The time has come, my friends, to talk about Telluride Truffles.
Not too long ago, Jackie Watson — a close friend, and the woman who recruited me to come to work for The Employer I Cannot Name Here — retired. Not long after, she headed north, having fallen in love with mountain air and snowcapped vistas, and permanently relocated to Telluride, Colorado.
You should know two things about Jackie. First, she is a tireless and faithful worker — not the sort of person you would expect to retire to a life of leisure. Second, she is one of those people so in tune with the Music of the Universe that the Universe just can’t help but bring good things her way.
And so it wasn’t long after she landed in Telluride that she wound up working for Telluride Truffle, a gourmet truffle shop owned and operated by Patty Denny, who launched the place herself in 1997. Soon after that, I started getting emails from Jackie about “these amazing truffles.”
I confess I took those early messages with a grain of salt. First off: everyone who goes to work for a chocolatier says, “Oh, our chocolates are the best ever!” I mean, if you work there, you have to say that, right? And then, during a visit to the website, I saw the prices … and thought, “Man, at those rates, those had better be some pretty darn good hunks of chocolate.”
While we were in Utah, Jackie hitched up a wagon and drove her mule team (okay, okay — she drove her car) over the mountain pass to visit us in Moab. She also brought us a temperature-controlled container of Telluride Truffles.
If you’ve been reading MadeByMark for any length of time, you know that, while I’m passionate about the Things I Love, I am equally honest about the Things I Do Not Love. When I find something worth having, I become an evangelist for it. When something isn’t worth having, I spread the word and warn my friends away.
So you can believe me when I tell you there is something special — something very, very special — about a Telluride Truffle. They are, in fact, the best I’ve ever eaten.
Even having heard all this, I was a skeptic until I bit into one. Oh. My. God. The outer shell is firm, but springy … solid, but with a distinctive “give” that is, I believe, unique to these truffles. The filling inside feels equally firm — at first — and then slowly, sensually, and seductively collapses into a smooth, warm shot of unadulterated Chocolate Glory.
Yes, they’re that good. Yes, they’re that unique. Yes, they’re worth what Patty Denny is charging for them — mostly because these truffles are so darn satisfying, that one or two will do you. You have to take a break, you see, because the human brain can only process so much pleasure at a whack. Plus, these aren’t prissy little truffles — they’re big, generous, chunky truffles — the kind of truffles that would take even Chuck Norris two or three bites to polish off.
It would be rude of me not to tell you how to get these yourself, especially since it is highly unlikely that Jackie will hitch up her mule team (or drive her car) and hand-deliver a batch to your door. (However, if you go by the shop there in Telluride, you may very well spy Jackie behind the counter. She’s the lady with the short-cropped, salt-and-pepper hair, handing out samples with a wicked, knowing gleam in her eye.)
Happily, though, you aren’t at the whims of Jackie’s travel schedule — because it just so happens that Telluride Truffles is also Amazon.com’s number one seller of hand-made gourmet chocolates. (Who knew?) The one-pound selection — fourteen truffles — sells for $44.00. (In Europe, for truffles of this quality, you really would pay closer to $100 or more.)
Shipping during the warmer months can be a little pricey, because you *must* have them shipped rapidly, and each shipment must be packed by hand, cushioned for travel, and chilled with packets of dry ice. Trust me, though — they aren’t gouging you. In fact, in summer, it costs the shop more to ship the chocolates to warm climates than they’re charging.
If you’re worried about melting all your chocolatety goodness, then try this: treat yourself to a jar of their truffle filling. For just $17.00, you can get little jars of dark or milk chocolate truffle sauce infused with hazelnut, Kahlua, blackberry liquor, cabernet sauvignon, Grand Marnier, or — if you’re a purist like me — nothing but the chocolate itself. You could dab this on ice cream. You could blend it into a frosty-cool summer smoothie. Or you could just eat it straight from the jar, like God intended.
Eventually, you’re going to have a reason to treat yourself … so why not make that treat something worth having? For a transcendental chocolate experience you won’t soon forget, order yourself some Telluride Truffles today.
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