CheekyChicago

You’ve got your Hershey’s Kisses, your Lindt truffles and, on a particularly intense day of chocolate cravings, maybe even a few Milk Caramel Embrace Godiva truffles. But Vosges Haut-Chocolat takes French confectionery artistry (sounds effortlessly Cheeky, doesn’t it?) to a completely new level of originality, creativity, and deliciousness.

At Vosges, conceptualized and created by Le Cordon Bleu graduate Katrina Markoff, nothing is as it seems. What first appear to be simple, chocolate-covered almonds is discovered to be Barcelona Bombalina almonds: an all organic, ancient-Egyptian-inspired treat featuring hickory smoked almonds, Maldon sea salt, 45% deep milk chocolate, and cocoa powder. Vosges boasts hundreds of such original creations; there is hidden meaning and complexity to every chocolate treat on the menu and Markoff personally selects every spice, flower, and chocolate that goes into one of her confectionary delights.

A standard, but endlessly delicious choice is the Caramel Toffee. This crunchy, buttery toffee has the perfect “crunch” – not hard enough to break your teeth, but still immensely satisfying. In my extensive eating experience, I have discovered one universal truth: there is a constant internal, involuntary gastric drive to balance sweet and salty cuisine. (For instance, after you eat popcorn, you crave ice cream, etc. etc.) Vosges’ Caramel Toffee combines sweet and salty effortlessly and satisfies all cravings, which, luckily for our waistlines, renders any seconds and thirds on desserts completely unnecessary.

A second and far more intriguing choice is the Red Fire Exotic Candy Bar. Dark chocolate combines with Ceylon cinnamon and Mexican ancho and chipotle chilies to create a wonderfully layered and complex “East meets West” chocolate bar. Upon first bite, it is difficult to taste the strong notes of chili – but then the bar completely evolves, leaving a lingering tingling sensation in the back of your throat. Markoff’s inspiration for this chocolate bar came from Aztec tradition in which cocoa beans were combined with vanilla, cornmeal, and chilies. Only when the Spanish brought cocoa back to Europe were these original flavors replaced with sweet creams and sugars.

A choice that I found too bizarre to try (and not quite kosher either) was Vosges’ bestseller: Mo’s Milk Chocolate Bacon Bar. Yep, you heard me right, bacon candy bars; a sort of play on the idea that people enjoy dipping sausage in syrup. My friend, who was brave enough to try it, enjoyed what Vosges’ website proclaimed to be “an unbelievable taste combination of sweet, smoky, and savory.”

You can order every scandalously scrumptious item online or through a catalogue, but the Vosges Boutique is so gosh-darn Cheeky it simply cannot be overlooked. With intricately detailed purple walls and ornate white crown molding throughout the store’s surfaces, Vosges Boutique is straight out of an enchanted forest fantasy (made entirely of chocolate, of course). Also noteworthy is the “truffle bar” from which customers can indulge in such fanciful delights as the Oaxaca truffle, made with Tanzanian chocolate and organic pumpkin seeds, the Naga truffle, a milk chocolate delicacy spiced with sweet Indian curry powder and coconut, and the Chef Pascal truffle, a dark chocolate specialty spiked with Kirsch and a dried Michigan cherry.

With a pinch of ingenuity and a big kick of Cheekiness, Vosges is sure to assuage even the most intense of chocolate cravings.