Chocolate Truffles, Azurelise Chocolate Store, Raleigh NC

Chocolate Truffles By Azurelise

This page is an answer to those who have asked, wanted to ask or might ask me "Why?"

In July 2002 my 9 month old daughter relocated with her mother from Raleigh, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington. At the time, I was a tenured associate professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University and needed more money to make regular visits to Seattle.

Preparing my lectures for the first day of fall 2002 classes, I nodded off and dreamed I was explaining to my daughter why it would be difficult to visit her. My daughter, who could not speak "in reality" at the time, responded "Daddy, you're a philosopher, make chocolate."

I taught my first day classes then went to visit my friend Sylvio Sisteste who owned Sylvia's Pizza Restaurant on Hillsborough Street across the street from my office. Sylvio asked me how my classes had gone. I informed him they went very well. Then I told him about the dream.

Sylvio, an Italian by birth who had immigrated to the States from Argentina, responded "Reginaldo, your bambina is very smart. My uncle started a chocolate company in Argentina knowing nothing about making chocolate and made a big fortune. He is the richest person in my family. You should listen to your daughter."

Sylvio's advice made sense to me. For some time there had appeared to me to be an unmet demand for high quality "old fashioned" chocolate truffles. Sylvio's story about his uncle persuaded me the fact I knew virtually nothing about making chocolate truffles was unimportant.

I started by typing "how to make chocolate truffles" into my internet browser. That led me to buying a tempering machine, custom chocolate molds, driving to South Carolina to buy some very high quality couverture chocolate and buying some other natural or organic ingredients for a filling at my local Whole Foods Store.

I taught myself how to temper chocolate, how to make truffle casings and how to make a chocolate filling. After several months of working on my filling recipe, I called Ms. Joyce Fowler manager of the candy department of A Southern Season in Chapel Hill. I asked her if she would taste test my chocolate truffles and give me her honest opinion of them. She made an appointment for me to meet her the following week.

I met with Joyce and handed her a bag of 10 dark chocolate truffles. She unwrapped one of the truffles and ate it very slowly with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes she looked at me and said "These are very, very nice. Not too sweet. Where's your price list?' I presented Joyce with a price list a year and a half later in April, 2004 and began selling Azurelise chocolate truffles at A Southern Season in May 2004.

Reginald O. Savage