Category Archives: Events

Intrigue’s Artwalk Debut

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Historic Pioneer Square's 1st Thursday Artwalk

We love being part of Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood. And now we’ve been officially introduced to the well-established art scene that’s been going on here for decades.

Intrigue Chocolate’s new shop has opened its doors, and even better, there is Art hanging on our walls. It’s amazing how much more like home it feels here now that things of beauty grace our walls. Our space has been transformed by the photographs of Rick Scott. You should so come in and see his collection, or check out more of his work at photographybyrickscott.com. We are lucky to have Scott’s pics “hanging around” for at least a month.

People stopped by for a taste of seasonal truffle flavors, and our new hot cocoa mix. We were ever so happy to welcome a crowd of neighbors into our shop. Thanks for making us feel welcome, too, neighbors!

Intrigue Hits Big at Northwest Chocolate Festival

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Karl, the man behind Intrigue's sample table!

Wow! What a weekend! We knew it was going to be fun, we knew it was going to be busy. But we didn’t know how fun, or how busy the Northwest Chocolate Festival would be. All day October 23rd, and 24th, 2010 saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 people coming through the Seattle Center to have a chocolate experience. (No, we did not stutter. We did not say five hundred, we said five thousand!) Yeah, we were pretty blown away, too. But in a good way. What a riot to have so very many people so very excited about chocolate!

The weekend was set up to showcase chocolate artisans, and was intended to be educational and informational. There were lots of classes and workshops going on. Our Aaron taught two wine/chocolate pairing classes each day, and participated in a thoughtful panel discussion on “What is fine chocolate?”. He was joined by some seriously chocolate-educated panelists; a cacao-broker for XOCO, a representative from Taza Chocolate, local Bill Federicks (“The Chocolate Man”), and Madecasse company (from Madagascar).

The panel went on for two hours with the audience held in rapt attention, so you can be sure that there is not a simple answer to that question. Unless you just want to say “Intrigue truffles”. That works for us!

We’ll be back to tell you more about the event. Stay tuned for Part II of the NW Chocolate Fest soon!

Dogs in Disguise: Halloween at the Warehouse

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Hot Dogs!

After the big success of last month’s Third Thursday Wine Walk at Woodinville Warehouse Wineries, the doggy fun continues! October was the last wine walk of the 2010 season, and we capped it off with “Halloween at the Warehouse”. Once again proceeds going to support our local wineries and Homeward Pets. Caring for dogs and cats who need homes is a costly enterprise. And Homeward Pets Adoption Center is dedicated to really giving better lives to so many animals, they even refuse to euthanize animals, believing that there is no such thing as an unwanted animal, just some lag time between finding their true homes.

“Halloween at the Warehouse” invited pets and owners to arrive in costume, with prizes for best dressed in both categories! What’s cuter than dressed up poochies?

With over 15 wineries participating, the excitement was even greater with the many raffle prizes. Attendees were awarded raffle tickets every time they bought a bottle of wine, and were in the running for cool prizes like; a Covington Cellars Winemaker’s Dinner for 2, an Edmonds Winery Magnum, 8 wine tastings at Patterson Cellars, a Barrel Wine Tour for 2 and lots of Third Thursday Wine Walk gift certificates.

Best of all (of course) was putting wine together with chocolate at Davenport Cellars while Jeff and Sheila crushed grapes in the back room. We gave away many truffle samples and shared Intrigue Chocolates techniques for pairing wine and chocolate. (Samples for Human trick-or-treaters, only!) Lots of pats for the pets, though!

Two Classics: Chocolate and Cabernet

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Vine Ripened Cabernet Grapes

At the Cabernet Classic this last Wednesday (October 20, 2010) we were pleased to be part an enjoyable evening. And even more so because it was helping to raise much needed funds to feed hungry families in our community.

Tickets admitting classical-loving patrons to the event benefited Rotary First Harvest, and organization that has distributed almost 150 million pounds of fresh produce since 1982. It’s a majorly cool program, started with the notion of backyard gardeners growing a little extra to share with their neighbors. There are even “extra” fruits and vegetables that are not good-looking enough for the market (Ever see a “two-legged” carrot in the store? Where do they go, the island of misfit veggies? Naw, usually they are left to rot.) By creating a bridge between growers and consumers, the produce is rescued from waste and given a new life feeding those who need it most.

This second annual showcasing of over 100 Cabernets featured one French, one Californian, and more than 35 Washington wineries.

Considered by some to be “The King” of wines, the Cabernet is a beauty to pair with Intrigue Truffles. And given the volume of wines present, there was plenty of variety to match the the range of truffle flavors we had at our booth. We appreciated all of the visitors, and as always, welcome your interesting questions about what makes a wine a good pair with a particular chocolate.

In a time when more people than ever need to rely on food banks, and fresh, nutritious food is the least likely to be available, we applaud the efforts of First Harvest to feed our neighbors.

Trufflemaking Class Great Success at Woodhouse Cellars

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Aaron, our fearless class leader!

Boy, have we been busy! But that’s the way we like it. We are at our best when we are seeing lots of you out there at events and getting your great feedback that fuels our creativity. Thanks for that, Intrigue Truffle-eaters!

A few weeks back (September 18, 2010) we had an “ordinary” event at Woodhouse Family Cellars that quickly turned into extra-ordinary (as any event can do in a sudden moment). Don’t get us wrong, it’s always a pleasure to hang out at a WFC wine-tasting, watching guest’s eyes light up as the flavors of excellent wine and chocolate truffle meld together to create a new and surprisingly delightful taste.

All was well as the tasting wound down and we moved into truffle-making class mode that was to follow. Oops! There comes a bus full of people at 4:50, just in time to interrupt our set-up routine for the class.  But Karl was the lead Zen-master, as usual, urging everyone to keep a cool head and keeping us on track.

We had a class of 14 turn out to make Basil Truffles from 5:30 to 10:00pm. They also learned about pairing wine with fine chocolate, enjoying “hands-on” (wine-glasses lift) education that lead them through 6 pairings. The whole class competed enthusiastically in a chocolate-trivia game. Their motivation was entering a drawing to win a free starter kit for making their own chocolate truffles.

Only one kit, but everyone was a winner with the evening well spent learning about the joys of chocolate and wine!