XOX Truffles
754 Columbus Avenue
(between Filbert & Greenwich)
San Francisco, CA 94133
415.421.4814

I thought I had a pretty good grasp of how a great chocolate is supposed to taste but I am pleased to announce that my world was turned upside down a few days ago by a sweet little chocolatier by the name XOX Truffles. I’ve tried chocolates all over the world in Paris, Bavaria, New York, and Los Angeles at names like Vosges, Maison, Payard, and Ricard and many of the chocolatiers to be fair were sinfully good. Undoubtedly the quality of Maison and Payard are amongst the best the world has to offer, but there is another. Nestled at the end of the Columbus drag in North Beach, San Francisco is a little wedge of a shop that serves the best chocolate I have ever tasted at a price that I couldn’t and wouldn’t believe.

XOX Truffles is a mom and pop operation started about 12 years ago by chef Jean Marc Gorce following a heart attack. His days as a French restaurant chef were over, but thank god we weren’t robbed of Gorce’s talent. Like a phoenix Gorce has soared far beyond the limits of chocolate making known to normal men and I guiltily admit I’m a little happy he is now making his delectible chocolates. In the little shop in North Beach you can meet Gorce and watch him prepare his wonderful truffles and I swear there isn’t a humbler person.

For the most part XOX Truffles come in a variety of traditional liquered and non-liquered flavours. The truffles’ appearance is classic, deep in colour, and looks as rich as it tastes. You can tell right away that the truffles were made that morning and it doesn’t take watching Gorce make them behind the counter to believe it. My favourite of the flavours is the Tequila Chipotle truffle, but I have to admit the Earl Gray and Champagne were just as good. Even the plain old Dark Chocolate was delectable in its simplicity. Of the five or so flavours I tried my least favourite was the Green Tea which was a bit too strongly powdered for me but once the flavours mixed together it was still good.

My last favourite chocolatier has been Vosges for a long time, not so much for the quality of their chocolate but their sinful exotic choclate concoctions with ingredients like Tallegio cheese, Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Indian Curry, and Hungarian Paprika, and I never would have thought that a traditionally flavoured chocolate could surpass my taste for the exotic but I was very wrong. In comparison to other excellent traditional choclatiers with premium quality truffles XOX surpasses them for two reasons, freshness and price. Every other great chocolatier knows their skill and charges like they know it and then double that, but XOX is unbelievably well priced. Gorce even goes so far as to throw in complementary tasters on small orders like $20 which in the store will get you 4o truffles. Secondly the truffles are just so fresh and so tasty that I still truly believe they are the best I’ve had. Maybe it was being able to meet Gorce or maybe there’s some other secret magic in the truffles but after just one visit I am completely sure that XOX is the best chocolate I’ve ever eaten.