Charley's Chocolates

In a word: Morsels of mediocrity.

The specs: #0680  
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Chris, Clint, JM, Nichole and Tiffany ate some truffles and pecan fudge.
JM gave Charley's Chocolates a B-; Nichole gave Charley's Chocolates a C+ (see our grading rubric).

Charley's Chocolates on State Street makes their own stuff but makes the rent on a variety of related and unrelated items, from pancake mix to mustard to t-shirts and postcards. The proprietor knows his product inside and out and is generous with info and free samples. It's almost too much - "very helpful, to the point of helping me after I was done and didn't need any," opined one in our party.

The truffles, too, are excessive. They're massive. Perhaps five Gails or eight Markuses each (12,000 millimarkuses = .75 dekagails). The centers are silky-smooth and the fruit flavors we tried were fresh and bright, but after several bites even the best got old, even when we shared.

The smaller truffles with designs might be a better bet. The key lime and banana versions were both pretty in a cartoonish way, but were only a bite each.

A little tub of pecan fudge was pre-cut into bite-sized morsels. The nuts were fresh and the fudge a bit grainy, with a lot of vanilla flavor.

We hope they make it, because chocolates in Madison is pretty stiff competition and protest paraphernalia can only take you so far.