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Greetings, Chocolate Gourmand,
During our “Chocolate Art Week,” now through August 6, if you do not live in the Bellingham/Whatcom County area, you can enjoy virtually all of our 3-dimensional artisan chocolate works here on our Web site.
The most artistic pieces – our renowned, stylish stiletto heels; various animals (Daddy Frog and Tommy Turtle are favorites!), and a marvelous mask (Drama, Mardi Gras style), e.g. – will be on display at our new downtown chocolate and dessert shop. They also remain on shelves at the factory store, as usual. The downtown store hours are 10-10 M-Th, 10-11 Fri-Sat, 12-6 Sun.
Kevin G. Buck, approaching his 25th anniversary as an artisan chocolatier and founder of Chocolate Necessities, plans to talk to you about the art of making chocolate and creating artisan chocolate pieces on Wednesday, August 4, between 5-7 p.m.
If you want to attend one of the three presentations centering on the art of chocolate, please email mike@chocolatenecessities.com and state your time preference: 5, 5:45, or 6:15 p.m.
 The centerpiece for “Chocolate Art Week,” which we established in support of the annual Bellingham Arts Festival, is a giant shoe-house fashioned after a nursery rhyme (“There was an old lady who lived in a shoe, who had so many children she didn’t know what to do….”). Made from world-class Belgian milk chocolate, it weighs 10 pounds, and it is 15 years old. * * *
Although summer limits the areas we can ship to because of the melting factor, we do have some items that are good to go by our normal USPS express shipping method all year round.
- One is the Imperial Double-Chocolate Ganache Cheesecake, which will be a big hit on your table for any special occasion. It is an original recipe using 100 percent Dutch cocoa powder and 64 percent dark Belgian chocolate, and it contains no preservatives. Chuckanut Bay Foods in nearby Ferndale, WA, which has been famous for its cheesecakes for about 20 years, bakes it exclusively for us. You won’t find anything like it anywhere else. That’s a promise.
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Looking ahead, save the date: Oct. 20. Kevin G. Buck will once again hold class in the kitchen of the Bellingham Community Food Co-Op at the downtown location, 1120 N. Forest St. [http://www.communityfood.coop]. This will be just in time to get you rolling into the holiday baking seasons.
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One thing Kevin has always prided himself on at Chocolate Necessities is keeping you in tune with the very best chocolate to be found around the world. One of his favorite sayings is, “You can never exceed your ingredients.”
He recently brought in two unbelievably good additions to our world of top-grade gourmet chocolate:
- One is made in Spain – Chocovic. (Vic is a city in Spain.) Three darks passed the very-high Buck Taste Standards, along with an extraordinary, sublime milk chocolate that is unique because it is made with a yogurt base.
- Madecasse offers a strong dark (75%) and a smooth milk from Madagascar, the huge island nation in the Indian Ocean off the SE coast of Africa. This young company has an interesting story: the chocolate evolved from the partners’ experiences in the Peace Corps.
Last year Chocolate Necessities introduced you to what has become our most popular dark milk chocolate (44%), originating from the tiny island nation of Vanuatu in the Fiji chain.
You’ve got to try all these to believe them. And, of course, we have reliable standbys from the giants of Europe – Felchin (Switzerland), Pralus (France), Belcolade (Belgium) and the cornerstone of our original truffles and other products, Callebaut (Belgium).
They all make excellent, beyond-the-ordinary corporate gifts.
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 We’re pleased to report that our downtown store has become a big hit. We want it to be a destination stop for exquisite desserts modeled after European pastry chef excellence. Our offerings center on chocolate, gelato, creams and fruit toppings, gourmet cheesecake, Italian-tradition sipping chocolate, espresso and French pressed coffee. We develop much of our menu from scratch and our active imaginations.
Contact us to reserve the dessert shop for business meetings, company parties, or personal special occasions. Let us know any time how we can serve you better and answer any questions you have about chocolate.
Welcome to a World Beyond....It's Made of Chocolate
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