The chocolate tour

For Valentine's Day, I got Dave (and myself) tickets for a Chicago Chocolate Tour. The tour is a walking, tasting bonanza of chocolate all around upper Michigan Avenue and the Gold Coast.

We met our tour guides in the Bloomingdale's lobby, where we received our first tastes. Then upstairs to Teuscher for some truffles, and onto various other area chocolatiers. Here's the complete list:

• Organic cocoa bean, Whole Foods
• Blueberry truffle, Cindy's
• Champagne truffle, Teuscher
• Champagne cupcake, More
• Chocolate chocolate cupcake, More
• Chocolate-covered orange peel, Sarah's Pastries & Candies
• Hot chocolate, Sarah's Pastries & Candies
• Brownie, Sarah's Pastries & Candies
• Dark chocolate chili bar, Lindt
• Milk chocolate fruit and nut bar, Lindt
• Chocolate mint, Frango
• Chocolate tea latte, Argo Tea
• Brownie, Argo Tea
  

It was all so good, but my favorites were the cupcakes from More, as well as the champagne truffle from Teuscher.

Dave's favorite was the blueberry truffle. Its maker is an up and coming Chicago area chocolatier.


Just look at those delicious Swiss chocolates, piled high. Teuscher is supposed to be the most high end of all truffles because of the all-natural, fresh ingredients used in their production.

And here's where we started to realize the magnitude of what we had undertaken:


Indeed two hours of chocolate tasting was a lot, but it sure was fun. I got home and promptly ate a salad to try to offset the massive amount of sugar and butter I'd just eaten.

We certainly did come away learning a lot more about chocolate, and especially chocolatiers around Chicago. I've got to get back to that More cupcakes shop sometime soon... Mmm.