What is Easter without chocolate? To some, it would be as sacrilegious as storming the Vatican while screaming the Lord's name in vain.
But what if one doesn't really care for the candied fruit of the cacao tree?
What if, God forbid, you happen to be a food critic who actually gets nauseous at the thought of gorging on Valrhona bunnies, hazelnut-cream eggs and syrupy hot chocolate?
A freak of nature? Yes, that's me.
Fortunately for you, there is an unwritten commandment in the bible of restaurant reviewing: Thou shalt not let personal preferences interfere with the inviolable rights of chocoholics.
Thus, I braced my stomach, fortified my palate and recruited several sweet-toothed friends to help taste-test the menus at a trio of chocolate
cafés.
MINK A CHOCOLATE CAFÉ
Owner: Marc Lieberman, a founder of Steamrollers (the healthy fast-food burrito chain), is now on a mission to prove that the flavanols found in his preservative-free chocolate can be a nutritious part of a wholesome coffee break.
Ambience: At the base of the Terminal City building, this 30-seater café is a bright, modern space largely populated by downtown cubicle dwellers looking for a midday pick-me-up. The young staff members are chirpy and helpful. Tables are hard to come by.
Beverages: Mink's hot chocolates, made with premium Callebaut chocolate (direct from Belgium, not the lesser American variety) come in three strengths: milk (38 per cent cocoa), dark (70 per cent) and the sinfully rich European-style drinking chocolate (which also uses 70 per cent cocoa, but a much thicker, 3 to 1 ratio of ganache to milk). I can't even imagine how rich the latter must be, considering that the 12-ounce dark ($4.95) was the creamiest, most full-bodied cocoa we tasted all week.
Specialties: Mini chocolate fondues ($7.50) come with seasonal fruit and pound cake or Graham wafers and marshmallows on faux-silver trays with tea-light warmers. The takeout counter features a small display of artfully designed bonbons. But the café's pièce de résistance is a floor-to-ceiling rack of handmade, 50-gram chocolate bars in 30-odd flavours with such whimsical names as Certifiably Nutty (organic dark chocolate with roasted almonds) and No Grumpy (ground espresso).
Holiday Treats: Go for the double-sided, foil-wrapped egg ($7.90), which is filled with P.B. and a hint of J (non-hydrogenated peanut butter and organic grape jelly), and - my personal favourite - the divine Mermaid's Choice (burnt caramel, fleur de sel and rosemary). This egg was so yummy, one of my taste-testers actually took one home and hid it from her kids.
KOKO CHOCOLATE CREATIONS
Owners: Alex Maman was reportedly one of the top chefs in Israel before he moved to Australia and married a chocolatier, Vancouverite Angie Maman, who lured him back to our shores.They opened this West End café last winter.
Ambience: On Denman Street's burgeoning chocolate row (next to Cookies by George), Koko pulls in a stream of sweet-starved tourists. But the cupboards look kind of bare, and Mr. Maman lacks charm. On two consecutive visits, he was slumped behind the counter, grunting orders and barely making eye contact with customers.
Beverages: Traditional hot chocolate ($4.50) comes in milk, white or dark. The latter, made with a 53-per-cent Callebaut and Valrhona blend, tasted watery and weak. The "Around the World" flavours (Italian with full vanilla cream or Scandinavian infused with caramel toffee) sound slightly more enticing.
Specialties: Desserts include molten chocolate cake, fondue and something called a mudslide that comes in a huge bowl with whipped cream, toffee and spatulas for dipping. The chocolate pizza ($9.95) wasn't available. Monkey bread ($3.45) was a blandly chewy brioche flecked with candied pecans and hard chunks of dark chocolate that tasted like it had been hanging around for several days. But the fudge brownie ($4.45) was so decadently dense, even I, the chocolate heathen, wanted to take the leftovers home.
Holiday Treats: A few thimble-sized bunnies and egg-shaped candles wrapped in cellophane seem like a lost opportunity. The brightly painted, ganache-filled bonbons would, however, make a nice gift for any occasion. Cutely packaged (nine for $12), the chocolates come in a variety of intense flavours, including a spicy coconut-curry, sweet balsamic-strawberry and zesty mango-ginger encased in white chocolate that one of the taste-testers declared the very best of the entire sampling bunch.
THOMAS HAAS PATISSERIE
AND CAFÉ
Owner: Fourth-generation German pastry chef Thomas Haas runs his North Shore chocolate factory and café with his wife, Lisa. Their handmade artisan chocolates are so famous - not just in Vancouver, but all across North America - that it really isn't fair to compare them to the new kids on the block.
Ambience: Willa Wonka, eat your heart out. The patisserie is way off the beaten track in an industrial mall surrounded by automotive dealerships. But even on a late Saturday afternoon it was packed to the rafters with a lineup winding out the door. Not a single customer was cranky, thanks in large part to Mr. Haas, who charmed his way through the crowd with smiles, jokes and free samples of warm Sparkle cookies straight out of the oven.
Beverages: The classic hot chocolate ($4.50) has a 65-per-cent cocoa content, blended from a mix of Venezuelan, Bolivian and Caribbean cocoa beans. The drink wasn't as rich as Mink's dark blend, but it was frothier and more deeply pleasing. The café also serves an extra-dark (75 per cent) version and an Aztec (spiced with chipotle and ancho chili).
Specialties: Where does one begin? From hand-painted chocolates infused with Earl Grey tea and freshly grated orange to truffles perfumed with Champagne and eau-de-vie, this really is a sweets lover's dream. A chocolate Sacher cake ($4.95) was exquisitely layered with milk-chocolate mousse, almond cream, moist sponge cake and apricot gelée between a dark glossy glaze and a fine shortbread crust.
Holiday Treats: The shelves are lined with eggs, rabbits and chocolate flowerpots in every conceivable shape, style and size. I took home a $25 basket bursting with solid chocolate mini-bunnies, chocolate lollipops and hazelnut-crème-filled eggs and served it on a platter after a dinner party. One of my guests took a bite out of a white-chocolate truffle filled with liquid lychee and swore it was the absolute best chocolate he had ever eaten in his life.
Mink A Chocolate Café: 863 Hastings Street West; 604-633-2451. Koko Chocolate Creations: 1118 Denman St.; 604-669-1887. Thomas Haas Patisserie and Café: 128-998 Harbourside Dr., North Vancouver; 604-924-1847.
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