There are many things you expect when you go to Alaska, images that crowd your drifter’s mind. The name itself is an imagination fertilizer. Hear it and the wildest fantasies are guaranteed to grow instantly in your blooming spirit, like mushrooms under the first ray of sun after an autumn storm. One thing I did not expect to find in Alaska however, was chocolate. And yet now, along with his Majesty Denali, the almighty Grizzly bears, rugged Fairbanks, phantasmagoric aurora borealis, and other burgeoning images, my overpopulated mind permanently conjures the taste of cacao every time the 49th State comes up. Such begins our Alaskan journey, in Anchorage, with a cannabis infused chai tea and the most ridiculously delicious chocolates I’ve ever eaten. I promise my assessment of the latter has (almost) nothing to do with my consuming the former. A shockingly inspiring experience altogether.

Flashback. Our did trip started a bit earlier. Out of Anchorage airport, we went straight to the closest Wal Mart to purchase Grizzly repellant gear, on the advice of a wild helicopter pilot named Salomon Loop, but that’s another story. Properly equipped with “Counter Assault Deterrent Spray” (you thought I was kiddin right?), we drive ten more minutes to the Captain Cook hotel on the North-East shore of the city, a stone throw away from the Knik Arm of the estuary on which it is built.

Something in the air was intoxicating already and it may have been the sudden outburst of all of my synapses involved in decades of fantasizing this land, but I was walking a few inches above the ground as soon as we settled in nice and cozy restaurant near the fireplace. After dinner, satiated and in a drift-ready-state-of-mind, we… hum… stumble upon a nice store front bearing the following logo:

Our curiosity aroused by this graphic design delight, we penetrate into the establishment only to find out that it is, Oh shocking surprise(!), a cannabis dispensary. We are morally appalled (it is a schedule 1 drug after all, along Heroin and Bath Salts – not even making this up) but still proceed to survey their entire menu (for… research purposes). Their edible collection is not very impressive, but what it lacks in variety it makes up in originality. We zero-in on a bottle of Chai Tea, infused with 20mg of THC from the above mentioned psychedelic plant. In the name of science and research, we drink the beverage which turns out to be delicious.

We then walk the city. Unimpressive on the surface it somehow manages to capture my attention in a very deep way as it whispers in my ear in Athabaskan language and the large, rough, leathered brown hand of an older Koyukon man reaches out, palms my spirit as a flash of liquid sorrow floods me with everything that is beautiful and tragic about this land. And I’m not even high yet. Or a just little… But that’s beside the point. We drift downtown until we lose track of time.

Back to the hotel we wander aimlessly in deserted corridors of the first floor between the restaurants and the lobby. There are stores of all sorts (souvenir, jewelry etc.), most of them closed. Until… one door opens, we go through a portal into another dimension and find ourselves in what is at first glance, a chocolate shop. The THC induced blur that takes away the edges of the space time continuum is rising and finds a spiritual home in this cool and quiet room. A short, stern and elegant man stands behind the counter, wearing thin wire-frame glasses and white gloves, delicately manipulating chocolates, arranging a basic but carefully designed white box. He acknowledges our presence by turning his head towards us as the silvery sliver of a “welcome” comes out of his unmoving and he performs the slightest bow. I learnt that day that greatness needs not be sold to you. Our host is discreet and confident. He knows he doesn’t need to hustle, he has seen what is about to happened before (maybe not exactly like this). There is none of the haughtiness, the arrogance that drips from luxury car salesmen, only a form of meditative glow, a palpable love for his product.

“Product”. The word is short lived. As soon as my eyes fall on the display behind the most spotless glass I’ve ever seen, I fall into a galactic abyss. Before my eyes universes come alive, minuscule planets, miniature suns, dwarf galaxies, infinitesimal milky-ways, baby Northern lights, pocket-sized constellations, microscopic stars… I am stricken, rocked really, by the beauty of those… objects that I no longer see as candies. There is something magnetic in their apparent smoothness that hypnotizes me. I want to hold them and caress them. They look like quasi-liquid orbs about to dissolve into clouds of sparkles at any time. Swirls of ultramarine gold, of emerald ruby, ghostly sprinkles of crimson on volcanic orange, spirals of sakura pink moves me to my core. These are handmade objects of arts that go far, far beyond their purpose.

We ask our host about the master behind those creations. She is Chef Ingrid (http://www.sweetchaletalaska.com/about-chef-ingrid.html), and she paints the half sphere shells of every single galactic delight by hand. To that extent each and every piece is absolutely unique. All the ganache flavors inside are also original creations. They all come with a shell made of either dark, milk or white chocolate. We decide to try one of each dark chocolate. The man smiles knowingly and very carefully composes the large box in the single motion of fluid focus and tangible respect that one can see in Japanese craftsmen such as sushi chef or calligraphy teachers. My heartrate accelerates as I carefully open it, touch the tiny cosmos, smoother even that I could have imagined and before I get lost in the contemplation of finally put it in my mouth for the ultimate test. Because let’s face it, this whole scene would turn out to be pretty silly if I told you “mmmhhh, nothing like Hersey’s anyway”.

The experience burst to its full extent when the shell breaks and the ganache floods your mouth with surreal flavors. I try them all! Frantically. One by one: caramelized pear with saffron, Yuzu, Passion Fruit, Lime and Yogurt, Orange Grand Marnier and the ultimate mouthgasm, the climax of the whole experience: Salted Butter Caramel followed by Cherry Confit & Balsamic Vinegar!!! Yes! You read correctly and it is as delicious as it sounds (if you think it sounds gross, fuck off, I’ll send you a Snikers). Needless to say, by the time I had reached the end of the corridor, those chocolates were gone, I was as high as the stratosphere and I was badly craving more of those galactic cacao gems. So we turned back and made it to the store before it was closed for the night.

The man in white gloves looked at me and even he could not contain his disbelief: “most customers usually come back… but never that fast!”.

Notes:

1- for the record and to do Chef Ingrid justice: I went back the following day, perfectly sober and had the same powerful extra-terrestrial experience.

2- There are other creations that are also entirely worth the trip to Alaska such as the chocolate covered orange peels Check out http://www.sweetchaletalaska.com/home.html