I was going to show all of them. The Numa name was synonymous with chocolate in Pacific Cove—and the rest of the paranormal world—and that was not about to stop now.
Grace knocked on the door ten minutes later and I let her in, immediately stopping to take the large cloth bag out of her hands.
“Oof, this weighs a ton,” I said, my legs buckling under the weight. “How on earth did you get it all the way over here?”
“Enchanted broom,” Grace said with a smile. “One of the young wizards at the broom shop did the spell for me. All I have to do is loop the bag over the handle of the broom, and it’s like it doesn’t weigh a thing.”
“That’s clever,” I smiled as I motioned for Grace to come into the house. “Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it.”
“Not to worry. I see a lot of your mother in you. That same determination, that same work ethic that insists on getting everything right.”
I nodded. “We are similar that way. I’ve never been the smartest witch, but I work hard.”
“I can see that. Now, because I expect you’ll be wanting to get started on your new business right away, tonight I’m going to show you how to make truffles. They’re incredibly simple, by chocolate standards, and they taste incredible.”
“Awesome,” I grinned. When I was a kid, I loved going into the factory and sneaking away some of the champagne truffles before they got put into the boxes. The alcohol made me feel like a real grown witch, and of course, while I always thought I was being subtle and that the employees never noticed me, in hindsight I was probably not a master criminal and they just turned a blind eye to my naughtiness. I supposed there were worse ways ten-year-old witches could get into trouble.
“Now, have you thought about what fillings you want for your chocolates?”
I shook my head. “No, not yet.”
“Alright. If I were you, I would start with three different potions for different effects. I’ll get ready in the kitchen while you come up with those ideas.”
I nodded and sat down at the dining table while Grace began unloading her giant bag full of things. She had some chocolate, some cream, a large mortar and pestle, and a few smaller cauldrons. I made a mental note to ask her where she got all these things from.
But that wasn’t the focus right now; I had to figure out what kind of magic I wanted to add to my truffles. Straightaway, I thought about how I wanted to feel when I ate chocolate. Chocolate was a guilty pleasure, the sort of thing that had a ton of calories, but that was so worth it. Chocolate was a way to escape from the real world.
Happiness. That was what chocolate gave me. A little pinch of happiness. Adding some magic to do the same thing would definitely be welcome, so I wrote the word down in my notebook. Now I only needed two more flavors.
I figured an energy-boosting flavor would also be a good idea. After all, people ate chocolate as a snack when they were feeling peckish and needed a bit of a sugar rush, right? I jotted down “energy jolt” in my notebook and tried to come up with a third flavor.
Eventually, I decided I wanted a flavor that would give people a nice sense of calm, like the feeling one got sitting on the beach and looking out over the ocean. After all, this was Pacific Cove. We were right on the ocean, and I wanted to capture that feeling in a chocolate.
I wrote down my three flavors and made my way over to where Grace had set up everything she needed.
“Good,” she nodded when I told her what I’d chosen. “I’ll teach you how to make the potions for those three ingredients first.”
“Are they the same sorts of potions as we made at the Academy?” I asked.
“Sort of. The problem with standard potions is that they’re designed to be drunk by themselves. Therefore, they’re designed to have a certain taste to them. The problem is, when we make potions that have to be mixed with another type of food, we don’t want the taste of the potion to make its way into the chocolates. Otherwise, the chocolates would taste like the potions, and no one wants that. If you’re going to add flavor to your chocolate, it needs to be from ingredients like fresh orange zest, champagne, or hazelnuts, and not from a potion. So the recipes we use are altered slightly so as to minimize their taste.”
“Ok,” I nodded, flipping open a new page of my notebook. I figured I could write down all the recipes I was going to need to make these chocolates.
“Now, the first potion you’re going to make is the happiness one,” Grace said. “You can make it with the normal ingredients you’ll find in any magical home: one piece of dried bark, three red rose petals, two sprigs of fresh grass, and a half cup of rainwater.”
I nodded and grabbed the ingredients, bringing them back to the table. I darted outside to grab a half cup of rainwater from the container we kept in the backyard just for that purpose—every magical home had one—and when I came back, Grace showed me the order in which to put them into the cauldron.
After following the instructions exactly—I had to stir the mixture eight times counterclockwise while repeating a spell over and over—the mixture suddenly went from looking like a small pile of weird stuff in some water to transforming into a smooth, velvety brown liquid that reminded me a lot of coffee. I loved watching a potion come together; it was a truly relaxing process.
“Good,” Grace nodded. “That looks like it’s ready to go into the chocolate. Now, it’s time to show you how to make the truffles themselves.”
This was definitely the more intimidating part. Potions, I could do. I had been making potions for years, since I was three years old. Chocolate, on the other hand, was definitely a brand-new experience.
“Truffles are made from ganache,” Grace explained. “You’re going to find that chocolate making is a very time-consuming process for a witch; we can’t use spells to speed things up. I mean, some do, of course. And it won’t ruin the chocolate completely. But doing things the natural way, without magic, allows everything to happen the way science designed it to, and it leads to a better-tasting chocolate.”
“Ok,” I nodded. I was absolutely ready to learn my family’s trade.
Chapter 17
“The base of a truffle is a ganache, which is made by pouring hot cream onto solid chocolate,” Grace explained. “If you’re adding flavoring to the ganache, as we’re doing here with the happiness potion, you need to add the potion to the chocolate first, before adding the hot cream. Adding the potion to the cream as you bring it to the boiling point will ruin the potion and dampen its effects.”
“Right,” I nodded as I scribbled down everything Grace was saying. Years of studying to be a Healer meant I now had a very effective shorthand writing style. “So what proportion of cream to chocolate are we looking at?”
“Every chocolate maker will have their own measurements,” Grace said. “And of course, while I will give you the quantities I use, I encourage you to play around with them a little bit. Test things out for yourself, and see what works for you and your new company. You may also find that depending on the potions you use and the amounts you put in, you may have to use more or less cream to keep the consistency between flavors.”
“Ok,” I nodded.
“I start with three cups of chocolate chips and one and a half cups of heavy cream,” Grace said. “With a potion like this one, which has a similar consistency to the cream, I remove half a cup of cream and add half a cup of potion to replace it.”
“Alright,” I nodded.
“Now, I want you to measure out three cups of chocolate chips—I have dark, milk, and white over there—and pour them into one of the cauldrons.”
I did as Grace asked, choosing the dark chocolate chips, since dark chocolate truffles have such a rich, creamy taste I just can’t resist, then reached over and grabbed the large glass bottle full of cream.
“Now I need to heat one cup of this?”
“That’s right,” Grace said. “Put it in another cauldron and heat it up slowly. As soon as you see tiny bubbles
beginning to form on the edges of the cream, take the cream off the heat, pour it over the chocolate, and whisk everything together until it becomes smooth. And don’t forget to add your potion to the chocolate, too.”
“Got it,” I said, nodding. I measured out the cream and poured it into a cauldron before waving my wand underneath the cauldron to start a low flame. Then I carefully measured exactly half a cup of the happiness potion and poured it on top of the chocolate. A few minutes later, the bubbles began forming on the cream, and I extinguished the flame before casting a quick spell that allowed me to use my wand to carry the hot metal cauldron and pour the cream inside of it over the chocolate and potion mixture.
Grabbing a whisk from the pile of utensils by the stove, I began stirring the mixture. It started off actually being a lot harder than I had thought it would be—as the chocolate melted, it felt like it was trying to resist the whisk—but after about twenty seconds of stirring, the chocolate finally melted enough that the mixture instead became smooth and silky, and I had to work hard to resist the urge to dip my finger into the cauldron and have a little bit of a taste.
“Good,” Grace nodded. “See that lovely texture? That’s exactly what you want. Now, when you’re making these for real, you’ll want to cover up the ganache and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours. But in the interest of saving time, and since these are just practice chocolates, I’m going to use a spell to cool the ganache down fully. Mars, cool this mixture, make it thicker.”
I gasped as the chocolate hardened right in front of me, the thick fluid going from a glue-like consistency to something that resembled heavy clay. I pressed a finger lightly into the chocolate and, sure enough, it was soft, but still hard enough that the chocolate held its shape.
“Perfect,” Grace nodded. “That’s the consistency you want from a ganache. Now, you need to scoop out little balls of chocolate and roll them between your hands before coating them in a light layer of cocoa powder.” She took out a small metal tin and poured a thin layer of cocoa on the counter while I grabbed a melon baller from a drawer and scooped out a small amount of the chocolate ganache. I began rolling it between my hands, and sure enough, the chocolate quickly molded into a nice, round ball, and I dropped it into the cocoa powder and rolled it around lightly until it was coated with a light dusting.
“There you go,” Grace said with a smile. “Now go ahead and eat it.”
I smiled as I popped the first truffle I had ever made into my mouth. It was funny; I had never thought of myself as a chocolate person, but this process made me extremely happy. There was something about it, the combination of precise measurement mixed with just enough individual artistry to make it something I absolutely loved.
I enjoyed studying to be a Healer, of course, but this was more than that. Even though I had just made one truffle, I knew that this, this was what I was meant to do with my life.
As soon as the truffle hit my tongue, the ganache began to melt. The light tang of the dark cocoa powder mingled with the sweetened chocolate in a perfect way, and I closed my eyes to savor the taste of the delicious treat. A moment later, I was hit with this wonderful feeling of euphoria, like I was on cloud nine. That had to be the potion. I opened my eyes, looked at Grace, and grinned.
“This is amazing.”
“The potion worked, then.”
“It did, but even without the potion, I love this so much.”
“Well, there you go. Now you know how to make your first batch of ganache for your business. Do you want to try the calming potion? It’s a little bit more difficult.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d love to,” I nodded. After all, Ashley and Andrea weren’t home yet, and I had to wait for them to arrive before the three of us could go visit our parents.
“Alright, let’s do it,” Grace said. “For this potion, you need the juice of three lemons, a feather from a crow, three sprigs of badger weed, and one tablespoon of blue carrot seeds.”
I nodded and began to gather the ingredients, stepping into the huge pantry my parents kept stocked with every ingredient a witch or wizard could possibly need for potions. We were almost out of badger weed, and I made a mental note to go out into the woods and find some more when I got a chance, but there were still three sprigs left in the container. I lined the ingredients up on the counter, pulled out a new cauldron, and looked at Grace for instructions.
“Now, you need to put the ingredients in the cauldron in alphabetical order. When you’ve done that, dip your wand into the center of the cauldron and do your best to feel as calm as possible. After one minute has passed, remove your wand, tap the outside of the cauldron three times, and the ingredients will transform into the potion you require.”
“Ok,” I nodded, writing the instructions down and committing them to memory. “What happens if you’re not calm enough when you dip your wand into the ingredients?”
Grace shrugged. “It depends on the emotions you’re feeling. Usually, all that happens is that the potion won’t create itself when you tap the cauldron. Don’t think about that, however. Focus on being as calm as you can.”
I nodded, but I had to admit, I was a bit nervous. I wasn’t exactly someone with a laid-back personality, and potions like these, where you had to feel a certain emotion, were definitely not my strong suit. Still, I was going to succeed. I had to be able to make this potion, for my business’s sake.
I set about putting the ingredients in the cauldron in alphabetical order, like Grace had said to do. I juiced the lemons, and when I was finally finished, I picked up my wand and took a deep breath, doing my best to relax.
“Calm down,” I whispered to myself as I stuck my wand into the center of the potion ingredients and did my best to relax. I was fairly certain I was actually managing to calm down as I pushed all of the emotions of the last few days down and tried to squeeze them into a little ball away somewhere else. I was calm, I told myself. I was calm, cool, and collected. I even closed my eyes to give myself the impression of relaxation.
Finally, after one minute had passed, I decided that was it. This was the moment of truth. Worst case scenario, the potion wouldn’t work. But I had been calm, and I had hopefully transferred that calm into the potion. I opened my eyes, took my wand out of the potion ingredients, and tapped it three times on the rim.
As soon as I did that, I looked inside the cauldron to see if I was successful. Sure enough, the pile of ingredients that had been in the bowl a few minutes earlier had now turned into a deep red liquid. However, a large bubble was forming on the surface. Was that normal?
Just as I had the thought, the bubble popped, and an explosion rocked the entire kitchen. I let out a yelp and fell backward, the red goo completely covering my face. What on earth? It took me a minute before I actually realized what had happened.
“My potion exploded!” I cried out. My butt hurt from falling on it, and I had to wipe my eyes before I was able to open them once more, since they were covered in the slimy red potion. When I finally managed to focus, I realized my kitchen looked like someone had been murdered in it. Scratch that, it looked like at least a hundred people had been murdered in it. Seriously. There was red liquid everywhere. A giant glop slipped off the handle of the oven and hit the floor with a plopping sound. Grace was completely covered in it, from head to toe, and I let out a groan. Here she was, nice enough to teach me how to make chocolate, and I repaid her by covering her in the red goo of some mystery potion. It certainly wasn’t my idea of thanks.
“I’m so sorry,” I finally managed to stammer out. I was completely mortified. I wanted to sink into the floor and melt into the same liquid as the potion. Seriously, I was a better witch than this. How on earth had this happened?
I expected Grace to blow up at me, to tell me that I was a terrible witch, to ask me what on earth I had done wrong, and then storm out of here with the promise that she was never going to help me again. But instead, to my surprise, Grace burst out into peals of laughter.
>
“I can’t believe you just blew up that potion,” she managed to stammer out, and I quickly found that her laughter was contagious as I joined in, realizing that, in fact, this situation was pretty funny.
I mean, sure, the entire kitchen looked like a crime scene, but it was actually kind of hilarious.
After the two of us finished our fits of laughter, I looked up at Grace more seriously.
“How did I mess up this potion? What did I do wrong?”
“The only thing I can think of is that you definitely were not calm enough when you put your wand into the ingredients. That probably caused the potion to turn red and explode.”
I let out a groan. “Okay, so no more trying that potion until things calm down a little bit in my life.”
“That’s probably a good idea. I had really underestimated how much you were suppressing all of the stress in your life.”
I put my head in my hands for a moment before struggling up to my feet. I moved around the kitchen, careful not to slip on any of the potion that covered the floor.
“Thank you for being so understanding,” I said sheepishly. “I swear I didn’t mean to cover you in this goo.”
Grace laughed, waving a hand to let me know not to worry, when all of a sudden I heard a screech coming from the other side of the kitchen.
Chapter 18
“Meg, are you okay?” a voice asked, and I turned to find my sister Ashley standing in the doorway, looking at the scene in front of us in horror. “What happened?”
“I’m fine,” I said hurriedly. “We’re fine. I had a little mishap with a potion, that’s all.”
“I suppose we should clean this up,” Grace said, pulling out her wand and casting a quick spell. Straightaway, as she waved her wand around the kitchen, the potion disappeared, evaporating like magic. Even the potion on me, and on Grace, disappeared without a trace. Well, I supposed it really was magic. In less than a minute, all the signs that I had completely blown up a potion had disappeared, and the kitchen looked as good as new.
Dark Chocolate and Death Page 9