What is a Truffle?

Photo of chocolates from La Bottega del Cioccolato

I lived and studied in Florence, Italy for four months in early 2007. In my time abroad I worked in a chocolate shop. No, not a chocolate factory, but a small, boutique chocolate shop called La Bottega del Cioccolato. In my time at La Bottega I chopped, covered, packaged, baked, and sorted all types of chocolate products. I find it interesting that a year after my experience in Tuscany I find myself asking the question: what is a truffle?

I recently received a gift with these hard chocolates resembling sea shells. Inside they were filled with a raspberry-caramel cream. What threw me off was the packaging that said "royal raspberry caramel: TRUFFLES." But wait, aren't truffles supposed to be round, soft, and covered in cocoa powder? I decided to do some investigation to clear up this chocolate misunderstanding.


Apparently traditional chocolate truffles are made with a chocolate ganache center and rolled in cocoa powder. This chocolate confection is named after the truffle fungus because when they are harvested, they come out of the ground in a similar spherical shape, covered in earth which the cocoa powder is meant to imitate.This is the sort of chocolate that I associate with truffles, and that's why I didn't understand how something that looks like it came out of a Whitman Sampler can be called such a thing.

In my research I found that the definition of a truffle is not so narrow as my imagination pictures them to be. Apparently, truffles can vary in their contents and coatings and not resemble one another at all. Some have hard exteriors, others are coated in coconut shavings, and some have unique fillings.

Upon reflection, in my time at the chocolate shop I made and tasted many a truffle, but I didn't realize what they were because they were cast in molds, and were hard shelled. However, the truffles that I did taste were most definitely not your stereotypical truffle. Some were filled with white chocolate and szechuan white pepper, or some with the typical Italian digestivo Grappa. My reaction in trying that one was "troppo forte."

So now I have my mystery solved. Truffles began as imitations of fungus. Appetizing, I know. And have evolved to incorporate all sorts of flavors, fillings, and shapes. Well, that certainly takes the hot air out of my argument. However, I don't feel that I will ever recognize those hard-shelled impostors as truffles. Stick with traditio. Give me my fungus chocolate.