If you already love the in-house brewed coffee and scrumptious baked goods at Avoca, there’s yet another reason to stop by the Fort Worth coffeehouse. Dude, Sweet is in the house. (Fans, commence salivating.)
Avoca has been serving and selling products from the Bishop Arts-based chocolatier since its opening in March 2011. But now, Dude, Sweet has an official home inside Avoca, taking up residence at the large shop’s lower bar. And, just in time for Valentine's Day.
Dude, Sweet’s funky, artisan chocolate — made by chef Katherine Clapner — is a serious dark chocolate lover’s dream. I’ve sampled just two of their products (so far; give me another week, and I’ll plow through the rest): first, “Crack in a Box,” ($10) which is made with hazelnuts, almonds and macadamia nuts, 72 percent South American chocolate with raw coca nibs; it’s then poured into slabs and cut into a bark. Nutty, salty, deep, dark goodness.
But as a non-coffee drinker, the thing that makes my toes curl is Dude, Sweet’s drinking chocolate. (One size, 8 ounces, is $2.71)
I’ve been on the quest for great hot chocolate ever since Starbucks discontinued its Signature Hot Chocolate (don’t even get me started on the regular hot chocolate they’ve left me with … rotgut.). I’ve had a terrific cup at Oddfellows in Bishop Arts, but it doesn’t quite match the transcendent, liquid love in a cup from Dude, Sweet. Katherine’s mad-scientist combo: Valrohna cocoa powder, cane sugar, dried milk powder and 72 percent South American dark chocolate. (They also sell it by the canister for $18, with Vanilla Russian marshmallows)
At this writing, Dude, Sweet — at Avoca — is my hot chocolate standard-bearer. Just don’t try to order it with anything other than whole milk; you’re liable to be shunned. Something about proper mouthfeel, and yadda yadda yadda. Who am I to argue with a chocolate goddess?
When you stop by, you’ll see Jennifer Tunay, manager in training at the new branch, which opened Feb. 1. She says the plan to set up shop inside Avoca was organic. “Avoca is doing the same sort of things with their coffee as we’re doing with our chocolate, so it was just a natural kind of progression for us,” she said.
Their biggest sellers are the Crack in the Box, Chubby Nuts and the Albatross Fudge (a foodie’s chocolate named after a Monty Python skit, it’s is a sweetened condensed milk fudge using Valrohna Abinaio 85% dark chocolate from Africa, and dehydrated blue cheese.)
Most undersung product? “The chocolate potions,” Tunay says. “Think of them as adult chocolate syrups. It’s a 72 percent South American mixed-origin chocolate, and agave nectar,” with such adult add-ins as Riesling, tequila and bourbon.
I asked what makes their chocolate so damn good. “Our chef, Katherine. Everything is entirely her fault,” Tunay laughed. “I love working here,” she added, “because I can show people that you can have dark chocolate, and it’s awesome, and good for you, and this is purely Texan.”
