Alma Chocolate

Alma Chocolate was started seven years ago by Sarah Hart who initially sold her chocolate creations at a Farmer’s Market in Portland, Oregon. In 2006, Sarah opened up a chocolate shop in northeast Portland and has been creating and selling her confections ever since. One of her specialities is toffee and she makes three kinds: Pistachio, Hazelnut Cherry, and Ginger Almond – all made with organic butter, turbinado (a natural brown sugar that looks like light brown sugar crystals), fresh nuts, dark chocolate and sea salt.

The toffee comes in large irregularly shaped 4 ounce pieces (although the three pieces I ordered all weighed between 4.2 and 4.4 ounces) that look like bark and have one side covered in dark 75% Venezuelan Chocolate. Darker in color than traditional toffee (because of the turbinado sugar in lieu of white sugar), the toffee is sweet – but not too sweet – with a hint of salt.

The combination of the sweet toffee, pistachios, and dark chocolate make for a crunchy buttery treat while the tart cherries (preserved without nitrates), hazelnuts (from local hazelnut grower Freddy Guys who harvests and roasts their own hazelnuts) and the dark chocolate in the Hazelnut Cherry Toffee is a chewy crunchy confection that almost makes me want to move to Portland. The Ginger Almond toffee is the most traditional toffee of all with lots of almonds and crystalized ginger added for a spicy contrast.

To purchase the toffee on-line, go to the company website listed below. Each 4 ounce piece (wrapped in a clear plastic bag and tied with a colorful ribbon) is $8 plus shipping.

Alma Chocolate
140 NE 28th Avenue
Portland, Oregon  97232
501-517-0262
www.almachocolate