The Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon was a Success! Phew!
In our last blog entry we invited all of you to visit Intrigue Chocolates and 22 other chocolate companies from around the northwest at The Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon. The event was hosted by TasteTV.com which hosts various foodie events across the country. This was the first chocolate event they’ve hosted in Seattle.
When we first arrived there was a bit of a scare – the fire alarm went off! Aaron and I did our best to keep our chocolate out of the sun until the doors opened up and everyone was allowed back inside. Due to the delay though, we had to do a rushed set-up before crowds of chocolate lovers came rushing through the doors. Fortunately Carla volunteered to help for the day, and she was able to hurry the process along. (Thanks, Carla!)
The event was a huge success. TasteTV.com reported attendance of over 500, so needless to say we stayed busy at the table from opening at 11am to closing at 5pm. Saint Basil ended up being the favorite at our table, and the new flavor Tequila-Lime received a good amount of attention as well. The only request we have for next year is a better air conditioning system. By 1pm it was hotter inside the conference room than it was outside and chocolate was melting quickly! It turns out that a passing cruise ship had triggered the earlier fire alarm, which shut down all of the facility’s systems and no one was on hand to reboot the air conditioning.
Awards were announced at the end of the show. Intrigue Chocolates placed in the following categories:
Tie for 1st place: Best Chocolate Flavor
Tie for 2nd place: Best Chocolate Truffle
Honorable Mention: Best Chocolatier (Go Aaron!)
Honorable Mention: Best Chocolate for Wine
You can see all the event awards here a TasteTV.com’s salon awards site.
Not bad for our first competition! Considering the other companies present (Theo, Amano, Guittard, etc), it was a honor to be recognized at all.
It was also nice to have several friends visit us at the event. You all made the day far less stressful for us, and it was nice to have a cheering section when our names were announced for the awards.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I purchased two boxes of your chocolates for my snobbiest of friends at the Luxury Chocolate Salon. They at first they were unsure but after three days they are still raving about the balance of flavor and the delicate nature of your chocolate! As an aspiring chocolatier, you have really helped to raise the bar (no pun intended) for the kinds of products I can expect out of myself! Excellent work, you were spot on for the show!
July 17th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Thanks for the feedback Michael! We are glad your friends enjoyed them.
August 10th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Wow! Congratulations Aaron and Karl! We are totally impressed. We are so proud to brag about you to the people we know. Love you. Mean it.