In selecting the chocolate from which to make our candy, we looked for great flavors from great manufacturers. We principally use chocolates made by the French/Belgian companies Barry-Callebaut and Vahlrona – both of which make extraordinary chocolate. Like wineries, the chocolate makers select fruit from different locations that have specific flavors or characteristics that they want to impart to their chocolate. Chocolate makers blend different flavors similar to wineries.

Like the premium wineries in our home area, the Napa Valley, our chocolate suppliers make great chocolates by blending cocoa beans from around the world. Cocoa beans are grown in different areas around the world creating differences in the flavor profiles in the cocoa. Like wineries, chocolate makers create products that consistently reflect their particular ‘house’ flavor profiles as well as regional or plantation select products that allow their customers to explore the ranges of flavors chocolate that can be delivered through various terroir or cocoa bean variety differences. Like the finest wines many of the single-plantation or single-country select chocolates are made in very small quantities and are not available to the retail consumer. We carefully pair the flavor profiles of the chocolate used in the filling and coating for each of our candies.

Fillings – All of our truffles are filled with a ‘ganache.’ A ganache is a French word for a ‘saturated’ solution containing chocolate and one or more liquids. Our Signature Fillings use classic French formulations and techniques to combine one or more chocolates, cream and flavorings to form a ganache.

We use fresh cream, typically 40% butter fat, from a small dairy whose cows are not fed bST or any other hormones. Many of our Signature ganaches are flavored with liquors, such as Amaretto or Grand Marnier, reductions or extractions of complex flavorings. The number of flavoring components and the complexity of the extraction process combined with single Origin chocolate make our Signature ganaches extraordinary and superior to our merely excellent Traditional ganaches. All of our ganaches are made with potassium sorbate as a preservative. Upon special order, this can be omitted.