A Chocolate Oasis in Issaquah, WA

By: Wes Simons | July 12 2010
Posted in Seattle - Find It - Seattle

Americans eat, on average, about 11 pounds of chocolate a year. A large portion of those 11 pounds, almost 3.4 billion pounds total, comes from the big commpanies, like Hershey’s, but there are also plenty of smaller companies vying for your candy consumption. If you're among those whose temptation is the cocoa bean, read on.

Welcome to Boehm’s

Located a few miles east of Seattle just off of I-90, Boehm’s Chocolates have been a confectioning institution since 1942. The company store and chocolate factory are housed inside a building that appears to be plucked straight from the Bavarian landscape. If you listen hard enough, you'll swear you hear someone yodeling.

Chocolate Never Looked so Good

The store employees are all in costume, sporting Bavarian-themed dresses and matching hair. In addition to looking the part, they are also a knowledgeable bunch, willing to share their love of chocolate with anyone who comes in the door. When asked what her favorite was, one young lady replied that it changed every week, but that she would gladly eat them all.

Photo: Wes Simons

All the Chocolate That’s Fit to Eat

Boehm’s selection of chocolates is enormous. So enormous that making a choice can take the sort of time many people might put into deciding what kind of car to buy. I settled on a peanut square, which included peanut butter mixed with white chocolate and then coated in dark chocolate, and a coconut ball, with nuts and coconut dipped in chocolate. Both selections were excellent, but I preferred the coconut ball because it was lighter and had a more interesting flavor.

But Boehm's is more than just an overgrown candy store. If you visit the factory store in Issaquah, take the tour and check out how the chocolate is made. (A little lesson in, shall we say, quality control is included at the end of the tour.) True addicts should make a point not to miss the chocolate-making course. Held on Saturdays and Thursdays for two hours, participants learn to make their own chocolate, assemble a variety of treats, and head home with a pound and a half of cocoa creations. You’ve got get your 11 pounds in somehow.

Where do you turn for locally made chocolate?