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| - I had the opportunity to experience Choklat for the first time earlier this week, in the form of a Choklat Snobbery 101 evening. Upon arriving at Choklat, I was charmed by the blue and brown color scheme which is welcoming and sleek. It also smelled like the best fucking chocolate chip cookies in the entire world. I later learned it was because they just finished roasting beans in store.
We were taken through the chocolate making process in its entirety. Choklat is part of a rare breed, in that they start with the raw product of the cocoa bean, roast it, then work their magic to turn it into chocolate with simple ingredients of cocoa nibs, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla (and milk powder for milk/white chocolate). It was real cool to see each ingredient in raw form, then to taste the fabulous end results.
We had the opportunity to try four kinds of 70% choklat,- all the same recipe but with a different cocoa bean. This included chocolate made from the rare Porcelana cocoa bean, which was a treat. I never realized how much each bean from each region could differ in taste. We also tried an 80%. I will mention now, all of the dark chocolate we tried was totally vegan- down to the sugar which while refined, does not use charred animal bones in the refinery process which is fantastic and something often overlooked. Brad won us over further by pairing chocolate with wines; red, sherry, port, ice wine, all paired with intention. While I enjoyed each dark chocolate we tried, I went home with some of the dark chocolate and hazelnut bark to share with family and friends. Very rarely do I stumble across truly vegan chocolate/nut confections, so when I do it is always a treat.
While some may question the price, I would agree with Paul G that this just encourages me to eat my chocolate more slowly; I would rather pay $12 for the best quality of chocolate I can get in Calgary, than from a source where I haven't seen the quality of beans for myself, and am unaware of where the raw ingredients come from. For those just wanting to test the waters first, you can purchase individual truffles, true drinking chocolate, chocolate cupcakes, brownies, macarons, chocolate caramel shortbread, etc for reasonable prices. If these items were vegan friendly I would definitely try them!
If you're going to indulge, do it right and pay the folks at Choklat a visit! I definitely hope to come back come Christmas time to pick up some treats as gifts.
*Review 17/30 of Yelps' 30 Day Challenge 2012
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