Seth Ellis Chocolatier mint truffles

Chocolate and mint must be the most perfect combination in the world. I mean, besides chocolate and peanut butter. And peanut butter and banana. And peanut butter and jelly. And…okay. Chocolate and mint is one of the most perfect combinations in the world.

Even though I know better, I’m still a sucker for After Eight. Put a box in front of me, and I will eat the entire thing. No questions asked.

Photo credit: Rick Levine

Well, Seth Ellis Chocolatier’s mint truffles taste like the best of After Eights, but with more actual mint and less of that crunchy fondant filling. It’s a smooth, rich ganache that tastes of crisp, bright mint. It tastes like summer, but better.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.

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Seth Ellis Chocolatier ginger truffles

Photo credit: Rick Levine

Seth Ellis Chocolatier makes these ginger truffles that like like Jackson Pollock gems. The coloured spatter is beautiful, but doesn’t seem to be anything new. I mean, lots of chocolatiers decorate their chocolates with colours. I’m pretty sure that the standard yellow colour is made of Yellow Dye No. 5 suspended in cocoa butter. Decidedly not organic.

Now, remember that Seth Ellis chocolates are certified organic. How’d they manage to do that and get a yellow spatter? They used turmeric. I think my eyebrows almost left my forehead when I found out. Yet another example of creative problem solving.

Enough about the spatter. The inside of these truffles is beautifully smooth, almost velvety ganache. There are two kinds of ginger inside, a Hawaiian ginger that provides a warm base, and a crystallized Australian ginger that dances on top of it. I could eat a whole box of these.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.

Seth Ellis Chocolatier blueberry truffles

Blueberry ganache. It seems so obvious, but I can’t think of a chocolatier who makes a blueberry ganache. (Anyone care to correct me?)

Apparently, Seth Ellis Chocolatier made these blueberry truffles because one of the founders’ kids wanted a blueberry truffle. I guess it pays to be a chocolatier’s kid.

Photo credit: Rick Levine

I’ve never seen this shape before – it’s like a pyramid meets a rosette. It’s awfully pretty, with its little cap of blueberry-tinged white chocolate, a dark chocolate shell, and a white chocolate base. The blueberry ganache inside tastes different as it melds with the dark chocolate, and then the white.

The ganache is fairly subtle, possibly too subtle for my liking, but I’m still enamoured with the novelty of the blueberry-ness.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.

Seth Ellis Chocolatier raspberry truffles

I don’t understand people who buy seedless raspberry jam. The best part about raspberry jam is the seeds. Sure, they get stuck in your teeth, but there’s something delightfully satisfying about crunching your way through a spoonful of jam. Erm, I mean a layer of jam. On toast. Yup.

Photo credit: Rick Levine

Well, Seth Ellis Chocolatier sure knows how to impress a girl. Some raspberry truffles are light and bright, like summer in your mouth. Those are lovely, but the raspberry truffles from Seth Ellis mean business. It’s a deep, dark raspberry ganache. You almost feel like you should have to show proof of age before you eat it, it’s so deliciously grown up.

But the best part? It’s the shocking inclusion of raspberry seeds.

I know, it seems so obvious. It’s not all that novel a concept, but I can’t think of the last time I had a raspberry ganache that included the seeds. It’s like tipping your hat to the fact that yes, Virginia, this is a raspberry ganache.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.

Seth Ellis Chocolatier caramel snobinettes

A snobinette is a little hand-dipped chocolate cup that typically contains delicious things. While it sounds like some sort of uber-hip reference from Gossip Girl, it is not. Yet, anyway.

Photo credit: Rick Levine

Seth Ellis Chocolatier fills their dark chocolate snobinette with nutmeg-laced caramel. This isn’t your typical runny, sticky caramel. Don’t get me wrong, I love that, too. But this caramel is rich, thick and viscous, with top notes of nutmeg that mellow to butter and milk chocolate. The caramel is topped with a layer of milk chocolate, and then a pretty dark chocolate swirl.

This is another chocolate that I’ll be picky with, simply because I know how challenging these are to make. Just think about how labour-intensive it is to make hand-dipped chocolate shells, fill them with caramel, top it with milk chocolate, and then give it a swirl on top. They’ve figured out how to speed things up a little bit, but Rick Levine freely admits that it’s a work in progress.

The shells are nice and thin, but ever-so-slightly lopsided. And the milk chocolate layer on top of the caramel is a wee bit thicker than I would have liked. I’ll be checking in on this one in a few months. I’m interested in seeing how they work out the production kinks.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.

(xoxo, Gossip Girl.)

Seth Ellis Chocolatier coffee truffles

Photo credit: Rick Levine

I’m a sucker for coffee-flavoured anything. And coffee and chocolate is one of my favourites. The flavours go so nicely together, with the coffee enhancing the chocolate-ness of chocolate. And, let’s face it, if I can get a kick of caffeine while eating chocolate – or at least, the perception that I’m getting a kick of caffeine – that’s a great thing.

Seth Ellis Chocolatier’s coffee truffle doesn’t disappoint. In a nod to yesterday’s post about molded chocolate shells, the shell on this truffle is lovely. It’s perfectly uniform, and just thick enough to hug all the coffee ganache that’s waiting inside.

And oh, what a coffee ganache. It’s like staring into a cup of freshly brewed dark roast coffee, taking a deep breath, and feeling like you’re falling into a pool of deep, dark, slightly bitter deliciousness. The coffee and chocolate compliment each other perfectly, bringing out the fullness of both flavours. It’s divine.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.

Seth Ellis Chocolatier dark chocolate truffles

Photo credit: Rick Levine

When I learned how to make molded chocolates (as in, the ones that come in pretty shapes), I had several things beaten into me (nearly literally). The shells need to be completely uniform, and as thin as possible while still holding all its goodies inside.

Well, here’s the thing. Seth Ellis Chocolatier dances that line between artisan chocolate shop and manufacturing facility. Spend five minutes with Rick Levine and hear him talk about how he’s constantly perfecting recipes and trying to get things just right, and there’s no doubt that he’s creating an artisan product. But at the same time, he has to balance the books and produce a certain amount of chocolate in order to balance said books. And so, he has a few machines that help him along the way – as does any chocolatier who turns a profit. Let’s be perfectly clear: the concept of a truly “handmade” chocolate is fine if you’re dicking around in your kitchen at Christmas, but I’ve yet to meet a profitable chocolatier who doesn’t have a few machines up his or her proverbial sleeve.

It’s a tension, but a good kind of tension. I’m still thinking about how I feel about it. I’ll let you know when I’ve come to a decision.

But back to the chocolate shells. Seth Ellis Chocolatier’s dark chocolate truffles taste lovely. It’s a perfectly smooth centre with dark cocoa flavour, and just a hint of nuttiness. But what’s that I spy? It’s a shell that’s thicker on one side than the other, and one that has a bit more chocolate than I’d like in the corners. Picky, I know. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it.

In the end, it doesn’t make a difference to you or to me, because I’ll still eat these with glee. But it has me thinking about how these particular chocolates are made, and wondering if Rick will figure out a way to perfect the shell so that I can’t tell it was made by a machine. If anyone can figure it out, he can.

Seth Ellis chocolates are available at select locations in the Denver/Boulder area, and that page will soon be updated to reflect the five NYC Whole Foods that now carries them. You can also buy them online through It’s Only Natural Gifts or through Foodzie.