Wanted to alert everyone to the opening of Alegio Chocolaté in Palo Alto, across the street from Monique's. For the un-initiated, this store carries chocolate made by Claudio Corallo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4gz9yqlDv0
http://www.newstatesman.com/food/2009/01/corallo-chocolate-cocoa-sao
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3935769.stm
The proprietor, who is utterly charming, is in fact the cousin of Claudio (you can see the family resemblance). Not sure how long he will be at the store - I get the sense he is just there at the beginning to make sure things run smoothly. Apparently Steve Jobs used to trek up to the Berkeley store - they were getting so many visitors from Silicon Valley that they decided to open this location.
The chocolates are all exceptional, but the "Soft" 70% is to die for. I don't notice anything at first, but right when it was about to disintegrate in my mouth, I was hit with complexity I had never experienced in chocolate. No matter what you try, Manos (the owner), will probably kill you if you chew it.
There's also beautiful chocolates from Enric Rovira.
Hope you all can check it out. The chocolates are a little pricy - but I was saddened to hear that they apparently don't make a lot of money because the production costs are so high. Apparently each cacao bean is cracked open by hand to remove the germ, which is the most bitter part, before making the chocolate.
522 Bryant St
Palo Alto, CA 94301
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