Dear fans of Intrigue,
Starting this month, we will no longer produce our hand-made ganache products – truffles, truffle bars, and truffle collections. What’s been made is all that remains. (Last available boxes can be purchased on our website and in our retail stores.)
This is a significant change. It’s been published more than once: “A simple ganache is at the heart of Intrigue Chocolate”. Our flavored ganache products - a passion of Aaron’s and our medium for educating and delighting customers - is the foundational product of Intrigue. Aaron has crafted his ganache truffles for 18 years, first at home, then under the umbrella of Madres Kitchen and distributed with their lunch program, and then 13 years as a fully independent business. The team has crafted, hand-wrapped, and sold over 200,000 truffles! We’ve opened two locations with the ganache line as our anchor. Our chocolate has seen every continent of the globe, including Antarctica! It’s been gifted to mothers, fathers, lovers, wedding guests, celebrities, and even the richest man in the world. There are some children who have grown up with Intrigue Chocolate in the fridge every month.
More about the truffles:
The Intrigue of Aaron Barthel, Master of the Ephemeral Chocolate Truffle - Article by Dr. Chocolate, Kristie Lesslie
Kickstarter Project for New Packaging - 2012
We love this smooth ganache, full of expression and opportunity. We are so proud of our truffle’s history and its’ impact on the Seattle food scene. A dream was fulfilled. Now it’s time to dream anew.
We’ve made this decision for a few reasons. The production space required to produce the truffles is being displaced (next to the viaduct, soon to be prime real estate). Hand-crafting each truffle, hand-wrapping them, hand-stickering them, hand-folding each box, hand-packing them, and then the retail effort required to lead sampling flights, introduce, and educate the customer can be exhausting and expensive.
Aaron is feeling passionate about investing his time and attention in our newest creations. Please welcome our bean-to-chocolate product line:
Broken Slab
Craft chocolate made by Intrigue.
Minimally processed, hand formed, and rough tempered.
This is chocolate for snacking.
*Vegan, no Soy, no Nuts, no Gluten
Our “Broken Slab” are bite-sized craft-chocolate medallions or little broken slabs, and in true Intrigue fashion, made with inclusions like toasted sesame, cherries, candied ginger, popped amaranth, strawberries, etc. They are DELICIOUS, they are already selling out in our retail stores, and they are the future of Intrigue Chocolate Co. You can purchase Broken Slab Snacking Chocolate online now, as well.
Intrigue will continue to produce our cocoa mixes and spiced chocolate bars. Syrups, sugars, and teas will continue in a limited capacity.
We hope that you will give these new inclusion chocolates a try. We’ve found they have wide appeal. Either way, thank you for your support of Intrigue Chocolate Co, and for loving the ganache truffles and truffle bars as much as we do, and for being advocates of Intrigue!
From the Chocolate Exhibit at MOHAI, 2014
Best – Intrigue Chocolate / Aaron Barthel