Chocolate(s) of the Day:
Portland Day Trip - Chocolate City Stumble
1.) 1 piece
Sahagun
Single (Hazelnut) Caramel (no corn syrup)
Yum - This is a wonderful take on a caramel; it looks like a small dark chocolate cupcake topped with a toasted hazelnut; this chocolate has an almost liquid caramel center/filling.
Weight: ~.5 oz.
Calories: ~ 75 cals. (estim.)
Cost: $?
Purchased from: Sahagun, in Portland, OR
2.) 1 serving
Cacao Drink Chocolate
Special Spicy Dark Drinking Chocolate (shot) - Ingredients include: "70% Arriba dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, and ginger, blended with milk, cream, coconut cream."
Yum - just bliss in a tiny cup
Weight.: 2 oz. (estimate)
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1 shot
Cost: $2.00
Purchased from: Cacao drink chocolate, in Portland, OR
Today I flew up to Portland, OR, for the day, and did my first "chocolate city stumble" - for lack of a better description. The loose objective of this trip was to run around downtown Portland and see sights, and visit as many (local, unique) chocolate places/shops as possible in an afternoon.
I spent a few minutes at Powell's books, and also had a nice lunch at Jake's Grill. And as I was walking along the Willamette river I even caught part of a "Flugtag 2008" contest where local teams "fly" their home-built crafts into the river. This event was sponsored by Red Bull (a drink that is marketed, appropriately enough, as the drink that "gives you wings") and was attended by many, many thousands of people. Even after a drop of 50+ feet off a ramp, participants emerged from the river relatively unscathed; however, their (primarily non-flying) machines did not appear to fare so well. This begs the question: Is anyone making a Red Bull Truffle yet?
So, back to chocolate hunting...It was worth the trip to visit Sahagun's - a tiny shop near the freeway, where they make all their chocolates on-premise from what I could tell.
I brought back a collection of chocolates from Sahagun's, Cacao drink chocolate and Moonstruck. I also bought a few Godiva chocolates for good measure, to try over the next few weeks.
My only regret...It was to hard to pick just one chocolate of the day today. I had two excellent chocolates today - 1.) Sahagun's caramel and 2.) a small shot of hot spicy dark drinking chocolate from Cocao drink chocolate. Both were outstanding. So, I'm listing both today. I'd like to go back to Portland again to try Cacao's cinnamon drink chocolate, and more chocolates from all these places.
