Dolly Mama: Chocolatier Extraordinaire

Dolly Mama (get it?) thought long about the name she chose for her business. But the final choice is mellifluous and memorable, almost as memorable as her chocolate truffles. You can find them currently at the Durham Farmer's Market.

Her chocolate is all handmade, each one a work of art. She enrobes the ganache by rolling it in her hand. Each one. "By rolling them in my hand, I get a really thin, crisp shell with nice silken ganache inside," Dolly says. She gets her cream from local dairies and is inspired by the fruits and vegetables at the farmer's market.

A few of the truffles are made with a mold. She has a Buddha mold about the size of your thumb and she hides Farmer's Market finds in its belly.

"My husband is a sculptor. He'd love to get into mold making. And I think there must be a way to get local sculptors involved," she says. "They have to be small, but for art pieces they can be bigger."

Dolly Mama learned to bartend when she was nineteen and has expanded her wine palate through study in books and by taking classes. She now works with wine-expert Brandon Carr at Four Square restaurant and learns more from him.

"When I started out, they would ask me 'What are you picking up?' and I'd say, 'Grape.' But over time I could pick up other notes. The experience has taught me to be able to relax and to taste what's there. My wine palate has created a template of understanding that's the way to taste," Dolly says.

Her expanded wine palate has allowed her to appreciate to subtleties and complexities in chocolate.

(Read about Dolly's chocolate sources and the notes found in each one in the next page. And find out a little more about the woman who's a bartender and chocolatier.)

"There are notes of nuts, tropical flowers, coconut, and coffee in chocolates. There are so many variates," Dolly says. For example, there's a "single origin Colombian with notes of hazelnut and from the terroir. There are so many genetic varieties. There's so much out there. It's bottomless. Chocolate has the same kind of flavor profile as wine."

The sources of her chocolates each have their own flavor profile. She gets her white chocolate, "the best there is and hard to get," from El Rey in Venezuela.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, in San Francisco, "has a proprietary blend, a fermented, almost a sour taste," she says.

Guittard Chocolate Company, also in San Francisco, has the varietals Criollo ("the best chocolate on the planet"), Forestero ("from Africa and most used in American-made chocolates, less expensive"), and Trinitario, out of Trinidad.

And Schokinag German Chocolate, out of Germany.

Dolly first realized that chocolate was "much more than food" when she discovered in Santa Fe the chocolatier Hayward Simoneaux, one of the country's best artisnal chocolatiers and who owns Todos Santos. She begged him to teach her, but he was unwilling.

Now one of her goals is to study with him or in France. And to open her own small shop. With her degree in marine science, Dolly will dive in the Caribbean and explore the cacao in the area. In the meantime, you can find Dolly Mama at the Durham Farmer's Market, Saturdays.