Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Chocolate in Portland

Monday morning on our Portland trip, we visited two of the city's fine chocolate shops. The first was the Swiss chocolate maker, Teuscher, located in a small shop on Broadway in downtown. We bought several bars. As expected, the milk chocolate was good, with the sugar-based bar being much better than the fructose-sweetened, but my preferences definitely stray toward darker varieties these days, so I thought that the dark chocolate was the best bar. And then there were the truffles. Since they are expensive and we didn't know how they tasted, we only bought a pair from Teuscher. Quite simply, their champagne creams are the best truffles I have after eaten.

The second stop was Moonstruck on Alder in downtown Portland. The quality of their bars was more consistent than Teuscher. I enjoyed the Espresso bean dark chocolate, and the Fortunato, single origin dark chocolate from Peru, is uniquely flavorful. At $12 for a 2oz. bar, the Fortunato is very expensive, but I don't regret the price. The chocolate is first-rate. On the other hand, the truffles were more mixed. Some were not special, but then there is the Pure Gold, a delicious dark chocolate ganache infused with Drambuie and honey.

If you're in Portland and a chocolate lover, I would suggest visiting. You can also check out their websites: Teuscher and Moonstruck. Teuscher has a few other locations in major cities, while Moonstruck can be found in some stores throughout the United States.

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