Everyone wants a slice of the sea salt chocolate market nowadays.  The Seattle Chocolate Company, otherwise known as Seattle Chocolates, is trying to carve its slice with its San Juan Sea Salt.  Just like the company's mediocre Pike Place Espresso bar I reviewed earlier, the Seattle Chocolate Company employs something local about the Seattle area in the name of this bar. In this case, the name of San Juan Island, 90 km north of Seattle, is usurped to name this American chocolate bar.

Does the sea salt in this bar actually come from off San Juan Island?  I doubt it.   Seattle Chocolates would have shouted they were using local Seattle sea salt if this were the situation.  This sea salt coming from San Juan is about as likely as the Turkish coffee in the Pike Place Espresso coming from the Pike Place Market. 

Seattle Chocolates is an average chocolate company posing as a premium producer of truffle bars, and that's probably an easier thing to pull off in Washington than, say, New York.   I've seen a lot of this stripe since post 2000.  Not every new company can be manufacturing the finest products.  Seattle Chocolates' bars are all truffle bars.  There's a smoothness to them but the cocoa taste isn't rich.   The Pike Place Espresso bar was 53%, but didn't taste like it.  I'm not saying that flatteringly.

The ingredient list betrays the massive corner cutting of the European chocolate Seattle Chocolates imports, and they go down the same cheating road with this San Juan Sea Salt as Ghirardelli did with their Sea Salt Soiree.   Were the sea salted chocolate so flavorful on its own, no other fillings but sea salt would have been used.  Ghirardelli distracts the taste buds with slow-roasted almonds.  Seattle Chocolates uses toffee.   I am sure it's not even premium toffee at that.  Corn syrup is used instead of pure cane sugar. Cheaper milk chocolate is used over dark chocolate.

The bar is nicely packaged and sports a cool name.  If only you could judge a book by its cover.  The cover on this one is the best part.