It takes a brave man to make a garlic chocolate truffle. But perhaps a braver man to eat it.
Chocolatier David Gambill of Sonoma Chocolatiers is the guy behind not only garlic chocolate, but sage and blue cheese truffles, rosemary goat cheese, and mole flavored chocolates. And be assured he’s working on plenty of other flavors.
His Sebastopol tea house, Infusions, has become a sort of laboratory for his line of unusual chocolates. He frets over the flavors of each truffle, handmaking them with Scharffen Berger chocolate and a heady mix of flavorings that go from traditional (ginger caramel, coconut, coffee, mint) to exotic (black tea, Mayan spice, Zinfandel, chestnut, fig cardamom) to downright head-scratching (blue cheese, smoked chipotle, goat cheese, garlic).
Most of the time, they work. Several of his chocolates, including the goat cheese truffle, won gold at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. Sometimes not so much (garlic + chocolate = shudder).
The fun, however, is in figuring it out for yourself. Cause life is, after all, like a box of chocolates.
Sonoma Chocolatiers, 6988 McKinley Street, Sebastopol, (707) 829-1181. Call ahead to see what’s at the shop. Because they’re handmade in batches, not all flavors are always available.
I recently visited the Tea House and these are the most delicious chocolates ever! I actually loved the Garlic Truffle.
You can buy more at…
http://www.sonomachocolatiers.com/