chocolate samples ranged from good to being a flavor explosion/​party in your mouth. and a lot of them looked almost too beautiful to eat. Many of them had some interesting flavors and… well, let’s just say I’m probably no longer going to my regular shopping-​mall chocolate stores when buying fancy chocolate as a gift. There are simply too many amazing little chocolate companies that so many people have not even heard of!
Some of the more interesting flavors: green tea, lavender, different beer and wine chocolates, blue cheese, spicy mango, mojito, etc.
Some of my favorites: Theo, Intrigue Chocolates, Oh! Chocolate, Posh Chocolat, Suess Chocolates, Claudio Corallo Chocolate…
They also had a few non-​chocolate vendors: Honest Tea provided tasty organic beverages, Marco Polo Designs were selling jewelry, there were a couple wineries giving out samples, etc. I kind of hope next year there are also a couple simple food vendors, just so we could eat something that’s not chocolate without having to leave the premises ;)