Tag Archives: chocolate wine pairings

Balefire Bar Wine-Chocolate Tasting

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Wine-Truffle Tasting at Balefire Bar

Last Saturday (July 31, 2010) we headed up to Everett, WA to join the good people at Balefire Bar for an extravaganza wine tasting (along with an excellent selection of Intrigue Truffles, of course!) Balefire plans to host this sort of blow-out event once a month, and we were happy to be on hand for the breaking debut. There were more than 20 wines on offer, all created by the well-known and award-winning Robert Smasne. The wines themselves came from ten different wineries around the region.

Balefire owner, Jon Tobey, impressed us with his passion and knowledge of wine, beer, scotch and Blues. Quick trivia quiz; What exactly is a balefire? Why, it’s a fire set to burn outdoors as a signal, a bonfire, or a beacon. Balefire Bar sees itself as a shining beacon of “fine fermentables”. An outpost of civilization in a wilderness unrefined palettes and screw-off lids. One thing we know for sure; they have really good wines at pretty good prices.

Meridian Market Wine – Truffle Tasting

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Dylan and Aaron Setting Up

Organic. Local products. Music to our ears.

That’s what we hear at the Meridian Market whenever we visit. And the music was as loud as ever last Wednesday evening (July 28,2010). Those folks who joined us to taste five wines paired with our truffles agreed that the combinations were truly melodious.

The category for the tasting was “summer wines”, with three of the five being poured out that night being white wines. What makes a wine a summer wine? Thirst quenching and light, that’s what! And these five representatives certainly met those requirements.

What makes a chocolate truffle a “summer chocolate truffle”? Why, any Intrigue chocolate truffle that you eat with a summer wine, of course!

As usual we enjoyed our time at the Meridian Market. It’s just cool to be in a place of business that has a genuine commitment to community.
And we love their honesty; “We’ve got things you need and lots of cool stuff you don’t actually need but probably want.” This market is the antidote to Psycho-Super-Corporate-Mega-Stores!

Seattle Chocolate Salon 2010 Awards Announced

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Intrigue truffle samples

The 3rd annual Seattle Chocolate Salon Awards have been announced. With some great new chocolate companies, as well as some experienced chocolatiers, the competition was steep, as usual!

So much chocolate innovation going on in one space, and so many people (competitors and attendees alike) involved in the process of enjoying chocolate. The sight of it, the presentation and, of course, the taste of it! It is a pretty cool event and for the third year in a row, we have loved being a part of it.

We stepped outside our comfort zone this year with an unexpected presentation that went over really well. Sharing knowledge about putting our fine chocolate together with wines is always really popular! What’s not to like?

We came away this year with two awards! The tasting panelists gave Intrigue Chocolates a Bronze Medal in Best Truffle! They even went so far as to award us another Bronze Medal for “Most Delicious Ingredient Combinations”. Our opinion is that Intrigue is Gold Medal all the way, Baby! But we are grateful to have been appreciated amongst so many great chocolates.

Our 1st “Third Thursday Wine Walk”

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Chocolate, Cheese and Wine

This was the first time we joined Woodinville Warehouse Wineries for their monthly event. Self-guided tours of 15 wineries, live music, artists and craftsmen came together to make this particular Thursday (June 17th, 2010) very special. We were the guests of Davenport Cellars in their lovely tasting room. (Thank You, Davenport! You are great hosts).

The theme was set for pairing wines with chocolate, and cheese (that is, wine with chocolate, and wine with cheese. We may have to think about that chocolate-cheese idea…uh, maybe not.)

With a flat entry fee at the gate, visitors were free to roam and taste at their will. And will they did! We were surprised (and delighted) to greet twice the expected number of people in the crowd (around 250) and were happy to have Davenport Cellars as our “neighbors”. The pairings we came up with together seemed to make everybody happy:

*Coriander Truffle + Snowflake Wine
*Smokin’ Scotch Truffle + Semillon Wine
*Basil Truffle + Syrah Wine
*Orange-Rosemary Truffle + Continuity Wine
*Hibiscus Truffle + Rose of Cabernet Franc Wine
*Jamaican Hot Chocolate Truffle + R.H.D. Wine