Chocolate round-up: J. Torres v. Kee's v. La Maison

[Tim]

I'm sick to my stomach and flat-broke, but I've learned a lot about this city's chocolatiers during my 24-hour gourmet chocolate binge. Here is my comparison (in chronological order):

La Maison du Chocolat

Ambiance:
I started out yesterday with a 12-piece assortment from La Maison du Chocolat. I've been to their stores before and I really don't enjoy the experience of shopping there. While for the first time I was able to find a friendly (though not particularly helpful) clerk, I could really do without the stereotypical french service (indifference bordering on contempt) especially when all of the chocolates are labled in French and have names that don't necessarily describe what's actually in the chocolate.

Presentation:
For such an upscale and expensive place, I really thought the packaging was quite bad. The boxes are a plain brown color with nothing stylish or romantic about them. As good as their chocolate is, I would never give it as a gift because the presentation is so poor.

The chocolate:
I ended up going with a pre-packaged assortment rather than having the clerk explain all the individual flavors, so I wasn't entirely sure what I was eating. Clearly the quality of the chocolate here is first-rate. Very rich, simple and, well, chocolaty. They do chocolate and do it well, but they don't seem to get as inventive with their flavors as Kee's or Jacques Torres. And my final beef was that the chocolates were mostly in very simple, thin rectangular shapes, unlike the more creative designs at Kee's and Jacques Torres.

Verdict:
As top-notch as the chocolate is here, the combination of haughty service, sky-high prices, unnatractive packaging, unninventive chocolate designs and standard flavors has me vowing not to go back any time soon.

Kee's
Ambiance:
Cute tiny shop in Soho w/friendly service. Only place that offered me a free piece of chocolate, which I really think should be a standard in all of these places.

Presentation:
Pretty cute. It's a light green box with a bamboo kind of string around it. Not very evocative of chocolate like the brown boxes at La Maison and J. Torres, but still stylish in an Asian-influenced kind of way.

The Chocolate:
Oh man, this is great chocolate! The chocolate itself is clearly very high-quality, but the great thing here are all of the wonderful flavors and fillings. They seem to be best-known for their creme brulee, which is dark chocolate with a near-liquid creme brulee filling (wow!). It's a thick piece of chocolate in a pentagon-shape. My other favorites were a wonderful heart-shaped passion-fruit dark chocolate, a round tiramisu truffle, an oblong cappucino pyramid, an almond white chocolate concotion and the Thomson, which was filled with a layer of whipped cream sitting atop rich chocolate ganoche.

Verdict:
This knocks Jacques Torres way off of its pedestal as my favorite chocolate place in the city. I am seriously impressed.

Jacques Torres
Ambiance:
I was a major fan of Jacques Torres' DUMBO location, but I'm really turned-off by his store-within-a-factory in Manhattan. The place is just too cavernous and this industrial-size feel somehow detracts from the sense that you are buying a gourmet product. Service is friendly-enough, but unlike Kee's you get the feeling that the clerks really aren't that into chocolate and could just as easily be working in a Starbucks.

Presentation:
In my opinion, nobody presents chocolate better than Jacque Torres. The brown and orange boxes with an orange ribbon are stylish, clever and evocative of chocolate.

The chocolate:
This was my favorite chocolate until I tried Kee's. I was enamored with their heart-shaped, passion-fruit dark chocolates until I tried the heart-shaped, passion-fruit dark chocolates from Kee's and found the Kee's version much bigger, much higher-quality and quite a bit tastier too. This is painful for me to admit because I was singing the praises of J. Torres until today, but after trying Kee's then walking straight to Jacques Torres and sampling the chocolates within minutes of each other, I have to say that Kee's makes Jacques Torres taste like Hershey's.

Verdict:
I'm sorry, Jacques, I know I was the president of your fan-club till early this afternoon, but Kee's really has you beat.

[sumfrequency]

thanks for your tasting notes, both informative and mouthwatering! have to disagree on your take on the la maison boxes though, i find them incredibly elegant and love their milk chocolate color. they are made by the same box maker that makes all the fantastic iconic orange scarf and hatboxes for hermes. try pierre marcolini if you get a chance, newly opened belgian chocolatier (485 park ave, ~58th st), really phenomenal.

[Tim]

sumfrequency,

Based on your comments, I just went to La Maison's website and had a look at their gift boxes. You are absolutely right and I have to do a complete 180 and rescind my disparaging comments about their presentation. I must have been too focused on the tiny prepackaged box that my chocolates came in to notice the truly impressive boxes that they use to wrap their more expensive assortments.

I do see the hints of Hermes in the stitch pattern along the sides of the ribbon they use to tie the boxes. Clearly they have invested a ton of time and money in having these boxes designed by a professional design house.

As far as trying Pierre Marcolini, it's not going to happen any time soon. I don't care how good his chocolates are, I am so sick to my stomach right now from scarfing down 30 gourmet chocolates in 24 hours that I'm vowing (we'll see how long this holds up) to not touch another dessert item till I go for custard when the Shake Shack reopens in the Spring.

[Mar a]

Would you maybe consider not having a time limit on the tests? Doing the three stores over the course of a week, for instance, would still be reasonable. Just a thought.
Your stomach will be grateful!

[Tim]

To be honest, it was more of a binge than a test. Putting my experience in writing for you folks was very much an afterthought.

And my stomach has no say in the matter.

[bystander99]

I have to second the thumbs up for Marcolini. Great chocolates - especially the tea-infused Earl Grey - and very knowledgeable, friendly service. The biggest drawback to La Maison is the help. Their lemon chocolate sticks with you - in a good way - for a long time.

[Jane P.]

Wow, Kee's sounds really good. My mouth is watering all the way from Baltimore. I gotta try all those cool fillings when I get back home. Thanks for the report!

[kid_quick]

I went to Kee's and Jacques right before Valentine's day. I like that Kee's makes the chocolates right before your eyes but I wasn't that impressed with the green tea truffles they made for me. The coating was soft and the green tea flavoring in the ganache didn't really come through. oh well, maybe it was a bad batch?

I agree that Jacques store could use some improvements. The dumbo store has a much homier field. It's almost too much space for even the mighty Jacques Torres to fill. I've been there 3 times and each time, there were more employees there than customers.

[Tim]

I didn't try those green tea truffles so I can't comment on them, but the almond truffles coated in shaved almonds were absolutely unreal.

I was really surprised when I saw JT's Manhattan store for the first time. I love DUMBO and really enjoyed the homey boutique feel of his store there. It's on a cobblestone street in a great old building and I always loved the experience of heading over there in the Fall or Winter to grab a cup of hot chocolate and walk the neighborhood.

The Manhattan store, by contrast, is in a lousy modern office building in a character-less neighborhood. The store itself is huge, dark, poorly designed and, as you mentioned, there are never nearly enough people to fill it.

[Mark Z]

I think that the location is a great investment for Torres. First he can up his output to sell in other stores (chocolate bar), he can start and finish the entire process of chocolate making, which can only improve quality in the long run. He will be able to watch one bean go from begining to end and quality has to go up.
Also i think the neghborhood is going to become quite popular. Things over there are going to fill up eventually and since it is a "factory" if the sotre front doesnt pick things up immediately, well the can produce there and hold the space until things happen.

[Tim]

I agree with you halfway here. The new location will certainly be a boon on the wholesale side, which is probably where he'll soon be making most of his money from.

However, ambiance-wise I still think the place is a big step down from the DUMBO location and I also have to disagree that that neighborhood is going to go through some kind of renaissance. The area is filled with office buildings, government buildings and utility company buildings, not exactly the kind of neighbors that revitalize an area.

[djk]

i actually love the green tea truffles, find them very subtle but it's probably a personal preference thing. kees is my favorite so i had to mention that her chocolate turtles are about the apex of turtles - short of the galapagos! a must try.

[Peter Cuce]

Wow, me & you obviously have different tastes in design (& chocolate). I think Jacques chocolates are average at best, but really love the design of the Manhattan store. His Dumbo store has become so touristy and kitschy, filled with crappy logo-ed hats and t-shirts and ugly, badly branded packages of chocolates.
I find the La Maison package design to be very elegant. And their amazing chocolate doesn't need to have a beautiful shape or inventive flavors. It's nice that other places offer this, but there's no reason to downgrade La Maison for not doing it. I don't even consider JT to be in the same league as La Maison.
Give Debauve & Gallais and Pierre Marcolini a try.

[ponkikki]

I find pre-packed ones at La Maison not as satisfying as ones you select on your own. felt like lesser quality. I love La Maison's as well as Kee's, but would choose LM for dark ch.

[Mar a]

I second the favorable comments about the flavor of La Maison's chocolate... Plus I have to disagree with the comments about their attitude.

The few times I've been to the Upper E. Side store -never Rock ctr.- the vibe was cool, but not hostile. On one visit it was even very friendly. And mind you, I'm not rich and certailny I don't look like I am.

The one time I went to JT in Dumbo was in the middle of winter, two years ago. I took the train, then walked down those streets in a chilly wind and the attitude of the lady behind the counter was just as chilly. Given that I'd traveled about 45 minutes to get there, I felt disappointed and never went back.

I like JT chocolates quite a bit (I get them at Chocolate Bar), but I absolutely love La Maison chocolate. The little $5 bars (maybe by now they're $6 or more) are just absolutely delicious, especially the vanilla one.
Anyway, it's nice to read all these comparisons.

[jim]

please, where is Kees located?

[Chorus Girl]

80 Thompson Street.

[Pupster]

Thanks for sacrificing your stomach for this head-to-head matchup review. Extremely informative. It would be great to see more of these types of reviews on chowhound.