41559 Sun Nov 27 00:21:46 -0800 2005 7 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 200479 The best shortbread ever was imported from somewhere in Europe and I bought it in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was so long ago ... maybe before the Beatles broke up. I remember every bite after all these years. It was that good. Nothing matched it. For me, the shortbread at Michael Mischer is 95% as good as that perfect shortbread. After all, nothing can match a memory. The shortbread, little larger than a quarter, has that perfect sandy (but not grainy) texture. The soul of butter is in there, like the taste of top class melted butter on pop corn. It might be a tad sweeter than I like, but it doesn’t really matter. Holding the cookie, my fingers had a slight butter sheen. Then there is a chocolate version, which is even better. The chocolate shortbread cookie is half coated in the thinnest chocolate. These are excellent cookies … they are like buttah. A free cookie comes with the espresso drinks. When the shop opened about a year ago, it didn’t get raves from Chowhounds. However, everyone liked the pear William which is a lovely chocolate, pear shaped, thin shelled with a lovely taste true to the liquor. The chocolates are filled with buttery, rich chocolate cream fillings that are flavored. The only complaint I have is that the shell is too thick for my taste. If the other flavors had the delicate shell of the pear William I might be wildly enthusiastic. The espresso, shaped like a bean, had a deep rich coffee flavor. Cherry was lovely, a sour cherry in a chocolate cream filling. The dark truffle focused on that buttery cream filling. Caramel with a liquid center was fine. However, Chuao remains my favorite in that category. Raspberry was one of the least assertive flavors. Tequila aneja ganache didn’t have any detectable tequila taste. Other flavors include: Champagne Crème de coconut Gianduja with a whole roasted hazelnut. Green tea Hazelnut Key lime Kir royal Marzipan with St. George spirits kirsch. Orange zest Pistachio In this category, Chuao remains my favorite. However, I liked them a lot more than Recchiuti and Scharffen Berger. My favorites though are the chocolate bars which are also sold in small wrapped pieces. I sampled the chocolates with 36, 65, and 72 percent cocoa. The 36 was really lovely and smooth. The 65 percent piece was my least favorite; the flavor didn’t dominate like the other two. It was sort of bittersweet, but not enough. I loved the 72 percent, a very grown up chocolate with deep bitter espresso notes. They have their own coffee roast – Wild Woman Coffee. There is espresso, cappuccino and latte. Afogata, espresso with pistachio gelato, is available. MM also has hot chocolate called Xocolati named after the Aztec god of delight who legend says introduced humans to chocolate. The legend of Xocolati http://www.bluefrogchocolates.com/legend.html It was a very nice cup of hot chocolate, a little bittersweet and not overly sugary. It was almost like a ménage a trios between American, Mexican and European hot chocolate. There was that deep taste that reminded me of the thick European chocolates, but the consistency was like American hot chocolate. There were other chocolate bars, some with nuts. This time of year they were selling Christmas stolen. I might consider this after that great shortbread. The shop makes other seasonal specialties and might be fun to check out at holiday time. These are small chocolates and cookies. I don’t think it is possible to gain weight eating something this small. Only the Olson twins might consider the cookie binging. There was mention of a weight watcher place next door. Didn’t see it, but really, no harm done to the dieters if they stop by. Prices - $$$ (12 chocolate box - $19). There are a few marble tables inside and a few sidewalk tables. Part of the problem I had with the shop is that it is too precious for words. It is like walking into a museum with each chocolate type displayed on the center of a marble dish … one chocolate per big old plate … that’s it … one and only one, As chocolates are selected they are removed from cases beneath the counter. The service is colder than the Naia gelato that is sold in the shop. A large number of the customers who visited the shop while I was there were preppy bordering on caricature. It makes Ferry Plaza look like Food4Less. It was a hard place to warm up to. The link below has one of the few reviews of these chocolates that I could find. Here is the web site which is in the process of being designed and just has the splash page with address, phone and hours. http://www.michaelmischerchocolates.com/ Michael Mischer Chocolates 3352 Grand Avenue (a block from the Grand Lake Theatre near Dominos Pizza) Oakland, Ca 510 986-1822 Hours: Noon – 9 pm everyday Link: http://www.chocolatecritic.com/index.php/critic/comments/faq-dark/ Sun Nov 27 00:21:46 -0800 2005 0 rworange 1 200487 Terrific, very informative review. Do you know if they have mail order? Sun Nov 27 02:01:40 -0800 2005 200479 0 VIV 1 200792 Sorry, but your review is toooo funny! Especially the Olson twin comment ... touche. About the Pear Williams chocolate, does it have a crunchy sugar coating in between the chocolate and the liquor? That's always my favorite part of any alcohol-filled treat... Tue Nov 29 14:29:14 -0800 2005 200479 0 gus 2 200900 Yeah, but not funny if you are an Olson twin. I actually thought about that. I’m taking the word of the skinnier twin that she’s not really anorexic and I won’t pick up the paper to read about her untimely departure. That would make the post really unfunny. As to the pear William, it is liquor flavored chocolate cream. Since my original post I’ve snuck back to Michael Mischer a few times and have gone through all 16 chocolates. It turns out there is a Weight Watchers office next door. I just ignored it. The most boozy was the Marzipan with St. George spirits kirsch. Amazing cream marzipan and a wonderful liquor punch. The other two liquor based chocolates, Kir Royal and Champagne, didn’t have any liquor flavor and almost tasted the same, which was good. The cream filling was almost like a creamy butterscotch. I’ve decided these little chocolates perhaps do contain calories. It is like, in the best sense, eating a piece of chocolate flavored butter. Three real standouts were the Crème de coconut, Key lime and green tea. The filling was very smooth in the crème de coconut. It had intense, intense coconut flavor. It was like eating piece of Mounds, if the Mounds bar had a creamy filling and quality ingredients. Just great. Lovely intense key lime flavor in the chocolate cream filling. The green tea, to me, was a little piece of genius. There was the essence of green tea, not a strong flavor but the sweet, herby taste with each bite made me think ‘wow, that’s good’. Curious about the difference between the Gianduja with a whole roasted hazelnut and the Hazelnut. Hazelnut had the creamy buttery chocolate filling with a nice toasted nut taste. The Gianduja had a half a perfect hazelnut in the most solid filling of all the chocolates. Pistachio was a very subtle flavor, too subtle for the price. Ditto the orange zest which was the most disappointing for me because I love the chocolate/orange combo. Tried their cappuccino. Skip it. The hot chocolate with 65 percent cocoa is much better. The stolen was too tempting. It is pretty good. I wouldn’t buy it again, but it was delicious. Instead of powdered sugar on top, there is granulated sugar. It works giving the stolen a nice sandy texture. Of course, this is MM so the stolen was uber buttery. Golden raisins, finely shaved nuts so thin as to be unidentifiable are half of the stolen. I think there is a little orange peel in there giving it a lovely aroma. My big complaint is there should be more training of the staff. For heaven’s sake, they have sixteen little chocolates, three bars, three cookies (skip the chocolate chip) and a stolen … and they can’t answer questions. When I asked about the stolen, if they made it or someone else, no one knew. The woman there said it might have been a friend of MM. Also, on one visit I bought 7 chocolates. So I get told they will be put in a bag because boxes only hold six or 12 chocolates. These chocolates are, are you ready, $50 a pound. They weight each piece to get your charge … I was starting to appreciate the small size. So I consider this and ask “So, how much ARE each of those chocolates?”. She says “Don’t know, maybe one or two dollars each”. Me “Then you can afford to put those little chocolates in a box, even if it is the wrong number”. I was nicer after that, but it’s not like I’m buying Brachs for 99 cents a pound. I don’t want those pricy chocolates banging into each other or getting squished in a bag. I’m sure MM never anticipated my Oreo cookie approach to his chocolates. However, I have the ideal way to eat them. The bottom is just too thick for the chocolate. So I take a tiny bite and pry off the thick chocolate bottom and eat that first, letting little bites of it melt in my mouth. Then I lick little bits of that decadent butter cream out of the shell and finally enjoy the shell. I just have no couth. Are they worth $50 a pound. Can't decide. It sure does help in limiting an out and out pig out of the chocolate. Have to take the time to get my $2 worth out of each piece. Maybe they are diet chocolates after all. Tue Nov 29 22:24:00 -0800 2005 200792 0 rworange 3 200916 Thanks for your chocolate confessions, enjoyed every word. Have you had a chance to try Woodhouse in St. Helena yet? When I was abroad, I met a German woman who had recently been in Napa Valley. When she heard that I was from California, she started to rave about the Woodhouse chocolates she'd had, said they were better than any European chocolate she's ever tasted and she is a chocolate fanatic. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/35703#163600 Wed Nov 30 00:03:06 -0800 2005 200900 0 Melanie Wong 4 200930 No, but I've been contemplating a lot afther Mischer. Pair that with the hot chocolate up that way ... well Thanks for Ruth's post so I don't have to look it up. Wed Nov 30 01:26:28 -0800 2005 200916 0 rworange 3 206844 I was introduced to Mischer's chocolates at an event at Cal, and they are really good. That same day I met another amazing chocolatier with a company called Charles chocolates. I have been getting them at Peaberry's and at Bittersweet for the last couple of months since from what he said, they don't have a store yet (they do have a really nice looking web site, but I havn't ordered from it yet). What I liked most was the use of Strauss cream and butter from West Marin's best organic dairy. You can eally taste the difference compared to Mischer's chocolate centers. Link: http://www.charleschocolates.com Fri Jan 06 11:45:39 -0800 2006 200900 0 Bruce 1 200955 I noticed some Michael Mischer bars at Fog City News yesterday -- large ugly things with the embedded fruit or whatever just kind of splatted into the surface, like a fly stuck in molasses. Don't know the price (my FCN pet peeve is the sticker shock you get at the register -- haul a dainty Amedei Chuao bar there and you will see what I mean). Link: http://eatingchinese.org Wed Nov 30 11:55:06 -0800 2005 200479 0 Gary Soup