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12/16/2015 07:30 AMSo let’s imagine the scene: a man bellies up to the bar, asks for a shot and a beer. And what does he get? A beer accompanied by a shot glass filled with a creamy chocolate concoction. It’s a shot all right, a Truffle Shot, the creation of Sherri Athay who, with her husband Larry, owns Truffle Shots in Essex. And just to be clear, there is no alcohol in any of Sherri’s chocolate creations.
Three of Sherri’s distinctive chocolate flavors, packaged in the shot glasses from which they take their name, recently won prizes in the 2015 International Chocolate Awards in London. To qualify for the finals, the Sherri’s Truffle Shots had first won honors in the semi-final section of the competition for the Americas.
So what exactly is a Truffle Shot? Well, it’s a tasty concession to human nature. It comes from same impulse that makes people dig down for the prize in the Cracker Jacks before finishing the box, eat the filling in the cannoli before the outer shell, or the inside of French bread before the crust. Sherri, who has taken candy-making classes, realized what she loved about chocolate truffles was what was on the inside, the creamy chocolate ganache, not the hard outer shell. In fact, what Sherri did was crack open the chocolate shell so she could get right to the filling.
Taste met inspiration when Sherri and her adult daughter Lauren saw some shot glasses on a shopping trip.
“We knew instantly that this was the way to make a different kind of chocolate truffle,” Sherri says.
No chocolate outside at all, just sweet truffle in a glass. Ergo, the birth of Truffle Shots.
“I went home, secured a URL, applied for a patent and a trademark within 24 hours,” Sherri recalls.
At first, Sherri made the truffles at home, but not in her own kitchen. Larry explains that health department regulations required them to set up a commercial kitchen for the candy making. Some three years ago, they opened their store on North Main Street in Essex, with Larry doing the carpentry and woodwork on the interior.
Sherri experimented with different ganache flavors. Ganache itself, she explains, is an emulsion of cream and chocolate. At first she was interested in blending floral tones with the chocolate.
“I remember when I was young a rose-flavored jam that my aunt made,” she recalls.
She got rose oil from sources around the world, sometimes costing hundreds of dollars an ounce, to create distinctive tastes. These days, Sherri has Truffle Shots in some 30 flavors, though not all flavors are available every day. Truffle Shots range in taste from The Flowers of Sicily and Fig Balsamico to Carmel Beurre Noisette, featuring sea salt, caramel, and browned butter; and Signature Dark, a classic chocolate creation.
The road to the international competition began with a customer who came in, and after sampling several truffle flavors (a courtesy extended to all patrons), told Sherri and Larry they should enter the contest. The customer herself was a judge. Entering a chocolate competition was something the Athays had never thought about.
“Who are we? On a side street in Essex,” Sherri recalls thinking, but the opportunity to get feedback from international judges and food editors was too appealing to turn down. “It’s very nice when your friends and family like what you are doing, but this was an entirely different culinary world.”
The Americas semi-finals were only two weeks away, but Sherri submitted 10 different flavors, seven of which she had never created before. She made 52 shot glasses of each flavor, a total of 520 Truffle Shots. Getting them into New York was a challenge. Sherri uses no artificial preservatives in the truffles; for optimum taste, they have a shelf life of five days, though refrigerated they can last somewhat longer. After that, Sherri says, the flavors and consistency begin to change. At the semi-finals the Caramel Beurre Noisette won a silver medal; the Signature Dark and the Tellicherry Cardamom, a spicier flavor, won Bronze. At the world finals the three flavors of Truffle Shots again won awards, but this time the Tellicherry Cardamom placed higher, winning silver.
The Truffle Shots aren’t Sherri’s first venture into the world of sweetness. She and Larry owned an ice cream shop in Centerbrook, A La Mode, located where Scoops now is. Sherri, who comes from California, is also an author. When Larry was working in Washington, D.C., Sherri realized she had to get a present for his boss.
“I had no idea what to buy,” she recalls.
Realizing that many others probably shared her problem, she wrote three books on appropriate gift giving.
“Don’t give a woman a book on self-improvement,” she advises.
“And don’t buy a woman anything with an electrical cord. Don’t buy your wife a vacuum cleaner,” Larry adds.
Truffle Shots are no longer just an Essex thing. Sherri says at least one customer comes regularly from New Haven to buy them. The first time that customer purchased Truffle Shots, she had to come back into the store and buy two more to replace the two she had just eaten in the car. (Each individual Truffle Shot comes with a wooden spoon tucked in a pocket in the box.) One customer made a stop at Truffle Shots on the trip from Washington, D.C. to Boston.
“He said we were the only reason he came to Connecticut,” Sherri reports.
Making a lot of chocolate, Sherri says, does not necessarily mean eating a lot of chocolate.
“Actually, I eat a lot less. I have become more discriminating. Tasting really fine chocolate changes your palate. It really satisfies,” she says.
And satisfaction doesn’t come with a diet-shattering wallop. Sherri says the original dark Truffle Shot contains 257 calories.
For more information about Truffle Shots, visit www.truffleshots.com.