Last week, Fat City reported that Food & Wine Magazine had named Elbow Chocolates' No. 6 Dark Rocks the best chocolate in
the whole wide great big United States.
Christopher Elbow seemed honored, but his eyes didn't really light up until we started talking about the limited-edition Valentine's Day boxes that he created specially with his wife Jennifer.
Elbow said he started working on the box in October and that each of the 17 flavors took a week -- or weeks -- to perfect. "They're not really an aphrodisiac, but I tried to choose romantic flavors. There's passion fruit champagne, red wine... we just finished them and put them on the counter."
When Elbow makes a chocolate it's not a normal process.
First, he buys his chocolate from Venezula and Madagascar instead of West Africa, the more common chocolate supplier. The fillings are from a different continent. "To make the passion fruit piece I had to get
real passion fruit puree from this place in Paris. It's not like you
can go into any store in Kansas and find passion fruit."
As
Elbow has become more comfortable at his store, his duties
have moved from making chocolate to procuring chocolate. He says he
likes to deal with microbatch vendors that offer small quantities
but incredible quality. "There's now single-estate chocolate, which is
like a winery in that you know where the chocolate is coming from. Chocolate geeks want that and there's a growing number of chocolate
geeks... they're intense about chocolate."
Since opening in Kansas City Elbow opened a
boutique store in San Francisco and visits it regularly. He also
ships his chocolates to stores in Boston, Seattle and Chicago. As for
opening more boutiques: "That's down the road... I'm just focused on
Valentine's Day now."
The Valentine's Day chocolates cost $40 and are limited to 1,000 boxes. There's also a five-piece collection for $15.
You can find the Elbow's chocolates at his store on McGee or in Johnson County at Foo's Fabulous Custard at 3832 West 95th Street.
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