Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Amano

Today Miss V, her lovely mom and I visited the factory storefront of Amano Chocolates.

Deep in Orem's warehouse district, behind this unassuming blonde-brick storefront, there lies a cornucopia of chocolate bliss. Amano goes through every step in the chocolate-making process, from finding the beans to roasting them to making and selling the chocolate bars.

Beautiful images on the walls...

...and beautiful, beautiful chocolate on every horizontal surface.

Delectable sweets of fabulousness. Not shown: equally fabulous brownies made of Madagascar chocolate, which we scarfed with many appropriate noises of bliss. My personal fave thus far: the Dos Rios bar, with a hint of citrus flavor (no citrus was added to the bar; it's just the natural taste of these particular cocoa beans shining through).

Plebeian Hershey bars these ain't. They have won grand prize awards in European chocolate competitions. Accordingly, the price per bar is not cheap, but a little goes a long way.

Besides, it is so choice. If you find yourself in Orem, Utah in the near future and have the means, I highly recommend it.

6 comments:

Gretel said...

Very classy, just how chocolate should be presented. Glad to hear you are getting some down time as well.

Soozcat said...

They are really wonderful. Last year their Madagascar bar won the gold medal at the London Academy of Chocolate Awards (quite a feather in their cap), despite being from the where-on-earth-is-that location of Orem, Utah.

I can tell Mom is feeling a little better, but it fluctuates from day to day. Yesterday was a good day. Today, not so much.

tlchang said...

Orem chocolates??!! I'm having a hard time believing in such a thing!

I'm sorry things are not immediately better with your mom. Crossing fingers that she continues to improve with your presence there.

Soozcat said...

Tara, apparently the London chocolatiers said much the same thing. Believe it!

We refilled her prescription today for pain meds, and she's taken one tonight. I think she'll be able to sleep better, and that usually (but not always) translates to a better day.

LDahl said...

OK the secret word verification is torment, I kid you not! Wonderful chocolate shininess and it's in Utah! I miss Utah. So appropriate...torment!

Soozcat said...

Sometimes I wonder whether the word verification setup has achieved some kind of sentience... hmm. :)