If, as Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am," where does this leave chocolate?

Enter former philosophy professor turned chocolate maker Reginald Savage.

Exhibiting the language facility and soul of a poet and the questing mind of a philosopher, Savage, 55, spoke recently of how chocolate figures into his view of how to lead a happy life.

His answer to Descartes may be summed up in his Latin quote that appears on every gold label of his boxed chocolates. The quote: "verite amare est oblectare mente via corpore" ("truly, to love is to enjoy with the mind by way of the body") embraces Savage's belief in the mind-body connection. So, he aims to make chocolate that engages all the senses, as well as the mind.

He's always been a chocolate fan.

"I truly adore chocolate. I'm so glad chocolate is in the world," Savage said in an interview at A Southern Season, which carries his Azurelise Chocolate Truffles. He lives and makes chocolates in Raleigh and named his candy company after his daughter, Azure Elise, now 4.

As far as he knows, he's one of only three professional chocolate truffle-makers in the state, including another one in Raleigh and one in Asheville, he said.

He routinely appears behind the counter of the gourmet food emporium in Chapel Hill's University Mall as he offers samples of his truffles, encased in milk or dark chocolate and filled with either chocolate or peanut butter ganache (a mixture that includes heavy cream.)

Outselling Godiva

When Joyce Fowler, manager of A Southern Season's candy department, first tasted his chocolates, she liked them so much she had asked for Savage's price list, he said.

Fowler said Friday that she could taste the excellent quality.

"It's a very creamy-textured chocolate with an underlying toasted caramel taste," Fowler said. "He makes a wonderful piece of chocolate."

His chocolates have sold well at the store, she added.

"His $12 box of chocolates far outsells Godiva's $12 box of chocolates," Fowler said.

She finds his chocolates just as good as Godiva's and said that the fact that he's there in person to offer samples also helps boost sales.

"He's self-taught and he's taught himself very well," Fowler said.

Long days

Many chocolate-makers work alone, as does Savage. But being a one-man operation can mean long days. For the two weeks before Christmas, he slept only two hours a night. He anticipates going without sleep again as he prepares chocolates to meet the Valentine's demand next week.

While he makes custom chocolates for several Raleigh businesses, the fact that A Southern Season carries his candy has proven the biggest boon to his business so far. Unlike other retail stores he's tried, this store allows him to deliver chocolates on a regular basis so the candy doesn't sit on the shelf for weeks.

Since he uses no preservatives or wax, the chocolates don't have a long shelf life, he added.

"When you buy a chocolate like this, you just want to eat it," he said.

He keeps the packaging simple -- a white box with thin, gold elastic ribbon -- and has marketed it as so unpretentious that "you can hoard them without hiding them."

For Savage, making chocolates goes far beyond the physical process. He sees himself as a poet of chocolate, who uses ingredients like poets use words, to help people quiet the noise of everyday life and experience beauty.

"Taste is a vehicle for getting in touch with beauty," he said.

Element of surprise

Like a poet, he can't articulate exactly how he does this but imagination is a key ingredient, he added.

He wants people to have a subtle but arresting experience, so he aims for an interesting taste without knocking people over with strong flavors, he added.

"I use chili in almost everything I do but people don't taste it," he said.

He's also been known to add such ingredients as balsamic vinegar.

"I try to make it so people stop and say, 'What is it?' " he added.

A recently purchased box containing both dark and milk chocolate truffles listed as ingredients: bittersweet and milk chocolate, orange juice, heavy cream, butter, peanut butter, cinnamon, chili powder, curry powder, ginger, honey, pure almond and vanilla extracts.

He began to teach himself to make truffles by typing "how to make chocolate" into his Internet browser. He read some recipes and purchased a tempering machine, custom chocolate molds, couverture (high quality, extra cocoa butter) chocolate and other ingredients.

Since making his first batch of chocolates four years ago, he's learned that chocolate is temperamental.

"It doesn't like lots of things. It doesn't like heat. It doesn't like oil. You have to introduce water into chocolate like a Trojan Horse so the chocolate doesn't see it," he said.

He had taught college-level philosophy for 17 years and had a tenured position at N.C. State University when he resigned to become a chocolate-maker.

The story of why he did this began about four years ago when his daughter's mother had moved, with their daughter, Azure Elise, then 9 months old, to Seattle. At the time, he had wondered what he could do besides teach in order to afford frequent visits to see his daughter, he said.

One night, as he read Aristotle's "Ethics," in preparation for a lecture, he had fallen asleep and dreamed that his daughter told him, " 'Daddy, you're a philosopher, make chocolate,' " Savage said.

The next day, he related the dream to a friend, who owns a pizza place across from N.C. State, and the friend told him of an uncle in Argentina who had made a fortune making chocolate, Savage added.

Today, he's making a living making chocolates but said that he needs to find ways to earn a steady income from it, since chocolate-buying tends to be seasonal. He still doesn't see his daughter as much as he'd like. But recently, the two made their first chocolate together, he said.

So, has this former philosophy professor found happiness in making chocolates?

He didn't answer right away. He first spoke of how philosophy has been described as a love of wisdom and the science of happiness. For Aristotle, happiness meant the fulfillment of potential, Savage said.

Then, he said he could be happy driving a bus.

"Whatever you do, if you do it in the right way, you can do it in a way that facilitates the awareness of beauty," Savage said.

 

Copyright, 2006, The Durham Herald Company

Record Number: 0507902031