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Photography weblog
December 5th, 2007
   
A couple years ago while shooting a job in the Badlands for Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine I had the pleasure of photographing Mary “Chip” Tautkus of Chubby Chipmunk Chocolates in Deadwood, SD . It’s a chocolate oasis in a unique part of the US.
The writer of the story, Panio Gianopoulos had come across her little store while looking around Deadwood for interesting things to experience and write about. The next day, I went by with him and photographed some of Chips amazing truffles and also did a portrait of Chip. It was a great experience and we both left with a full stomach. If you’re ever in that part of the world, you should stop in and say hi to Chip who will probably be there working hard on new truffle flavors.
Deadwood truffles to die for
By Mary Garrigan
Chocolatier Chip Tautkus, the owner of the Chubby Chipmunk Hand-dipped Chocolates shop in Deadwood, is passionate about her truffles. She even signs her e-mail messages “Confectionately yours.”
Tautkus and her truffles were recently featured in the June issue of the food magazine Everyday with Rachel Ray. The national publicity is having the desired result. Calls for orders and walk-in traffic have increased dramatically, Tautkus said.
“Since the magazine article, I cannot believe how busy I have become,” she said. “I have had to hire more help and expand my work area.”
But no matter how busy she gets, Tautkus promises that her homemade, hand-dipped truffles will never, ever be mass produced.
“The format for my truffles will never change though. Good pure ingredients. No molds, all hand made and hand-dipped.”
As she likes to say about her product: “We don’t skinnyndip; we chubby dunk. It’s no ‘truffle’ at all.”
Her mission, she says, is to make a chocolate so good people will sway and sigh at first bite. Tautkus sent us a sampling of 12 different flavors of truffles recently, and my co-workers and I can honestly say, “Mission accomplished.”
We swayed. We sighed. We swooned.
The truffles are delicious. They come in many of the classic flavors, and a lot of unusual combinations with fun names that link them to Deadwood and the Black Hills.
The food writer from Rachael Ray’s magazine thought so, too. He stood in one spot for more than hour, sampling almost every one of the Chubby Chipmunk truffles.
Sampling is encouraged by Tautkus, who is on a crusade to bring good chocolate to the masses.
“I tell people, ‘If you need a chocolate fix and are waiting for payday at least come in and get a sample, those are always free.’”
Her truffles at about $23 per pound, seem worth every penny to me.
The Chubby Chipmunk is located at 420 Cliff St. in Deadwood. The truffles can be ordered by phone at 722-2447 or go to www.chubbychipmunk.net to have them shipped anywhere.
“So many people have never experienced real chocolate and are amazed at the difference between mine and a store bought one,” Tautkus said. “In this day and age of fast food and expensive luxuries that many cannot afford, my idea is to show people how a small indulgence of good chocolate can brighten any day and make the consumer feel like a king or queen.”
I agree with Tautkus. I deserve a decadent indulgence from time to time.
Chocolate Nirvana
Chocolate Nirvana February 12, 2009
Just after turning right towards Deadwood, South Dakota on my meandering Tour of the West, I see a sign, "Chocolates & Ice Cream". An old gas-station-turned-grocery-store- turned-whatever over the years, there’s a large, whimsical statue of a Chipmunk guarding the screen-doored entrance. Intrigued, I pull over, get out, and walk to the door to see a scrawled note "closed Monday for nut gathering." Intensely disappointed, my plan was to quickly tour Deadwood and head North towards Cody, Wyoming as it was only 3:00 in the afternoon.
Like any addict, the chocolate shop took up residence in my thoughts and my brain began to pander and plot as I caught a glimpse of Deadwood around the corner. Firmly believing I chose to stay the night in Deadwood for Deadwood, every time I see a box of those chocolates, my commitment to that belief wavers. Deadwood was undisputedly memorable regardless of my feckless attempt to justify my actions.
Here’s the story of my actual encounter with The Chubby Chipmunk. The establishment is incendiary, the story idyllic, like my memories. And it was work to get this to read for you in a way that will convey my experience accurately. No ordinary words would do. I hope you enjoy it! P.S. There’s a glossary at the bottom (in the order of word usage). Isn’t the English language wonderful?!
Driving there I’m overcome with a sense of portentousness. I arrive fixated, obsessed really with only one thing - to dulcify my addiction. Well before I get the screen door open my nostrils widen, intent on the pursuit of a chocolate high. Sensing the anodyne for my road dog weariness within, with a hand on the handle and a twist of the wrist, I’m inside. The shop is redolent with the lustiness of ingredients reserved for royalty in days past - chocolate, sugar, butter, nuts, all of the finest quality. With a cozy sitting area on the left to encourage the instant enjoyment of their salubrious ware, the counter on the right is laden with tall, dark, exquisite, yes, scintillating truffles. Taking it all in, instantly I know I’m in for a sybaritic experience.
It took on a fantastical, dreamy quality. Time stopped. I had no thoughts of writing about this discovery later; no thoughts of the convoluted word freefall I’d later work so hard to produce because my memories of it would make me maudlin (and there’s only one thing to do when maudlin - write). Nothing went through my mind other than the in-the-moment, fully engaged, sensory overload I was smack in the middle of. I was Alice in Wonderland, or the child who opened their eyes to find they were standing in the middle of FAO Schwartz at Christmas.
The front of the shop is lit from only the light of the front door and a few well placed, ambiance inducing lamps. But the shop’s counter of chocolates is backlit by a window in the kitchen, directly to the back, left of the counter. The rays of the morning sun spread like gossamer over the display counter and its contents, over the cookie sheets I can see cradling naked, dark, hand formed ganache centers, over the lady’s face who appears from the kitchen to help me. She’s beautiful. The truffles are gorgeous. Some appear to have a nacreous glow which later in my recovered state I saw was an actual coating, not attributed solely to my nimbus covered eyeballs. I digress. Back to gorgeous. The truffles are gorgeous. Like all gorgeous objects, you want to touch them. Well I can’t touch them yet, but I can take pleasure in watching her touch them. And so I begin ordering, watching her carefully pluck each one as she adds them to one box after another. She appears to enjoy the haptic experience more than she should.
At three five boxes, I stop. Pay. Congratulate myself with the sagacity of my decision to spend the night in Deadwood, while gingerly carrying my treasure to the truck. Then with deliberation incompatible with my impassioned state, I indulge my tactile desires by removing two of the truffles from the box and lovingly and appreciatively inspect them. Eating one is beyond my capacity at this moment. My addiction sated, I store them away for the forthcoming ride into Cody, crawl back through the rabbit hole, and drive.
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Glossary
Incendiary: provocative, stirring, likely to catch fire
Feckless: weak, ineffective
Portentousness: momentous, prodigious
Dulcify: to make agreeable, soothe, to sweeten
Anodyne: something that soothes, calms, comforts; a drug that allays pain
Redolent: exuding fragrance, aromatic, evocative
Salubrious: favorable to or promoting health or well being
Scintillating: stimulating; to emit sparks
Sybaritic: self indulgently sensuous, given to or devoted to pleasure
Maudlin: tearfully emotional, foolishly & effusively sentimental
Gossamer: light, delicate, (the gossamer of youth’s dreams)
Ganache: a sweet, creamy, dark chocolate mixture
Nacreous: mother-of-pearl sheen
Nimbus: a cloud or atmosphere (as of romance) about a person or thing
Haptic: relating to or based on the sense of touch
Sagacious: keen in sense perception, of sound and farsighted judgment - noun: sagacity
The Chubby Chipmunk
The most recent edition of Every Day with Rachael Ray included an article about a culinary tour through the Badlands and areas around Rapid City in South Dakota. It was a great article, well-written and kinda quirky. As I read it, I thought I was reading one of my other favorite magazines - Budget Travel.
It is amazing how one little mention in a popular magazine can give such great exposure to a small business. Such is the case at the Chubby Chipmunk chocolate shop in Deadwood. The author of the article said the truffles were so "obscenely good -- and so rich it makes my face ache." According to the Black Hills Pioneer, the owner of the store was skeptical at first:
Tautkus said she nearly didn't trust the writer when he first stopped in, as it seemed pretty incredible that someone from Rachael Ray's crew would take an interest in her shop.
But she's sure glad he did. As Gianopoulos wrapped up his story by describing his enjoyment of another box of truffles he took with him when he left Chubby Chipmunk. It sounds like Tautkus has made a new friend.
Tautkus has already had a call from Atlanta from a woman who wanted chocolate for her wedding. That sort of national attention seems more likely now that Food Network and Rachael Ray fans know more about the quality of her operation.
Makes you want to go eat a truffle, doesn't it?
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Black Hills Bounty
All the gold in the Black Hills doesn't glitter.
By Shawn Werner
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Travelers and residents often speak of the elements that make the Black Hills so distinct – the landscape, the people, the history. Then there are the abstract emotions and feelings that give the whole Black Hills an almost spiritual quality, an abstract attribute that gives some people that feeling that when they’re here, they’re at the center of the universe.
With Christmas shortly around the corner, Deadwood Magazine took up the task of discovering the best tangible trifles that capture that distinctive Black Hills spirit. This proved to have some unforeseen consequences - such as ingesting a few too many Chubby Chipmunk truffles when performing our "research." Upon recovering, we managed to put together a rounded gift guide that represents the charm of the Black Hills.
Chubby Chipmunk
1 lb. Assorted Box - $24
chubbychipmunk.net
605.722.2447
Tucked away on the edge of Deadwood lies an unassuming white building – unassuming, that is, except for the large formally-dressed chipmunk standing out front holding what appears to be an acorn. Closer inspection reveals it to be not an acorn at all, but a large piece of chocolate. If this doesn’t pique interest enough to merit stopping in, the sweet smells oozing from the building certainly will.
A step inside is an olfactory treat, and the walls are adorned with pictures of celebrities who have had the pleasure of biting into a Chubby Chipmunk truffle. Chocolate is known to contain several chemicals that produce a neurotransmitter called serotonin, which can cause feelings of elation, even ecstasy. It’s no wonder then that people who walk into Chubby Chipmunk seem to exit on a cloud. Mary "Chip" Tautkus, Chubby Chipmunk founder and self-made chocolatier, is a testament to this effect. She loves to share the story of how Chubby Chipmunk came to be.
"I love chocolate. I had read about truffle making years ago and decided to try it. Since then my life has been a quest to perfect the truffle," she says.
So what is a truffle exactly? At the basest level, truffles have a center of ganache, a mixture of chocolate, milk, butter, or heavy cream, which is then covered with more chocolate or cocoa powder. All of Chubby’s truffles are handmade in small batches.
"You have to use good, quality chocolate," Tautkus warns. "I get a lot of my chocolate from Europe. Belgian, French and Dutch are my main chocolates, and I must have researched every kind by now. I blend different combinations to get the exact flavor I want. Commercial candy bars are full of extra sugar, preservatives and other stuff which are basically junk. My chocolates have real butter and real cream."
Tautkus makes over 50 varieties of truffles, besides other confections. Most of the flavors use common chocolate pairings – nuts, fruits and the like – but a few of her varieties are a little unusual.
"I came up with some bizarre flavors," she says. "I do some wine-infused variations, some tea-infused variations, I even have a truffle that has jalapeno peppers in it."
Chubby Chipmunk ships everywhere in the world and has filled orders in Germany, England, Canada, Iraq, Japan and India. What started as an experiment is quickly snowballing into an enterprise, much to Tautkus’s delight.
"It’s definitely growing, I’m not sure just where yet. I want to grow it as sanely as possible. I didn’t expect it to get where it is now, but I’ve had a fun ride and I have no intention of stopping."
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