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Bay Area Chocolate Binge by Abe Opincar
What sets these truffles apart is the contrast between their rough-hewn
appearance and the delicate way Gorce flavors them. The bergamot in
his Earl Grey truffle is subtle. The raspberry in his raspberry truffle
doesn't bring on the sharp dissonance you sometimes get when chocolate
is paired with berries.
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OpenRoad TV with Doug McConnell
San Francisco North Beach Food Tour
There are 27 varieties of XOX Truffles. Jean-Marc is making regular dark
chocolate ones for us. Essentially they're chocolate filling, dipped in
chocolate and tossed in more chocolate. Jean-Marc says, "But basically
this one is chocolate with cream and flavoring, this one is a pure chocolate,
just a coating, and that one is 100% cocoa powder, so it's 100 percent bitter."
And 100 percent delicious. GraceAnn sums it up, "He and his wife own this business.
Family. Simple but good."
San Francisco's' Finest Chocolates
At XOX, watch as Chef Jean-Marc Gorce creates more
than 25 varieties of petite, hand-made truffles. There
are common truffles and uncommon truffles such as Earl
Grey tea and a Vegan soy version.
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Chocolate Fantasies by Sarah Fritschner
Dark chocolate is ultra-dark. White chocolate is delicious, too.
Don't miss the totally-vegan truffle made with soy milk.
Hey! That's good for you, right?
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Truffles and Flourishes by Bill Gottlieb
While you're in the city, don't miss XOX Truffles Inc.,
where Jean-Marc Gorce makes 27 flavors of bite-size truffles
so scrumptious he was declared one of the 10 best
chocolatiers in America by Chocolatier Magazine.
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Getting your Fix
by Jessica Mikels
Truffles come intricately wrapped in ornate packaging.
They're the perfect sexy treat for nighttime rendezvous
with your special sweetie.
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Best Chocolate Shop Discoveries by Jessica Blatt
The chocolates at XOX Truffles in San Francisco look like chunks of
gravel, but they taste remarkably smooth. They're made from Cocao Barry
chocolate, in 27 sublime varieties - from creme de framboise
to coffee crunch.
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Ten of our Favorite Artisan Chocolatiers by Joan Steuer
As authentic French truffles should be, XOX truffles are small,
slightly irregular shaped, hand-rolled treasures with a
dense ganache center that quickly melts
into rich buttery softness in your mouth.
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XOX Truffles by Betsy Malloy
Boiling cream is poured over chocolate and flavoring, the mixture
is mixed and cooled, shaped into irregular shapes that look
like giant raisins, then rolled in cocoa powder or other coatings.
Voila! Chocolate heaven, tiny bite-sized truffles with
melt-in-your mouth fillings.
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Mangia! North Beach
by Stephanie McKinnon McDade
Next up, a little flavor of France. ... where many will leave their
hearts. This is XOX Truffles, Inc., where one bite of chef Jean-Marc
Gorce's confections makes knees go weak.
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Chocolate Kisses
What a boon for chocolate lovers that they did. His handmade chocolates
are rich, delicate, and filled with 27 flavors, from a totally addictive
caramel to coffee crunch, Earl Grey, and Hazelnut.
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Fabulous Food Tours
by Jennifer Reese
And there's nothing Italian about XOX Truffles, a pocket-size storefront
where Jean-Marc Gorce—who owns the shop with his wife,
Casimira—demonstrates how he prepares his melting confections
with cream, chocolate, and cognac.
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I Love Chocolate by Stephanie Zonis
Forget about those giant, overdecorated monsters sold in some places;
these are petite, irregularly-shaped, unassuming jewels of flavor and
richness. The thin chocolate shell surrounds a dense, rich filling
that will leave you hungry for more...go ahead, they're small!
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Best Binge for a Buck
No bulky, hood ornament-sized shell of chocolate will keep you from the
good stuff. Instead, slip directly into pure, deep, cocoa-dusted
chocolate bliss, gently kissed with a range of flavors from Earl Grey
(a citrusy hint of bergamot) to crème de menthe, cognac, and framboise
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Chocolate Heaven in San Francisco - XOX Truffles by Martha Bakerjian
The shop is warm, cozy, and inviting. I had a great hot chocolate
and James had an espresso made with Graffeo Coffee from across the
street. But the best part was the free truffle that comes with
each drink.
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Roker on the Road, Food Network
Chocolate
Say "I Love You" with one of America's favorite foods-chocolate!
Al's going to make truffles with a New York chocolatier,
and a top French chef who has turned into a truffle maker....
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Truffle heaven by Donna Maurillo,
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Recently, one of our vendors sent me a box of the most amazing chocolate
truffles from XOX in San Francisco. I am sorry to say (no, I’m not
sorry to say) that I did not share them. They were too good for anyone
but me.
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The Inside Scoop by Grace Ann Walden
Jean-Marc Gorce and his wife, Casimira, are expanding their 6-year-old
XOX Truffles business to the East Bay. By November they hope to open
a second store and production facility at 6126 La Salle Ave. in the
Montclair section of Oakland.
Besides retail and online sales, XOX Truffles supplies Neiman Marcus
and just got into the Whole Foods on California and Franklin streets
in San Francisco.
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Taster's Choice by Carol Ness
Locally made XOX came in second. These truffles are small, hand-formed
nuggets of dark chocolate ganache rolled in bitter cocoa powder. Elizabeth
Falkner of Citizen Cake liked these best, saying "tastiest and perfect size."
Other tasters loved their "creamy texture" and "chocolatey flavor but not too sweet,"...
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Mother of All Days by Bonnie Wach
If you're already doing the flowers, why not lock up the inheritance with chocolate?
XOX Truffles, voted the top American truffle by publications ranging from Food & Wine
to the New York Times, are made right here in North Beach. Aside from an assortment
of exotic flavors -- from cocoa-powder- dusted creme de framboise to white chocolate
with dark chocolate centers -- Chef Jean-Marc Gorce makes each creamy wonder a perfect
pop-in-your-mouth size, just right for moms who invariably want "just a bite"
(usually of whatever you're having).
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Better Than Sex?
Makers of sumptuous chocolate truffles bring their rich craft to Montclair.
By Jonathan Kauffman
What makes these truffles so sexy? Freshness, yes, and the small size.
But key is the chocolate Jean-Marc uses to make the ganache centers:
It's a mix of high-quality French semisweet chocolate and cacao powder,
with no added sugar to blow out the palate. The various truffles are
flavored with everything from reduced red wine to hazelnut paste.
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Hit List
Chef Jean-Marc Gorce had always wanted to open a restaurant where he
could play with his ideas, however crazy they might be. In January 1997,
he and his wife, Casimira, settled for a gourmet chocolate house. Since
then, XOX Truffles has become one of the top-seven rated chocolate makers
in the US, with 27 handmade and carefully chosen flavors.
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For Chocolate Lovers Only
by Stephanie Zonis
In the North Beach section of the city sits this tiny shop/coffee bar,
where Jean-Marc and Casimira Gorce work their chocolate wizardry.
Twenty-seven varieties of handmade truffles are the big draw here,
along with some very creative packaging. The truffles, unlike those
offered by most American companies, are quite small and irregularly-shaped,
but they are marvels of richness and good flavor.
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Indulging Mother's Sweetest Obsession by Michelle Slatella
My mother and I live in different states. But this year, in a supreme
show of self-sacrifice, I decided to send candy anyway. Of course, I'm
not a copmplete masochist, so I won't go so far as to send, say, truffles,
certainly not the cocoa-dusted dark chocolate ones from XOX Truffles on San
Francisco. They have haunted me every waking moment since I moved to the
Bay Area last year.
Some people say it's nearly impossible for a truffle not to taste good,
given its basic premise: you start with a rich blend of chocolate and cream
and butter callend ganache, then add nuts or fruit or roll it in cocoa.
So what makes XOX truffles particularly irresistable?
"First of all, I use good ingredients and they are made fresh and by hand
every day." said Jean Marc Gorce, a co-owner of XOX Truffles. "We don't do
volume like some big companies where you never know how long the chocolate
has been sitting in refrigerators."
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Aired on July 28, 30, 31, 2005
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Sweet spots
10 great places for chocolate in San Francisco by Tiffany Martini
Small, delicate and lightly dusted with cocoa powder, each aspect of an
XOX truffle is purposefully made to create an amorous sensation. The
bitterness of raw cocoa powder gives way to the crack of a delicate shell,
then the soft center spreads along the palate, allowing infused flavors to
come through. Traditional favorites include dark chocolate, noisette
(a smooth hazelnut filling further encrusted by hazelnuts) and peanut
butter. The red wine, rum raisin and Earl Grey truffles are equally
unforgettable.
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Chocolate
Carole Terwilligers Meyers is a native San Franciscan and she has written many travel books.
For Backroads, she told us four of the best places in the Bay Area to indulge in chocolate and
see how some gourmet chocolate is made.
Here are her picks:
At XOX, watch as Chef Jean-Marc Gorce creates more than 25 varieties of petite,
hand-made truffles. There are common truffles and uncommon truffles such as Earl
Grey tea and a Vegan soy version.
...
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Sweet Spots for Chocolate
In time for Valentine's Day, USA TODAY's Kitty Bean Yancey enlisted
chocolate-loving colleagues Veronica Gould Stoddart and Robert Abitbol
to test some notable U.S. artisan chocolates. We took recommendations from experts,
including Joan Steuer, whose Chocolate Marketing firm tracks trends. "It's an
exciting time" for high-end, hand-made chocolates, she says. Here's our sampling
from seven top chocolatiers
Chef Jean-Marc Gorce is famed for hand-rolled creations with exotic fillings.
Appearance: Bite-sized orbs in a dazzling gold-and-blue box adorned with
a faux monarch butterfly.
Taste: Melt-in-your mouth truffle paradigms, whether cognac (the chef's favorite);
red wine (delicate); hazelnut (satisfyingly nutty and crunchy). The subtle flavors build,
then linger. Less pleasing were the dark soy/vegan and too-sweet white chocolate truffles.
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XOX Truffles
If you like chocolate, you most likely love truffles, and if you love truffles,
you have to go to San Francisco.
San Francisco is the home of XOX Truffles, who make the best truffles, period.
A little experiment was conducted. Two chocoholics go to XOX Truffles and have the
truffles of their lives, which are the dark chocolate, lemon and raspberry. "They
could not have been that good," they say to each other, and spend the rest of the
afternoon eating other truffles. Hands down, all other truffles are droppings when
you have had XOX Truffles, though the quest for something as good better continues.
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Sweet Temptations
What is it about chocolate that has made humans nuts for thousands of years?
by Eugenia Bone
...(Although men purchase plenty of chocolates--for women. Casimira Gorce,
co-owner with husband Jean-Marc of XOX Truffles, San Francisco, an award-winning
confectioner, says, "Men come in to buy chocolates when they are in the doghouse,
and they tell us what happened. Sometimes I feel like a bartender. Or a therapist.")
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Sweet Surrender
By Betty Hallock
Jean-Marc and Casimira Gorce started XOX Truffles, also in San Francisco, in 1998.
They were "scared that people wouldn't like them. We thought people would expect them
to be perfectly round," Casimira Gorce says. Their truffles, unlike Schmidt's perfectly
formed chocolates, look like the actual truffles that come from the earth. They're lumpy,
and dusty with cocoa powder.
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Chocolate Tasting
At Debbie, Charles, & Eric's - February 20, 2004
For the blind tasting, chocolates were placed into bowls identified only by random numbers.
We asked people to rate the chocolates in two ways. First, we asked everyone to rank them
in order of their favorites, from first to last. The average is the first (rank) column,
where the average favorite is the XOX. Then, we asked them to rate five parameters
(appearance, texture, odor, taste, overall), giving each 1 (worst) to 5 (best). ...
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San Francisco Chocolate Adventure Tour: XOX Truffles, Scharffenberger & Recchiuti Among Winners
A Rugged Elegance Inspiration Network Exclusive by Jennifer King - October 25, 2004
All three chocolate connoisseurs agreed that, so far, this was their favorite stop. And they weren't
just saying that because Jean-Marc was present.
"XOX Truffles makes it to the top of my list, in great part,
simply because of the melt-in-your-mouth delicious tastes," stated Nancy, Paula and Catherine.
Nancy, a homemade truffle creator herself, was also inspired by Jean-Marc as he stood there making
his truffles. She will bring back this inspiration to Denver where she and her husband make truffles
every holiday season as gifts for their friends and family.. ...
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