Southeast Tennessee: The Hot Chocolatier
February 4th, 2010

Earlier this week, I was working on a list of fun, unique ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the Southeast Tennessee area.  Well, of course, you can’t have Valentine’s Day without some chocolate!  Cindy mentioned she thought she’d heard about a local company, right here in Chattanooga, making chocolates from a culinary fam trip last fall.  After doing a little research, we found out the name of the company was The Hot Chocolatier, and their office was less than a mile from the SETTA office! I called their office, and spoke to Wendy Buckner, the owner and head chocolatier, who told us to come on over and see the facility. 

As a bit of a culinary enthusiast, I had many questions for Wendy. She said she “was always baking as a child, I broke two Easy Bake Ovens! But I never imagined I’d end up working in chocolate.”  She did an intensive 6 month study at the French Pastry School in Chicago, where she said “They were super strict. If you get a spot of chocolate on you, they send you home and make you change into a clean chef’s coat.”  Her husband, Brandon, is the co-owner of the Hot Chocolatier, as well as an assistant chocolatier, and an artist. Wendy said they’ve learned a lot from each other, which is evident from the chocolate sculptures on display in their store. 

While the sculptures look almost too pretty to eat, the real reason we were there was because of the truffles!

With 14 current* varieties of truffles, it is hard to pick just one.  (* Wendy says there are more to come, including a passion fruit flavored truffle coming next week.)

The truffles have fun names such as the “Hottie”- a dark chocolate truffle with ancho, chipotle, and cayenne peppers blended in the ganache; the“shot in the dark”- a dark chocolate espresso truffle, made with local Chattz Coffee. There is the Oatmeal Stout, made with a beer by the same name brewed at local restaurant and brew house, The Terminal.  (Both Chattz Coffee and The Terminal offer The Hot Chocolatier chocolates at their facilities.)

Cindy and I couldn’t leave empty handed… Cindy got a box of 6- a shot in the dark, a hottie, a salted peanut butter bon bon, a white chocolate truffle, a hazelnut crisp, and a semi-sweet truffle.  Since I had plans of saving my truffles for next week, when I have a friend coming to town to visit, I got a box of nine, to share. I picked a hottie, 2 champagne truffles, 2 hazelnut crisps, 2 squirrels, a shot in the dark, and a peanut butter bon bon.

While I had all lofty intentions of saving my chocolates until my friend came to town, I was unable to resist trying just one (okay, fine, I had two!)… I had the milk chocolate squirrel with sea salt and pecans and the milk chocolate squirrel with pistachios. Both were absolutely delicious! I don’t know if the other 7 will make it until my friend comes to visit… I might be making another trip back to see The Hot Chocolatier in the near future!

To order your own goodies for Valentine’s Day (or just because!), call the Hot Chocolatier:

423-266-3066

Or check out their website: http://www.thehotchocolatier.com/contactpage/contact.htm

Posted by Meg Spencer in Food

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