food destinations #3: my favorite chocolate shop
October 29th, 2006
Allow me to introduce you to my dealer: Bittersweet Café, readers, readers, Bittersweet Café. Bittersweet is a chocolate shop and café in Oakland and San Francisco. It’s a cozy place to have a cup of coffee, or satiate your chocolate craving.
While many chocolate shops concentrate on truffles and confections, Bittersweet offers a wide selection of high quality chocolate bars. The bars at Bittersweet are displayed on shelves, according to category and ascending levels of cocoa solids. First the white chocolate bars (really just vanilla-flavored cocoa butter), then the milk chocolate, the flavored chocolates (Mayan style, ginger, lavender, etc.), the dark chocolates, and the hardcore baking chocolates. I like a good dark chocolate truffle now and then, but I prefer a bar with a high percentage of cocoa solids for everyday consumption. I like my chocolate intense and flavorful, not necessarily sweet, so I usually head straight for the dark and baking sections.
Among my favorite bars:
- Hachez Premier Cru, 88%—A creamy-textured, slightly berry-like chocolate that’s fun to eat.
- Domori Puro, 100%—Very intense, dark and strong, almost coffee-like in flavor. A little goes a long way, half a square is usually enough for me. Although this bar has no sugar, it’s still a little sweet and delicious on its own. This is the kind of chocolate you want to eat slowly while sitting in your favorite chair and maybe sipping a cognac. Actually, skip the cognac. Who needs cognac when you have chocolate this good?
- Santander Dark, 70%—A smooth, creamy bar that tastes of kahlua, but contains no coffee liqueur.
- Dolfin Noir 88% de Cacao—An intense, yet smooth bar. I particularly like the tobacco pouch packaging, no fiddly foil to gently open only to rip to shreds when you try to re-package the rest to save for later.
In addition to bars, Bittersweet offers all manner of chocolate goods and knick-knacks, such as wooden gift boxes filled with a variety of chocolates, books about chocolate, CDs by a band called the Bittersweets, drinking chocolate and cocoa, and cocoa butter chapstick (“chocolate for your lips”).
Of course the requisite t-shirts bearing the store’s logo are fetchingly displayed as well.
Once you’ve picked out your take-home goods, you can order a hot drink and a little something to go with it.
My favorite drink is the Bittersweet:a hot drinking chocolate prepared without milk. Rich, smooth, and not too sweet, the Bittersweet is truly a balm for the soul on a cold day. I can never finish it at one go, as it’s so intense. I often refrigerate the remainder and eat it later as a sort of chocolate pudding.
Bittersweet’s excellence in all things chocolate is only exceeded by their friendly, knowledgeable staff. Every employee I’ve spoken to at Bittersweet knows their chocolate, and is thoughtful enough to consult a fellow staff-member if they don’t. Most employees enjoy sampling the goods, so they can guide you in choosing a bar that suits your tastes. One staffer once took the time to explain the rules of thumb in finding chocolates produced without the abominable use of slavery (cocoa grown on family-owned plantations, cocoa grown in South America as opposed to certain regions of West Africa).
I especially appreciate the staff’s accommodation of my picture-snapping today. I really do try to be unobtrusive, but people eventually notice that you’re the only idiot in the shop taking pictures of chocolate. They were enthusiastic when I told them about the Food Destinations chocolate blogging event and we started talking a bit about foodblogging. When I commented on both baristas’ lovely henna-painted hands, I got into an interesting conversation about the ancient Egyptian art of henna hand painting with new employee and henna artist Silvana. That’s just the kind of place Bittersweet is.
Bittersweet Chocolate Café
5427 College Avenue (two blocks south of Rockridge BART Station)
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 654-7159
Opening Hours:
Sunday through Thursday 9am to 7pm
Friday 9am to 9pm
Saturday 9am to 9pm
October 29th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Wow! Her hand is beautiful!
October 31st, 2006 at 9:38 am
Isn’t it? Makes one want to get one’s hands painted!
November 1st, 2006 at 11:13 am
cool ! I love cocolate :)
looks like you had a good time there :)
I become quite good with a camara if you’ll send me some cocolate I’ll be glad to take pictures of it… before i gobbel it up….
November 2nd, 2006 at 7:28 am
Hey Micha! Having an entire coffee shop devoted to chocolate nearby is a blessing and a curse ;). Thanks for stopping by the blog!
November 17th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Hi Shelly, Congratulations on winning the Food Destinations Favorite Chocolate Shop ! Your Bittersweet Cafe is definitely a chocaholic haven.
November 17th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Thanks, Veronica! Yeah, Bittersweet is quite the chocolate den :).
November 17th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
[...] The greatest eye opener for me, however, was the video in Ed’s post over at Tomato. The video is a short PR film on Grenada Chocolate company, called “Radical Chocolate” by Eti Pelig. I’ve seen a bar or two of Grenada chocolate at my local chocolate shop, but haven’t really gotten around to picking some up. Its packaging is bright and playful, almost the sort of packaging you’d associate with candy for children. I like my chocolate bitter and intense, so perhaps that’s why I never tried it out. According to the film, Grenada Chocolate is perhaps the first solar-operated chocolate producing cooperative in the world. This is a far cry from the behemoth chocolate producers who engage in appalling labor practices, particularly in some parts of Western Africa. In contrast, founder Mott Green decided to revive the dying cacao industry in Grenada by developing a small-scale chocolate production facility owned by workers. The company provides dignified, safe work to the people in the area, and the cacao is sustainably, and ecologically grown. It’s really an amazing story, but Pelig’s video tells it best. As soon as I saw the film, I understood that Grenada Chocolate’s colorful packaging is simply an accurate reflection of the vibrant Caribbean community where the factory resides. [...]
November 19th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Looks like a great shop, almost like a library of chocolate. I’m glad you enjoyed the film I dug up. There is so much PR about organic an fair trade but this seems to be the real thing.
November 19th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Ed, what an apt description. It *is* something like a chocolate library. Grenada’s story is indeed, very inspirational. Thanks for posting it.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:18 am
I have visited San Fran a fair amount of times, and each time chocolate seemed to play a unique role in my trip. The first time I met my fiance for the first time, in line for free samples. I want to put this shop on my list if I ever make it back to Cali (we know live in switzerland). It looks like just the kind of place to make for happy days.
Thanks for sharing!
November 20th, 2006 at 7:24 am
Jessica, what a romantic story. Next time you’re here, you and your fiance might want to get to Bittersweet for a leisurely weekend brunch. The “real” food is simple, but the chocolate possibilities are endless.
January 12th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
[...] So it was the other day, when a box arrived, playfully sealed with colorful polka dot masking tape. What could this fun little package contain? I honestly had no idea. The customs declaration sticker gave me a clue: chocolate and a book. Aha! I had completely forgotten about the chocolate shop food destinations blogging event. The package contained the prize for the event, chocolate from Australia and a book about food. This is why I love receiving packages. Like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
[...] the self-described chocolate café of Oakland and San Francisco, is one of my favorite places to get a chocolate fix. Whether you’re looking for a good dark chocolate bar such as Hachez [...]
March 12th, 2008 at 4:01 am
[...] the self-described chocolate café of Oakland and San Francisco, is one of my favorite places to get a chocolate fix. Whether you’re looking for a good dark chocolate bar such as Hachez 88%, [...]
December 28th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe seems to be a heavenly place for chocolate lovers. They have such variety of chcolates and also knowledgeable staff who can also suggest you a bar according to your taste. Its a must visit place for chocolate lovers. If you want to read more stuff on chocolates you might consider visiting here http://www.stumblerz.com/chocolate-fun-facts/