Our eighth wedding anniversary is coming up this Tuesday, and this year, for once, I knew just what to get for Jeremy. I ran across the Chocosphere store on one my foodblogging explorations, and knew immediately that Jeremy would really get a kick out of it, chocoholic that he is. This place sells over 3 dozen brands of chocolate, mostly high-end/gourmet, organic/free trade/single origin, for baking and eating out of hand—there were so many choices I could hardly even decide where to begin looking!

At first I thought the Chocolate of the Month club would be perfect, but that’s quite a chunk of change to plop down for foodstuffs without consulting Jeremy. Then I saw the Chocolate Emergency Kits. How perfect is that!

I ordered Jeremy’s gift pack a week early… I couldn’t wait any longer to find out what he would think. And he seemed really surprised and pleased with what came. The Emergency Kits are packaged in a really sturdy lunch-bag with two separate, fully-insulated compartments, which we can already think of several uses for. I got the Ranger size, and here’s a breakdown of the selection we got with it:

A box of assorted Valrhona chocolates
Slitti Gran Bouquet Earl Grey Tea Bar, 73% cocoa
Dolfin Chocolat Au Lait Aux Amandes Grillees Bar, 32% cocoa
Bernard Castelain Chocolat Noir Cafe Bar, 71% cocoa
Bernard Castelain Chocolat Lait Tradition Bar, 71% cocoa
Amedei Porcelana Napolitains, 70% cocoa
Chocolove Milk Chocolate Bar, 33% cocoa
Chocolat Bonnat Cote d’Ivoire Bar, 75% cocoa
Lindt Excellence Bar, 70% cocoa
Santander Dark Chocolate Colombian Single Origin Bar, 65% cocoa
E. Guittard Chucuri Bittersweet Bar, 65% cocoa
Cuba Venchi Rhum Chocolates
Cote d’Or Nougatti Bar
Meurisse Zero Milk Bar

That’s a lot of chocolate, and based on our first taste of the Slitti bar last night, it’s really good stuff. Jeremy has the bars all organized now by expiration date, to make sure we get the maximum flavor and freshness from our chocolates. 🙂

Not only do they have an amazing selection of chocolates and an extensive number of gift pack options, Chocosphere seems to be really customer-oriented. They went into lots of detail for shipping options and time frames, including options to preserve meltable chocolates in warmer weather. And best of all, they are located in Portland, so not only can we order via ground and get next-day service in Salem, we have the option to go pick up orders ourselves. I have no doubt we’ll be making many more purchases from Chocosphere in the future…it’s just a matter of figuring out what to order first. In the meantime, happy anniversary, sweetheart!