I decided to take a short and unplanned trip to Boston with Craig. He wanted to meet Myriam and I wanted to see 3 old friends of mine, Greg, Ian and George.

Boston's cool. It's small, it has skyscrapers (unlike DC--blast that fucking monument!), and it had 5 things I love:
an amazing comic book store, Million Year Picnic
an amazing olive oil store, Oliviers and Co.
an amazing chocolate shop, L.A. Burdick Chocolates
an amazing church: The Arlington Street Chruch
and an amazing bar: The Chopping Block

Oliviers and Co
I chanced upon the olive store while walking up Boyleston Street looking for sneakers the year before. It had like 30 different kinds of olive oil. The guy that works there is a somewhat flamboyant gay guy who knows any question you would ever want to know about the company. He also had great people skills. The thing that is the most impressive about this store is that every single product--all of its olive oils, all of its trapenades, jellies, etc, can all be taste tested. For such an expensive store, I was amazed. I ended up staying there for 2 hours talking to this guy my first time in there. I then went back and bought some tapenades and olive oil. Every now and again Greg will stop by and get me a bottle of olive oil and send it to me in DC, a very Greg-like gesture. They have a new product this year: Olive Jam. For something you would think would taste like shit, it actually tastes incredibly good. I'm adding those to my list of Christmas gifts this year.

The Arlington Street Church
The most amazing thing I saw, by far, was the Arlington Church. Greg and I went there by chance. I noticed that the church doors were open and asked Greg if he wanted to take a peek inside. When I walked in I was absolutely floored by what I saw. Lining the walls were huge stained glass windows, all Tiffany glass. I became interested in tiffany glass--which is very hard to find in churches--after my brother Tom and I went to the Ives Park church in my home town. My brother likes churches a lot, and sometimes, while we were walking together, we would check out other churches around town. There was a minister there when we walked in, and my brother, incredibly inquisitive by nature, asked him a million questions about the church, how old it was, how many people came in for mass, was it made out of sandstone? Etc. The minister, delighted, excitedly began talking aboout the stain glassed windows, explaining to us that they were not just any type of glass, but Tiffany glass. I was no older than 12, so I had no idea what he was talking about.
"What makes Tiffany glass so special?" my brother asked him.
He showed us by example. Over the years some of the windows had been broken by anything from arrant balls to birds to just lousy weather. They church replaced them with stained glass, but not Tiffany. You could tell the difference immediately. The replaced glass was a flat color and one sheer of glass. The Tiffany glass had a marbled pattern, it was achieved its color and thickness through multiple layers of thin, differently color glass. It looked like a water color painting, except they glowed from the sun shining through them. That is probably one of the clearest memories of an afternoon spent with my brother Tom. I never forgot the minister's demonstration to show us the difference between normal glass and Tiffany glass. I hadn't seen Tiffany glass again until I entered the Arlington Street Church.
It was like looking 3-D paintings made of glass--the glass had actually been shaped into the draped cloth, facial features were literally painted on, and layered opalescent glass created an indescribable intricacy (and intensity) of color and density. It was absolutely mind blowing how beautiful and perfect these pieces of art were. I have never seen anything like it, and I have never looked so long at a piece of art all my life. I couldn't get close enough to them, nor could I keep myself from running my fingers over each piece of glass. It brought tears to my eyes. My admiration was perhaps a bit inappropriate, though,
"Holy shit! Greg! This is fucking incredible! I have never seen anything like this! Christ!"
I revisited the church when Greg was at work one day. I was going to take pictures, but I could never do its beauty justice. It's one of those must sees in Boston.

The Chopping Block
This is a neighborhood bar when Greg used to live in Mission Hill. It's a real hole in the wall, small and empty with a dull, sticky film that seems to exist in every crevice of the establishment. The woman serving drinks looked old and strong, and the drinks were strong and cheap. On the television was a cartoon I had never seen before. It didn't have the volume on, and it looked like a family. The father was missing both his legs and arms, their sons had two heads and one body, and the mother chain smoked and always had a drink in her hand. I was instantly mesmorized and wished I could hear what they were saying. It wouldn't be until months later that I would realize that what I had been watching The Oblongs on Cartoon Network. Oh, the things I missed when I didn't have cable for years at a time. We did go there when there was a band and it was the fucking worst music I have ever heard. Other than that, it was the greatest bar in all of Boston.

I remembered seeing a lot of chocolate shops when Greg and I were walking last time. Since my Chocolate Tour in NYC about 6 months ago, I wanted to do the same thing in Boston out of curiosity and also to make sure L.A. Burdick really was the best chocolate shop of all.


Chocolate Dipper:
I had actually read a review of this place and it wasn't given particularly high marks. I was interested in its chocolate covered fruit. I was also surprised at how cheap it all was. Greg and I got a chocolate covered kiwi, then I decided to get 3 blueberry chocolate cups in dark, milk and white chocolate. I also got raspberry cups of the same flavors. The idea was simple. Take a paper cup, one like Reese's peanut butter cup is in, and put 4 pieces of fruit at the bottom--raspberry or blueberries, fill it to the brim with chocolate, and place a piece of fruit on top. The review said that chocolate was "ordinary and overpriced." I disagree. I found the chocolate very rich and very smooth, a light, sweet flavor that didn't overpower the light, tart flavors of the blueberries and raspberries. If I had one complaint, it would be that they should have but more fruit in the chocolate fruit cups. Also, very delicate and perishable fruit, such as rapsberries, will be completely molded by the next day. The blueberries held up nicely, but the raspebrries were all completely covered in mold within 24 hours. I did buy a few truffles: they were unexceptional but I would recommend the fruit cups if you're in that neighborhood.

LA Burdick Chocolate:
52 Brattle Street, Cambridge
This is, no doubt, the best chocolate I have ever had. When I send gifts of chocolate, this is the place I trust for the freshest, richest, highest quality chocolate. Greg and I stumbled onto it the first time I visited him in Boston. It looks like a very small café, which, in fact, it is. I have never tried its pastries, nor have I been to its restaurant in New Hampshire (but, dead God, I would love to), but I have tried all of its chocloates. What caught my attention the first time were its adorable handcrafted chocolate micewith their silken tails (I feel like a cat when I picked one up the first time to eat it), and the chocolate penguins, which I ended up sending to my father and brother for Christmas last year. The mice come in 3 flavors, white chocolate with a cinnamon ganache, milk chocolate with mocha ganache, and dark chocolate with orange ganache. The penguins come in one flavor only, dark and white chocolate with lemon ganache. Their arms, like the mices' ears, are made from almonds. The service, craftsmanship, and packaging are immpecible.

Up until my 2nd visit to Boston, I had never actually tried their other chocolates. I decided to indulge. I bought roughly a 1/2 lb. of their truffle assortment. This chocolate is very expensive, about $46 per lb., but if you love chocolate, it's money well spent.

I wrote a post once about my Chocolate Tour of NYC chocolate shops, and one that I was especially fascinated with--the one that had the best hot white chocolate drink I have ever tasted--is Vosges Haut Chocolate. I was mesmerized by this woman's dedication (bordering on obsession) to chocolate. I was also floored by the sheer amount of experimentation she did when it came to unlikely pairing of flavor, texture, and spices in each of her truffles. The actual flavor of these incredibly creatively described chocolates was disappointing, a bit plain compared to the intense descriptions.

When I finally tried the truffles from La Burdick--holy fucking shit--they were amazing. My favorite kind of chocolate is the chocolate truffle. One of my biggest complaints about chocolate truffles is their size--they're too big. It becomes overwhelming. It can take up to four bites to eat just one--the truffle filling inside becomes too overwhelming. LA Burdick chocolate gives you two small pieces in each cup, each perfectly sized. They had some pretty interesting flavors without being pretentious and too academic like Vosges Haut Chocolate was: Orinoco and Clove (blend of dark and milk chocolates, Caribbean spices, rum, cocoa nibs, covered in dark chocolate and sprinkled with cocoa), Brazilla (a dark chocolate ganache with Espec, a touch of kirsch and aniseed), and Richelieu (milk and dark chocolate interior with cherry liquor, cherries, and cumin seeds) and were my favorites, though every single one was so well crafted, so rich that different flavors still pop in your mouth minutes after having the chocolate. Their powdered truffles are also excellent--their lemon pepper pave and honey caramels (which taste like butter and honey in bitter chocolate) were incredible. It was wonderful. I have never had a better experience with chocolate.

He also got a an inced choclate drink for $4. Greg, ian and I all took turns sipping it and we couldn't actually finish it, it was that unbelievable rich.

Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland:
230 Newbury Street Boston, MA
I ended up buying a lot of chocolate from here just to sample almost everything of theirs. After taste tasting them, I felt I had spent too much money on chocolate that wasn't particularly good. I didn't think the chocolate was nearly as fresh as it could have been, and the subtle, rich, layered flavors in LA Burdick were bland and almost stale here They did have some chocolate covered cherries--with their pits still in them--that were very strong--better than any chocolate covered cherry I've had before--so I would highly recommend trying those, except the pit in the middle is a bit annoying. They seem especially proud of their champagne truffles, which I wasn't a fan of at all.

Hidden Sweets:
This place isn't really known for its chocolates. It's a candy shop with quite an array of candy--most of it five and dime from our youth. Nothing spectacular and no gourmet chocolate.

Cardullo's
Harvard Square
This place is more of a small deli with a lot of imported food. The chocolate selection was small. They had a few original truffles behind glass, but I was disinterested. I asked the woman how long the boxes of mixed chocolates had been there, and although she said they were very fresh, I didn't believe her. I ended up getting chocolate covered cherries and raspberry truffles, which were good, but typical things you could find at Dean and Deluca's, or even Harry and David's chocolate covered fruit--which are actually very good (that you can find at any Border's Books).

Harvard Co-op:
Prepackaged chocolate bars with pictures of famous paintings, others in the shape of small shields, etc. I refuse to buy anything that has a Harvard insignia on it. It seemed pretentious and gross to me. If the chocolate is indeed good, you shouldn't have to print Harvard on the packaging. They also sold Godiva Chocolates there.

Australian Homemade Chocolates:
115 St. Mark's Place,
NY, NY
I found this place while in Amsterdam with Greg about 3 1/2 years ago. I thought, at the time, before I saw the fine printing of places such as Mariebelle Chocolates and Jacques Torres Chocolate , that they were the most beautiful chocolates I had ever seen. I bought over $100 worth of them and gave them to friends and family when I got home. Foot and Mouth disease was just starting up, and they x-rayed my chocolates more than once, pulling me to the side and asking me exactly what was in the silvery, thick packages.
I looked in vain for an Australian Chocolate shop in the United States--at the time they were only made in Belgium, where the chocolate factory is, as well. I was going to have them shipped overseas to me, but I couldn't get the order to work online. I sent them email after email, but never received a response. After awhile I gave up, lost the web address, but would occasionally think about those chocolates.

When Craig and I got to NYC by bus, I called Livie and asked her if she wanted to get a drink with us. I had originally wanted to take a 10:50 train to DC, but decided, instead, to take a 3:00 AM one. I had the opportunity to see my best friend for a few hours and spend some more time with Craig before he moved away. I knew I would be getting into DC at around 7 AM, and would have to be at work at about noon, but I didn't care.

As Craig and I were going to meet Livie--it was around 11 (I think) and as we're walking down some street, I suddenly stumble upon an Australian Chocolate shop. My jaw dropped. My heart skipped a bit. The man that ran the shop was leaning at the door and started laughing when he saw me running inside like I had just won the lottery.
"I have never seen someone get so excited!" He kept laughing
My words were a jumble, but I told excitedly how I had found this place almost 4 years ago while in Amsterdam and had wanted to get more chocolates since then that I couldn't believe I had juts randomly ran across this place in all of NYC at 11 at night and how I loved their chocolates and had no idea they were in the US. Then I explained about my chocolate tour in Boston and how it completely made my trip and chocolate experience to find this shop so unexpectedly.
He just laughed and laughed as I talked. I bought a box of 24 Dreamers and then also got a very small box of their fruit truffles. It turned out to be about $70 but I didn't care.

He explained that they had first opened up in Chicago and had only recently opened in NYC. I remembered how different the shop was in Amsterdam--more elegant and very foreign to me in some ways, almost exotic. Hearing this man, this New Yawker, talk proudly about his shop was incredible to see. He ended up giving me a free chocolate for my sheer enthusiasm about the chocolate.

Poor Craig stayed outside most of the time. I had dragged him and Ian and Greg around while looking for chocolates in Harvard Square. He did get a free piece of chocolate out of the deal though.

I still find this chocolate to be very good, and pretty damn fresh considering it's made in Belgium. The flavors aren't as complex or interesting, but they're still good, just more conventional. The nut blends I found pretty bad, actually, but the truffles were pretty good. These are very nutty chocolates, something I don't remember when I bought them in Amsterdam. I may have been more conservative in my choices back then, though. The fruit truffles I thought were the best out of all the chocolates from there.

They also have a line of the chocolates called Bonzers, which are extremely nut heavy (almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts) with caramel and chocolate (either dipped or enveloped by).

So, yeah, that was my chocolate tour. I think I am going to retry a few of the places in NYC in the fall. Livie and I have talked about doing another Bike/Chocolate Tour of NYC, there were at least another 7 shops she and I missed on our first tour.