The Mast Brothers Salted Caramel Bonbon

Wandering around Williamsburg last week, my nose (or "schnozz," if you prefer) led me down a street to a place that looked like a warehouse. The warehouse was actually home to Mast Brothers chocolate, one of the most revered chocolate companies in the country. You may recognize their chocolate bars as the ones with wrapping so pretty, you want to wallpaper your house with them. Also their bars are the ones so expensive, you won't be able to put your children through college if you buy one. Turns out all their chocolate is made right here in this spot where I was standing. Naturally, I went inside.

Here's what I saw:

It was a very spacious place and it had the most intoxicating smell, much like a coffee shop often has an intoxicating smell of coffee only this smell was the smell of chocolate and there wasn't a line of laptop wielding bloggers searching for a table. There are no tables except the one you see in that picture and that's not for sitting.

But there are bonbons. I saw them in the glass case and when the woman behind the glass case saw me looking at them she said, "Can I help you?" and I said, "Yes, one salted caramel bonbon, please." I handed her two dollars and she took that over to the register on the other side of the room which makes me think I wasn't supposed to hand her cash, I was just supposed to get the bonbon from her and bring it to the cash register side of the room. Anyway, faux pas aside, I was glad to have a bonbon to eat on the street. Here it is outside in my hand.

The experience of eating it lasted 0.42 seconds. If I were a math wizard, I could calculate how much money that would be for a second of eating pleasure... I'm thinking $4 a second. Which means a minute of eating bonbons would be $240.

But I enjoyed that bonbon which had a bitter exterior and a salty, creamy interior. It definitely wasn't too sweet which is of a piece with other Mast Brothers chocolate I've tried.

So if you're wandering around Williamsburg and you smell something good, chances are it's Mast Brothers chocolate. Go in and have a bonbon. I did and $2 lighter and 1 bonbon heavier, I have no regrets.