Bespoke Chocolates - Find. Eat. Drink.

WHAT

Award-winning artisanal chocolaterie.

WHY

Everything is handmade on the premises by a classically trained chocolatier.

BESPOKE CHOCOLATES

December 2, 2009

Rachel Zoe Insler wasn’t a chocolate fan until she tasted freshly made chocolate. The former cognitive neuroscience grad student now spends her days filling bon bons and hand making truffles in her jewel box sized shop in the East Village.

Rachel has all the right pastry credentials. She holds a Grande Diplome in Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute, worked at Union Square Cafe, Hudson Yards Catering, and apprenticed with a top chocolate maker at Notting Hill’s Melt Chocolates in London.

While technique plays a role in making the sweet confections, Rachel believes using great ingredients is what decidedly marks the difference. She gets most of her ingredients from local Union Square Greenmarket vendors:

- dairy products comes from Ronnybrook Farm

- pretzels from Martin's

- honey from Andrew’s Local.

As the basis for her chocolates, she uses a variety of chocolate from: Valrhona, Michel Cluizel, Santander, and fair trade Venezuelan brand, El Rey.

But the selling point is how her chocolates taste. The assortment ranges from French Milk Chocolate with oozing ganache, to Hazelnut Praline, to her outstanding signature truffle Pretzel-Covered Sea Salted Caramel. The caramel is rich with the salt balancing the sweetness and eating just one is never enough.

Bespoke Chocolates make great hostess and holiday gifts and come in recycled kraft paper boxes. If you live in New York, drop by the store to watch Rachel in action. If you live in the lower 48 states, they will ship to your door via Fed Ex.

Rachel tips for detecting if truffles are fresh:

- the flavor should be clean

- the center should not be separated or grainy

- the texture should be smooth

- the outside should have a nice shine, unless decorated with a powder.