Recently Ron Pereira of Top Right kindly started our meeting by presenting me with a box of XOX Truffles. The canny eCommerce entrepreneur had seen my food blog and knew that I would appreciate fine chocolates. What a great way to start a meeting! I had to resist the temptation to fund his startup on the spot.
XOX Truffles is the brainchild of Chef Jean-Marc Gorce and Casimira N. Tobilla (nice story: they met at a food show and became partners in both business and marriage). The truffles are made in the traditional rustic French style: bite-sized, irregularly shaped, and totally wax free. I appreciate the smaller size because sometimes you really just want a little bit of chocolate. Ha ha, who are we kidding? Really I like the bite-size because I can eat three or four different flavors at one sitting. The box from Ron included cocoa dusted as well as a variety of other coatings such as coconut, hazelnut, and coffee crunch.
The company does a brisk wholesale business (including corporate gifts) but also has retail storefronts in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood as well as in the Oakland's Montclair Village. You can also have the product shipped by purchasing on the web site, but check out the company's warnings about temperature: apparently the lack of wax means a very delicate truffle that doesn't take well to warmer climes (if you live in Hawaii, the company won't even bother).
Thanks again Ron for the tasty treat!
XOX Truffles
754 Columbus Avenue
(between Filbert & Greenwich)
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 421-4814
6126 La Salle Avenue
The Montclair Village
Oakland, CA 94611
(510) 339-XXOX (9969)
We went to the SF Chocolate Salon this weekend in Fort Mason (http://www.sfchocolatesalon.com/). It was spectacular. XOX Truffles had a table, but the true standout of the show was a company called Poco Dolce. Their Bittersweet chocolate Tiles with Burnt Caramel Toffee and and grey sea salt were, amazingly, worth the $15 for eight small pieces. Unbelievable.
http://www.pocodolce.com/cgi-bin/mivavm?Merchant2/merchant.mvc+Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SBC08&Category_Code=CONF
Posted by: Michael Levinson | July 17, 2007 at 10:22 PM