Gothic Weekend collection
^
One stormy summer weekend in 1816, a group of English expatriates stayed at a Swiss villa on the shores of Lake Geneva. Fueled by wine and opium, they devised an entertainment for themselves — a competition to write the best ghost story. Ironically, it was the two writers of the group, Percy Bysse Shelley and Lord Byron, who fell short at the task. But 19-year-old Mary Godwin (later to become Mary Shelley) began her classic horror tale Frankenstein that weekend, and Byron’s physician, Dr. John Polidori, penned the beginnings of what would become The Vampyre, credited as the first modern vampire story.
^
The Gothic Weekend collection offers two each of the following truffles, as a tribute to crazy geniuses and their creative spark …
^
Percy Shelley: A radical, an athiest and a skeptic, “Mad Shelley” led an unconventional life, died far too young, and left a body of work that went unappreciated for a generation after his death. Our Shelley truffle is an effete blend of white chocolate, lemon and almonds, dipped in dark chocolate for a bit of masculine bite.
^
Lord Byron: Described by a lover as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Byron’s life was considered scandalous due to a failed marriage and many high profile affairs, including one with his own half-sister. The flavor of decadence is evoked in the Byron truffle, with tawny port and a hint of smoke infusing super-dark chocolate.
^
Dr. John Polidori: The son of Italian immigrants, Polidori was an accomplished physician and a depressive personality, plagued by debt and not even credited with writing The Vampyre, which was published without his permission and attributed to Byron. We note Polidori’s ancestry by lacing dark ganache with Amaretto and pistachios, for a more uplifting experience.
^
Mary Godwin: Created from scavenged parts and reanimated with a jolt of electricity, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster was not the work of beauty he had imagined but, instead, “a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” We attempt a more delicious experiment, taking our combination dark/milk ganache and adding currants, pecans and candied orange peel, then bringing it to life with a bracing bolt of white rum.
^
