Since you'll be in the area this weekend, check out what Nate's brought in from around the globe.

If you've read this drivel before, you know we're sort of the "Trekies" of chocolate: We go where no store's gone before, which means we probably have too many varieties of chocolate in the store. But they all sell...and we just can't help ourselves.

So why not bring in just one more type of chocolate? For the same reasons they did another Star Trek movie: Because we like it and we can. I have to say that the Rogue Chocolatier (70% cocoa)Nate just brought in exposed the subtle but distinct differences between truly excellent chocolate and average chocolate. I can't promise, but if you try it, I predict your descriptions will progress from "Wow!" or "This is good!" to more ethereal, pensive comments, such as "It is better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all." Or something to that effect.

And what makes it so good, you may wonder? Read on for good cocktail party fodder and the answer. Skip ahead if you just want to take my word for it.

Rogue Chocolatier is the first true artisan chocolate maker to arrive in the Upper Midwest. I source the finest cacao and clean, roast, winnow, grind, refine, conche, temper, mold, and package it myself. In this I hope to bring out the heart in each bean. The chocolate you are about to enjoy has kept me up late into the evening and woken me early in the morning for its care. It is the culmination of a three day process that ends in a product I love.
I hope you will too.

Colin J. Gasko
Founder / Chocolate Maker

Do you think whoever's running Nestle these days can say this? Me either. You gotta' root for a guy like this. (For more on Rogue and the Microbatch movement, go to www.craftchocolatemakers.org .)

We have a new DeLaurenti Riserva Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Most world-class specialty food purveyors would lead off with a fact this big, but we're humble in these times. Here's the scoop: We've sold a nice Sicilian olive oil for decades and figured it was time to put our name on a very nice extra virgin olive oil from Umbria. We'll still sell the Sicilian but the Umbrian oil will bear the DeLaurenti brand as well. It's full-bodied, filtered and redolent of olives. At $15.99 for a 500ml bottle, it's also an amazing value.

Bee Raw Honey returns to DeLaurenti. Nothing fancy here, just pure, simple honey made from spoiled bees with good work ethics. New for the planet, not just our store are Dolcezze de Caro flower candies. These soft jelly candies are made from sugar, water, and flower extracts grown in the Rivieri dei Fiori along the Ligurian Coast (near San Remo).

Chef Demos This Week!
Jacquelyn Buchannan is the Executive Chef for Laura Chenel's Chevre in California. An accomplished chef and culinary teacher, Jacquelyn will grace our shop with chevre-focused chef demonstrations upstairs in our kitchen. The demos will be held Thursday from 3-5pm and on Friday from 2-4pm. Come by and discover new ways to highlight the cheese Alice Waters made famous - Laura Chenel's Chevre.

By the way, you'll see a preview of lots of the cheese that'll be present at this year's Festival in the shop a few days early. Get a jump on the crowds and sneak out of work early this week...

Those who don't read this newsletter won't know the best kept secret about the Seattle Cheese Festival: wine tastings are free all weekend at DeLaurenti. Starting at noon and going until we're tired of sharing (or at least 4pm), we're pouring wines from around the state and around the world upstairs in our wine department.

For enduring this suggestive selling for so long, you are about to be rewarded with the winning recipe for this year's Seattle Cheese Festival Grilled Cheese Sandwich Contest! Can you believe it! KING, KOMO, CNN, FOX and the BBC all wanted it but we insisted on sharing it with you first. From the millions of entries, Cristal Ortiz's "Grilled Suds N' Cheese Sandwich" took top honors. The key to this one might be the beer butter, by the way....Oh, and you'll see Cristal create this masterpiece on Sunday at 11:30 at the ......Seattle Cheese Festival!