Dark delights await at Queen Anne's new Chocolopolis

Couture chocolate has arrived on Queen Anne, and you'll find it at newly opened chocolate shop Chocolopolis, the ultimate destination for Seattle chocolate connoisseurs.

Don't expect to find gooey marshmallow, tacky peanuts or messy nougats at this store. As I learned last week at an open house for the media, when it comes to fancy-pants cacao, it's all about dark chocolate.

So while Chocolopolis' selection of designer truffles includes flavors like bananas Foster and Cabernet caramel, the focus is the 200 varieties of straight-up dark chocolate bars (compared to a meager 18 varieties of milk-chocolate bars and three kinds of white-chocolate bars).

Chocolopolis chocolates are the kind you can't find easily in Seattle -- or anywhere. For example, Amedei Chocolate, based in Tuscany, screens potential vendors through an application process. "They liked the educational aspect to what we're doing here, that's why they decided to participate," says owner Lauren Adler.

The store is smartly laid out to provide a quick education on the finer points of chocolate. Cacao from different regions has different defining characteristics. For instance, did you know that cacao from Ecuador features flowery and fruity notes, whereas Indonesian varietals tend to be smoky and dark? Me, neither.

But I could taste the difference. At the press event, they passed out mini Hershey bars to compare to the high-end samples. I'm no chocolate snob (or so I thought), but on the heels of the Valrhona sample, the Hershey bar tasted like a waxy lump of brown lard that was so flavorless I felt sorry for it.

While many of the chocolates are imported, Chocolopolis also carries products from small local and national chocolatiers, such as truffles from Fremont confectioner Theo Chocolate, as well as artisan chocolates from Christopher Elbow, for about $2 a piece. "We hope to always feature new small chocolate makers," Adler says.

For those of us who count our luxury expenditures with caution, making a case for Chocolopolis is easy. Nineteen dollars and ninety-five cents won't buy you even a sleeve of couture apparel, but it will score you an entire special-edition, hand-numbered Amedei bar -- quite possibly the most decadent and delicious candy bar you'll ever experience.

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