Author: In a Tizzy

Thursdays are long days, and long days call for a reward. Luckily, I can count on every day holding a reward of some sort during the hot chocolate festival! Today I reaped my day’s prize at none other than Cocoa Nymph, who is into their third festival item introduced this week.

“Hera’s Habit” Made from 50% deep milk chocolate with malted milk balls. Served with vanilla bean cinnamon shortbread. ($6.55)

As is usual, I ordered my beverage with a dairy-free alternative to reduce the effects of existing milk in the drink’s components. It was delicious. The “deep milk chocolate” was smooth and added weight to the lighter almond milk’s body. The chocolate’s flavour was really excellent. 

Malted milk ball.

 The malt ball on its own was grainy – and good! Particularly with the hot chocolate becoming mixed in with it. I learned what malt is so that I would understand what I was consuming before I mixed it into the drink – and I suppose it is basically grain that has been “steeped, germinated, and dried”, and reminded me of eating cereal that had been left for quite some time in a bowl of milk – which is DELICIOUS (personal taste). 

Once it was all mixed in, I found the malt added new texture and weight to the drink, and allowed the taste to settle and linger on my tongue for longer and really gave all of my tastebuds the opportunity to experience the drink.

As for the cookie, it was distinctly cinnamony – it was not moist (since it was a sugar cookie), and therefore begged to be dipped into the hot chocolate. This of course led to the blending of vanilla, cinnamon, and chocolate; all of which get along very well.

It should be evident that today’s festival item holds great promise to be delicious based solely on its name.
After taking part in an exercise study downtown, I took the opportunity to take a second peek inside Bel Cafe. 
My first visit had been met with the information that I could not order my drink with a dairy alternative, so I decided to try again later.

The cafe has a very modern and “chic” feel to it; dark wood and brown furnishings, very soft blue walls with simple polka dot designs darting across them. This is also the first cafe I’ve really encountered where a sign tells me to wait to be seated! So I did wait, and I was seated, and I was handed a menu and spotted the hot chocolate festival item, the Banana Split. The description differed from the one on the City Food festival’s page, but I was there for a purpose and this alternative sounded equally as delicious! I inquired as to whether it was possible to get this one with a dairy alternative, and the kind waiter recommended almond milk; of course I went with his suggestion.

36% Valrhona Caramelia chocolate, topped with vanilla bean marshmallow, served with banana bread. ($7.10)

 First sip: WOW! Yum! The caramalia chocolate and vanilla made the drink so very beautifully sweet – I believe the vanilla bean flavour crept purely from the marshmallow (which was melting into the drink), but regardless… My tastebuds were having a sweet and tasty party.

 I believe that soy milk would have made this a more rich drink, and I am very content with having lightened the sweetness and thickness of flavour by choosing almond milk – I really do love that milk so much! It complemented the caramel and vanilla flavours very well. 

The drink was not the only item presented in the lovely display of the festival combo, however! Beside the hot chocolate (in what I thought was a beautifully simple and elegant glass), was a slice of banana bread. The bread was nutty and moist and full of texture from all of the extras that were baked into it. I made good use of the spoon that was supplied by dropping chunks of bread into the drink, only to scoop them up covered in sweet chocolate, caramel, and vanilla flavours; each of which took its turn in making its presence strong throughout my drinking experience (caramel, almond, vanilla, rotate).

 Aside from the lovely experience I had with the Banana Split, the menu had a multitude of other items that looked like they would be great for a midday snack or light lunch. I tried not to stare too much at those around me, but the friends sitting to my left had lattes with intricate latte art atop them and the cutest of cakes to go with their drinks – about the size of a small fist! In my opinion, the perfect size for enjoying a dessert.

I hope this will be a spot I return to soon – I would recommend going as a duo if you wish to go with company – I did not get to explore any more of the space (if there was any beyond the glass door in the back), but what space I had was very limited and filled up quickly! Perfect for one-on-one conversation, but three would require finding enough seats in the center table which allowed for larger groups (but was full of singles and duos anyways).

What a Monday! Chilly, sunny, full of sleeplessness, and of course: Chocolate.

Today was cold, and so was my drink! With company at my side, I ventured eastward to find what turned out to be a very tiny shop called Chocolaterie de la Nouvelle France.

It is tucked away around the corner of East 21st Avenue, and to me embodied a “hole-in-the-wall” sort of establishment. Far from being just a hole in the wall, this place was almost entirely wooden interior, full of chocolate (to add to the brown decor), quaint, and yet easily carried a sense of “class” with it.

On to the treat: From the four options available, we chose the Chocolate Glace a la Cardamome. It sounded like the most unique, and was a flavour yet to be encountered in the festival flavours.

Cardamom flavoured iced drinking chocolate. Served with a Gaufre de Liège waffle, along with a side of fleur de sel caramel or chocolate hazelnut spread. Available Every day of the festival that the shop is open. ($5.25)

 Served in a small milk bottle, our beverage arrived over ice with a stripy straw – it looked great! The waffle served alongside came warm with our selected chocolate hazelnut spread. Noted by the enthusiastic shopkeep (I think she must have been the owner), this waffle is not your average American or Canadian square waffle that is heated in a few minutes in a waffle pan or popped into a toaster; this waffle has been readying to be eaten 48 hours ahead of time, all the while becoming the delicious entity that it was on our plate.

Upon sipping the drink through its stripy straw, I was greeted by very thick chocolate flavour and body, strongly intertwined with the taste cardamom (no subtlety).
The cardamom flavour is difficult to describe, but it seems to resemble a sort of sweet mint flavour with citrusy tones – online searches yield descriptions that say it resembles the eucalyptus plant (though I cannot speak to that myself).

 The shoppe is very small and quaint, and the woman who helped us with our choices and questions was enthusiastic and French and eager to describe the options to us! If you look at the photo of me (looking slightly crazy with chocolate love) and what is behind me: picture twice that space, and you have the entire visitor space in the shop! There is a back room for waffle-making and chocolate-creating, but I love how it is so small and homey feeling. I didn’t try any of the chocolate confections that were displayed, but I certainly would like to return to the little neighbourhood and give it a go! It’s a colourful area of town full of old buildings and places like this!

Two weeks! I’ve passed the halfway mark.

Happy February 1st! Today’s post is likely to be short, as this festival item was not quite my ‘thing’, and I didn’t finish my half of the drink! It was just a little too much for me, as it was like a chocolate bar that melted and was put into an iced Americano (actually, that is more or less what it was, ha ha).

I went downtown to visit Mink Chocolates today, one store in a small chain that a friend used to work for nearer to my house. They have an amazing array of treats (including cookies, pastries, and waffles!), chocolate beverages with all the necessary dairy alternatives, and even a personal chocolate fondue with fruit if you’re feeling up to it (it is cute-sized!).

The location itself is beautiful, not far from Leonidas by the Vancouver Convention Centre and right near the ocean’s side! I also enjoy the interior of Mink stores; they are simple, elegant, and also contain a great deal of chocolate product (always an interior design plus).

As for my beverage: Like I said, it was a chocolate-ized Americano. Not in an “iced mocha” sort of way, but rather like an iced Americano with hot dark ganache mixed into it and oozing over the ice cubes inside. It was like consuming an espresso-infused chocolate bar that was melted.. Yet somehow ice-cold. 

My final opinion would not be a bad one, so don’t take that away from my post! This was simply not a drink that I could consume on my own, nor one that I might choose regularly due to my aversion to coffee-flavoured items (which is becoming less strong, I might add, so this drink went over better than I had expected!). I didn’t exactly “drink” this beverage in the regular sense – it was a spoon-feeding sort of experience, as the ganache was in delicious chocolaty globs that I don’t imagine would have been easy to sip from the cup. 

This drink came with either a chocolate-covered lime, orange, or grapefruit peel; it was a surprise to those who ordered it, as the baristo/as did not know which was which! They all looked the same. My company and I figured it was orange in the end, but the dark chocolate made it tough to taste which citrusy treat was hiding beneath the chocolate exterior (it was good, whatever it was).

I suppose my main concern would be the price – almost $9 for what my feelings were while consuming almost-half of the drink did not feel worthwhile for me, but perhaps $9 for how full I would have been with thick ganache if I’d finished the whole thing may have made more sense!

My first cold beverage will not deter me from trying more in the future, but today was a cold day that may have called for a warmer drink!

A field trip downtown for myp hot took me nearer to some of the farther off locations of the festival, so I took advantage of this spare time and went to the Vancouver Convention Centre – such a beautiful place! I went in the wrong entrance, so I got to detour through a lower level to return to the West Plaza, and there is lovely art and design throughout, and I was all by myself to enjoy it. Eventually, with the help of an eager guide, I found Leonidas Chocolates.

I had not realized how many options they offered for the festival, and was greeted with six when I walked in! This is two more than what is currently listed online. Tempted by the two darker chocolate options, I decided to resist and go with my decision made ahead of time: The Jamaican Kiss. There were also a handful of treats to choose from to accompany it (so many decisions…), these included: a small cheesecake, ice cream, a liege waffle, two pieces of fancy chocolate, or a macaroon flavour of my choice. I vouched for a dark chocolate ganache macaroon and sat down while I admired the quaint shop and looked over the ocean, where the mountains sat so close and wrapped in a sash of banner clouds in the dimming evening.

When my drink arrived, I was immediately excited. I already knew the major components I would be tasting: Chocolate, coconut milk (with soy milk), and rum-infused pineapple purée (what?!), but it just LOOKED good – there was chocolate drizzled down the inside walls of the glass mug and they had decorated it with a cursive “L” for Leonidas! 

The first sip was very smooth, and all of the flavours were immediately evident and delicious! The strongest flavours were the chocolate mixed with soy and coconut milk, as they made up the body of the drink, but the pineapple purée made its way to the front of the drink, and the citrus taste of the pineapple was muted by the rum and the creamy milks.

It was a full flavour, and nothing was overwhelmed or overwhelming – it tasted perfectly balanced. Perhaps important to note: I am a fan of pulp in juices. For this reason, I quite enjoyed that the pineapple purée was very much from real pineapple and added texture throughout the entire consumption experience.

Leonidas is worth returning to. This conclusion is worth reaching based solely on the fact that drinking my beverage resembled drinking a warm, chocolaty piña colada! While that may sound unappealing at first, I can assure you… It is not.