Tacoma chocolatier permanently closing wholesale business and retail shop
Tease Chocolates, one of the only sources for craft chocolate in Tacoma, will close the business and its Stadium District storefront at the end of the month.
Owners Topher and Julie Farrell announced the shutter on social media Sunday.
“Thanks to all of you who have supported our little business from its start in the Spring of 2010 at The Old Rainier Brewery in Seattle, then moving to Vashon Island in 2011, until finally landing in Tacoma and opening our store in June of 2015,” they wrote. “We’ve made so many wonderful friends and we will miss every one of you.”
The posts were widely shared, with many locals recalling frequent visits for bags of creamy caramels in flavors like ghost chili, lavender, cherry and lapsang souchong or gift boxes of meticulously prepared bonbons — those of the glossy dome varietal inspired by European chocolatiers. They also ground cacao beans in-house for their bars, including the popular Salty Mermaid, a dark chocolate laced with toffee and sea salt.
In an email to The News Tribune, Topher Farrell confirmed the closure, adding they had “done everything possible to maintain but the timing is right.” Their lease at 610 1st Ave., just north of Stadium Thriftway and behind Salamone’s Pizza, is due for renewal this fall, he said.
Julie Farrell, who studied chocolate-making online at Ecole Chocolat, a school in Vancouver, before landing internships at the likes of Seattle’s Theo Chocolate, had been running the business solo, he continued. While he has another job and outside projects, sales at Tease had dropped to the point that they could not sustain the couple of employees they had brought on over the years.
“There’s really not much to say other than the obvious, which is that between the pandemic, economy, increasing costs of raw materials and every other expense — coupled with the fact that there has been a light rail construction project outside of our front door for roughly five years …,” he said, also referencing citywide challenges with crime and homelessness.
“My wife has single-handedly run Tease Chocolates for two-plus years and there seems to be no signs that things will improve,” he said.
The Hilltop Tacoma Link Extension broke ground in 2018 but has stumbled into various roadblocks, ranging from unexpected complications with underground utilities to supply-chain shortfalls. The problems have postponed the opening, originally slated for Spring 2020, to next year and will cost at least $63 million over the original budget, The News Tribune reported in April. On Sept. 9, Sound Transit said in a regular construction update that the Stadium connection work was delayed to an undetermined date.
Cacao, meanwhile, was one of a few commodities that saw its price drop in the early days of the pandemic, especially as the situation worsened in Africa, where most of the world’s cocoa is grown. It had rebounded by 2021, but a flip-flop of supply and demand, compounded by inflation, has led to higher prices and fewer consumer purchases of luxuries like chocolate, according to a July report in Reuters.
In December 2019, just days before Christmas, the ceiling inside Tease’s shop leaked. Then the pandemic forced a pivot to online sales and curbside pickup.
Rollercoaster of the past few years aside, said Topher Farrell on Tuesday, “It’s nearly impossible for a business like ours to survive as it is.”
The shop will stay open through Friday, Sept. 30. In addition to chocolate (whatever is on hand, no special orders), they plan to sell off everything from equipment to furniture.
TEASE CHOCOLATES
▪ 610 N. 1st St., Tacoma, 253-327-1860, teasechocolates.com
▪ Store Hours: Tuesday-Saturday noon-6 p.m., closing permanently Sept. 30
