If not for Seattle’s reputation for coffee, this place might have become equally renowned for its chocolate. With the holidays rapidly upon us, we thought it would be timely to check out some of the options for locally sourced chocolate. We have nothing against good national chains, like See’s, but there are more than enough local choices for your chocolate cravings and for stocking up on gifts for the holidays (or plan ahead for St. Valentine’s Day).
A preliminary note to avoid slighting any of the shops we review: all of these promote being ethically sourced, whether blended or single-sourced. That would appear to be part of making chocolate in Seattle.
Starting Near Downtown
It would be odd to discuss Seattle chocolate shops without including Fran’s Chocolates (1325 First Ave., Seattle; 206-682-0168; https://frans.com). In the years since 1982, when Fran
Bigelow opened her original shop in Madison Valley, Fran’s Patisserie and Chocolate Specialties, she has accumulated numerous awards and recognitions. Fran’s continues to be a women-
owned and -operated business, with her daughter taking over as the CEO. Their downtown shop is in the heart of the bustle on First and Union, well situated to serve the downtown and tourist markets.
Though now ubiquitous, salted caramels were not invented until 1978 in France. Fran’s is credited with introducing them to the Seattle area, and Fran’s salted caramels are still among the most coveted in town. (A safe gift item.) Fran’s has a large assortment of other chocolates, and we tried the orange dark chocolate, dark chocolate-covered ginger, and dark chocolate-covered orange confit stick.
The orange truffle was mild and easy to eat, but this item alone would not motivate us to return to Fran’s; the dark orange confit stick had a much stronger orange flavor — we preferred that option. The ginger was dark chocolate on a decent-sized chunk of sugared ginger, complete with a ginger bite. This is something we have been looking for (since See’s discontinued their similar but smaller item many years ago). If you like a ginger chocolate with a little kick, Fran’s is the place to get it. And the salted caramels, with grey salt on either dark or milk chocolate, are smooth and well balanced, although possibly smaller than some of the competitors.
Most of Fran’s chocolate truffles and other items are around $3 each, with the salted caramels being a little less when you buy enough of them. This makes them rather reasonably priced compared to other high-end chocolate competition. In addition to downtown, Fran’s has shops in Bellevue, Georgetown, University Village — and Japan. The Georgetown location, 5900 Airport Way S., is also their factory, located in what was part of the original Rainier Brewery complex. They offer factory tours with tastings at that location.
When it comes to high-end competition, slightly north of Pike Place Market and across the street on First, we found Seleušs Chocolates (1910 First Ave., Seattle, on the ground floor of the Thompson Hotel; 206-581-3151; https://facebook.com/seleuss). Although at first glance the name made us think this was a shop for imported chocolates, it is Seattle through and through. The wide selection of truffles at Seleušs includes exotic and unusual options and some with featured liquors. (The bottles of the current liquors will be on display.)
Alex, the owner, was extremely generous with samples, both of many of the truffles (only a bit of one) and their rich and smooth chocolate sauce from which they make hot chocolate and mochas. After a wide selection of samples, we settled on Ube Coconut and the Orange Blossom Special.
We must mention the Rosa Katopodis Kiouli we sampled, which combines Greek rose petals and rose geranium — a delicate pairing of petals and chocolate that will bring us back for more. The Orange Blossom was similarly subtle and much more complex than any orange chocolate truffle we have had anywhere else in town. The Ube Coconut was also very good, but we will be returning for the floral combinations, understanding that the selections change frequently.
Seleušs chocolates cost a little more, usually between $8 and $12 for a two-pack. The store provides a fun, even festive, environment. Want to feel like a princess while tasting the chocolate? Seleušs stocks a selection of tiaras and crowns to help entertain the young and young-at-heart while in the store. Seleušs is both an experience and a destination for what may be the fanciest chocolates in town.
A Little to the North
North of Lake Union, we found Spinnaker Chocolate right in the middle of the rather crowded food neighborhood on Stone Way (3509 Stone Way N., Seattle; 831-824-4646; https://spinnakerchocolate.com). This location is both its storefront and factory, and they offer factory tours. The front of the store has a very wide variety of serve yourself samples of their currently available flavored chocolate bars. All appeared to be single-sourced from various locations. The rest of the front part of the room is set up like a coffee shop (for mochas, hot chocolate, and tea). They also serve various bakery items from nearby Sea Wolf Bakers. The rest of the space is the front end of their factory; it seems they are always making something.
Spinnaker stresses its single-origin flavored chocolate bars, with only limited truffles. We did try the Uganda Truffle with coconut. We found it smooth (and small). After trying many of their bars, we went home with the Tanzania with Habanero Salt, the Colombia with Ghost Chili Salt, and the Belize with Bourbon, all of which appealed to us, although it’s worth mentioning that the Tanzania with Habanero Salt disappeared first.
Spinnaker’s chocolates are largely vegan and gluten-free (but check on each one before tasting if that matters to you). Their unique selling point is their “club,” like a wine club, with quarterly subscriptions for seasonal chocolate blends. Being a club member provides a noticeable discount on the purchase price of their chocolates, and members get free tours (plus guests, the number of whom depends on the level of membership).
We found the Spinnaker chocolate to be excellent with a wide variety of flavors, many of which were unusual. We expect to go back.
And a Little to the South
In the heart of the Tukwila industrial neighborhood, we found Maeve Chocolate (formerly Seattle Chocolate) (1180 Andover Park W., Tukwila, just west of Costco; 425-264-2705; https://maevechocolate.com). Maeve rebranded this past spring in part to reflect its nature as a woman-owned (and majority women-employed) business, naming the chocolates after legendary Irish Queen Maedb (pronounced Maeve), also seen as a Sovereign Goddess for Ireland, and not for the character in the streaming series “The Boys.” We understand an additional reason is their chocolates are carried by a few national chains, such as Whole Foods, and, believe it or not, there are parts of the country where branding something as from Seattle does not necessarily help sales.
Maeve Chocolate has two stores of its own: one at the factory and the other at the beginning of concourse C at SeaTac airport, where you have probably seen its very colorful display. Maeve Chocolate has two major brand lines: Maeve and Jcoco (the colorful one you see at the airport).
The Maeve brand is carried at many stores and is a good consumer-level chocolate made from a blend of ethically sourced chocolates in a wide variety of flavors. The Jcoco (the J is for the owner’s first initial) is their premium brand made from a single Peruvian source and is marketed as higher-end flavored chocolate bars.
We tasted and enjoyed a number of the Jcoco bars, and we gave in to the gimmick at Maeve of getting as many of the oblong chocolates as we could squeeze into a three-inch per side cube for $20. The very friendly staff helped, and we ended up with 33 of their various dark chocolates in that box. We are particularly fond of the Mexican Hot Chocolate chocolates.
Maeve also offers tasting tours with a reservation. We will be tempted to stop by again next time we find ourselves in Tukwila with a little extra time.
Much Further South
We maintained our search on a field trip to Southern Oregon and discovered Branson’s Chocolates, barely southeast of the university (further from downtown) in a neighborhood that doesn’t attract many tourists (1662 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland; 541-488-7493; https://bransonschocolates.com).
We were happy we found them. Branson’s has a small showroom attached to their factory, but they had enough room to feature a wide selection of truffles and treats as well as flavored chocolate bars and single-sourced bars. Branson’s also has sugar-free, dairy-free, and vegan options.
We picked up an orange truffle (our standard), a marshmallow truffle, a marionberry bar, and a single-sourced dark chocolate bar from Mexico. The orange truffle had a delicate orange flavor, not overpowering. The marshmallow truffle was slightly salty, and that worked. The marionberry bar had a good dark chocolate flavor and only a mild taste of marionberry, plus a few seeds. And the Mexican-sourced chocolate bar was well received as a gift item.
Branson’s has been in business for 20 years, 13 in their current storefront and factory. They apparently have a very healthy mail-order wholesale and special-label business. You may have seen Branson’s featured at a Made in Oregon store, including the one in the PDX airport. This was a good find and worth checking out next time you are in Ashland for Shakespeare or passing through the Portland airport.
As with some other specialty foods in and around Seattle, we discovered many more options than we can cover in one issue. So, stay tuned for Chocolate in Seattle Part 2 sometime next year.
This chocolate issue of Dining Out is brought to you by Christopher Howard, with help from family and friends (and everyone is willing to help when it comes to chocolate). Comments and suggestions are welcome at chh@f2t.com or 206-669-5956.
