MUKILTEO – Hidden away in a little brick building and nestled behind a couple of trees is a sweet Mukilteo treasure that, once visited, is hard to banish from your taste buds’ memory.
If you’re lucky, you’ll step through the door of Rose Hill Chocolate Co. at 700 Third St. when Jack Bateman is working.
As the chocolatier listens to music by Simon and Garfunkel, he gets ready to pour smooth, thick, molten chocolate into truffle shells. The sweet smell of the rich, creamy mass might drift from the back of the store and guide any wanton nostril to the counter.
Bateman and his wife, Barbara Fariss-Bateman, opened the company five years ago and have built a successful small business that continues to grow, with customers who come back for more.
“When we first opened, we were buying and selling other people’s chocolate,” Bateman said.
The couple didn’t like the quality and decided they could do better.
“Which resulted in some spectacular failures,” Bateman said.
Previously a “Mr. Mom” and a merchant seaman, Bateman decided to take a crash course at the Barry Callebaut Institute in Montreal, Quebec. After he completed the classes, the Batemans began to develop their own chocolate recipes.
“They are all Barbara’s creations,” Bateman said.
Fariss-Bateman reads recipes for pleasure. When it came to making truffle recipes, she learned which formula worked and added exotic combinations she thought sounded good.
Some of her unique creations include ingredients such as cinnamon and chili pepper, jasmine bouquet with a jasmine tea center, and rosewater chocolate, a south Indian flavor used in desserts.
“I haven’t seen them anywhere else,” Fariss-Bateman said.
She believes the chocolate company has been successful because its personal touch and the quality of its product have earned it loyal customers.
Before opening the business, the couple first looked into running a bakery. When they crunched the numbers, it wasn’t what they wanted.
“Frankly, it scared us,” Bateman said.
They knew there were chocolate shops in La Conner, Issaquah and Seattle, but none in the immediate area.
The couple had a business plan. They were almost right on the money the first year, Bateman said.
The company experienced steady growth. One of the best things the couple did was join an international confectioners group, Bateman said.
In 2004, Bateman made 32,578 truffles with flavors such as Mukilteo Mocha, butter rum and lemon creme.
Other delights in the store include teas, Mukilteo coffee and Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream. The Batemans try to include local brands as much as they can.
“Our business is local,” Bateman said.
Skip Kidd, owner of Soundview Tax Services in Mukilteo and a longtime customer, said he was excited to hear that a chocolate company was opening in the area.
“This stuff is good. Real good,” Kidd said. “Very rich, but good.”
He buys chocolates or chocolate bars for clients and mails some truffles to Canada, where the recipient says he only gets a couple and his wife gets the rest.
Kidd’s favorite truffle flavor is a popular one at the chocolate company.
“I would have to say the raspberry,” Kidd said. “I prefer dark chocolate.”
His 92-year-old mother in New York has to hide the ones Kidd mails to her to keep them from being eaten by a friend.
The shop is more of an adult candy store, Bateman said.
Milk chocolate is the preference of about 78 percent of Americans, according to statistics. At Rose Hill Chocolate Co., more dark chocolate is sold.
Bateman uses Swiss milk chocolate, Belgian dark chocolate and Venezuelan white chocolate to make his truffles, which have a traditional, stiff center. His favorite is the Bangalore spice with cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices. It’s a stark contrast to the lavender cheesecake, another popular truffle.
On the fudge front, the Batemans sell their own recipes. Chocolate fudge is the best seller, followed by chocolate walnut and peanut butter chocolate.
When the store first opened in 2000, a woman came in, looked around the tiny shop and announced that Bateman was a menace to the community. She stormed out.
“Never to return,” Bateman said.
Perhaps it was because it was Lent. Bateman said other people had mentioned that they had given up chocolate for Lent, a period of fasting and penitence before Easter.
“Usually if they come in grumpy, they leave smiling,” Bateman said.
Reporter Christina Harper: 425-339-3491 or harper@heraldnet.com.
Dan Bates / The Herald
Rose Hill Chocolate Co. features 27 kinds of chocolate truffles.
Rose Hill Chocolate owner Jack Bateman stirs chocolate truffle filling until it reaches the right consistency. Among Bateman’s specialty items are chocolate airplanes for the Boeing Co.
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