Easter is a time for chocolate. I remember getting sugary, fatty eggs for Easter from my parents/the Easter Bunny (because as we all know, it is really the Easter Bunny that brings Easter eggs ). I remember getting Maple Buds and absolutely loving them. I mourned the day they stopped making Maple Buds *sobs*.

So on to the modern era when chocolate is now full of a lot more nasty stuff than I remember it being full of and people are looking for alternatives. Well, *adults* are looking for grown-up eggs because quite frankly this will be wasted on the kids… Yaaaaa…. don’t give it away… keep it for yourself!

So this egg… it is a really heavy egg but I ate it before I weighed it… sorry… Anyway, it is heavy. I was struggling to eat it all… at times… but then I remembered I had to leave it behind and continued to munch my way through it. So this egg is, as you can see, quite thick. I used a knife to open it. Not, traditionalists among you may argue that any Easter egg should be able to be manually broken and given some time I am confident that I would have been able to break it. Wanting instead to immediately get into the egg, find the prize inside and eat the chocolate, I used a knife.

Besides the thick dark chocolate shell (and it comes in milk too!), there is a wonderful surprise inside – a macadamia nut jawbreaker made of chocolate, macadamia nuts and is delicious. The egg itself is all chocolate. The clear cellophane it comes in is the only packaging there is. No cardboard bok, no plastic trays, not excessive packaging – just a simple clear plastic bag and the egg. Even the way they make the egg stand up is environmentally friendly – it is on a base of delicious solid dark chocolate. Even more for me… I mean to share with friends and family!

This egg is delightful. From the spackled chocolate exterior complete with additional chocolate drizzling making each one unique, to the chocolate base, this egg is extraordinary. Even better, you can start your kids off right with the milk chocolate version. Less sugar and oil than the cheap chocolate and more deliciousness. So you’d best also grab one of those ultra-cute chocolate bunnies too!

As part of my brownie shipment from Tim at Indulgence Confectionery I got a box of chocolates.  I had originally thought I had 16 different chocolates to review but actually found I had 8 and 8 to share with husband (as if).  These chocolates are deliciously different dome shaped treats making them a little different from your usual fare.  There were some interesting names, intense flavours and really pretty painting on the chocolate.

I should say, I found it a slight struggle to describe the chocolate because the flavours had been combined with the ganaches so that the ganache became the mechanism through which the sweetness and flavour was transported to your mouth. This made these filled chocolates quite a different experience and it is always delightful to experience something new.  There was an emphasis on white chocolate in this selection as Tim is passionate about showing that white chocolate can be delicious and it most certainly can!

Artimus – white chocolate ganache & white chocolate shell – the scent of this chocolate comes across with intense vanilla but it doesn’t come through as much in the flavour but it is an intense sweet flavour.

Strawberries & Cream – strawberry puree, white chocolate and strawberry liqueur – very strawberry and sweet with the white chocolate. This is like a white chocolate dipped strawberry.  A bit sweet for me but wow this is going to be a revelation to those who aren’t able to eat or don’t like milk or dark chocolate

Passion fruit – passion fruit cream and passion fruit liqueur – this is a bit weird for me but some might like it.  It is slightly sour with an odd flavour that I didn’t quite get along with but I liked the sour against the sweet of the white chocolate.  It is refreshingly different and one I think some will really enjoy.

Lime – white chocolate ganache with lime – this is an amazing chocolate. The citrus flavour is strong and zingy (as Tim says) and delicious in a white chocolate shell.  Still sweet and a bit intense but I ate all of it and still wanted more.

Caramel Truffle – there is a ribbon of caramel on the top of a lovely milk chocolate ganache which is encased in a rather sweet caramel milk chocolate.  It was wrapped in a copper coloured foil making it even more special.  A very sweet truffle but really very lovely and a nice change from a pure filled sea salt caramel.

Honey – a milk chocolate ganache with a ganache combined with acacia honey. The distinctive flavour of the honey overwhelms the chocolate flavour and is a lot like eating honey without the intense sweetness. Very distinctive and strong flavour of honey and something very interesting and different.

Sarchie – caramel chocolate with roasted hazelnuts makes this both sweetly smooth and crunchy.  The smooth and crunchy counterpoint is a really nice blend making this a more exciting chocolate.

Tanzania extra bitter truffle – dark chocolate shell and ganache – this dark chocolate is quite dry and very intense. It overwhelms the palette but after the sweet white and milk chocolates it was even more intense.

All in all, this has left me wondering what the other flavours taste like.  Flavours like Earl grey, sea salt caramel, raspberry, whiskey, java milk truffles and more all beckon seductively from the page.  I think it may require a visit to the shop in the future to buy myself some more chocolates and experience some of these flavours for myself.

Few things are as pleasurable as spending a lunch with a friend and I did just that at Villandry (thought I went to Vapiano first, dyslexic weirdo that I am) not too long ago.  It had been far too long since I had seen my Canadian friend and we swapped stories over lunch and finished off with dessert.  She opted for the ganache and knowing of both my love of chocolate and my blog, she offered me one of her ganache chocolates.

I am a sucker for a fresh ganache and this was probably about as fresh as I had been able to have for some time outside a shell.  The ganache had been covered in dark cocoa powder which both made it easy to pick up and messy.  Cocoa powder needs to be washed out but yum!

This ganache was lovely.  It was dark and delicious.  It was not too sweet and there was very little bitterness to it, making it easy to eat for anyone.  This is not a challenging chocolate but one with refined and unrefined palettes alike will be able to enjoy.  I think these do have to be consumed on the day and are not something which will hold flavour over a period of time and that is where the skill of the chocolate-maker comes in but it is a really delightful, light dessert.

Now, I know that I focus mainly (and mostly) on (and about) chocolate but occasionally I divert (I’m thinking the cheesecake lollipops are only partially related to chocolate) and in this case, I diverted with Black Rose Love fudge and rock.

The design is the first thing you notice.  Everything follows a theme and the bags of delicious looking sweets are carefully created.  This is more than just a pick and mix – this is a nicely crafted sweet with attention paid to the packaging.

I tried the fudge first.  This is a GENEROUS bag of fudge so you are definitely getting what you paid for with enough for yourself and to share.  I had this earlier in the day and I think it is like a fudge a lot of people will love.  I’m a huge fan of creamy fudge so it didn’t quite do it for me but I’m Canadian so I’m weird   It didn’t have a flavour that stood out so will appeal to a large number of people so perfect for a party or as a gift.  Each page comes with a Tibetan charm and mine was a butterfly.  The perfect addition to make this a gift along with the red velvet ribbon and cute tag.

The black rose love blackcurrant rock was different.  I swear it tasted slightly of peppermint but mainly of blackcurrant.  This isn’t the kind of overwhelming blackcurrant flavour of a cough sweet or a can of Vimto – this is more subtle and as such a very pleasant candy.  It is really rather cool that it has the brand name running through it and makes it a lot more special than most rock.

All in all a nice old fashioned sweet selection with the added bonus of a different flavour of rock than usual.  Would make the perfect gift!

I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Belgian chocolates or pralines but I will still try them and I will still rate them on the basis of their merits.  Most of the chocolate I try is of the ganache variety which I love but every once in awhile I’ll get some chocolates which surprise me.  Such was the case with these chocolates.

When I opened the box of LB Truly Chocs chocolate selection, I wasn’t expecting a lightly whipped airy mousse filled chocolate with different fillings.  Indeed with centres called things like “truly mulled wine” I did expect a ganache so it was a surprise to discover this was actually a truer Belgian chocolate than most who make the claim.

The chocolate I chose first was the one with the glitter, not because of the glitter but because it was truly mulled wine.  Biting in to the hard shell and through the whipped centre, I was reminded of the type of chocolates you get from Leonidas – sweet and buttery.
There were two mulled wine flavours and one was white chocolate so no excuse for those of you who only like white chocolate – now you can gobble down a festive flavour!
Truly chocoholic was next and again this was a sweet chocolate with a whipped centre.  I was somewhat caught up in the sweetness but in fairness this is a white chocolate outer shell, darker chocolate whipped centre.
The Truly Irish Cream has a distinctive Irish cream flavour but like the mulled with the alcohol was subtle.  It is safe to eat these and go back to work

Using Callebaut chocolate means these chocolate are nice but not top notch.  I think what LB are doing is innovative and while I might not choose to nosh on them like Twix Fino, I do think that a box of these from the shop would be special.

For a really Christmassy treat for someone who likes sweet chocolate, get the sleigh and get some truffles in it.  Keep it festive with mulled wine, cherry, mandarin, chocoholic, ginger and nut petit-four!

Outsider Tart has been a favourite of mine for awhile.  I absolutely love their stuff and am constantly recommending people to their online site.

I grabbed this chocolate cake with maple icing at one of the events Outsider Tart was trading at.  The Outsider Tart guys are passionate about food and I was lucky enough once to be taken behind the scene and take a look around their kitchen.  They do so much work and make some lovely creations I so wish I could shop with them more often.

The cake was deliciously moist and very chocolaty but what really set this apart was the addition of the maple icing which set off the chocolate flavour deliciously.  The combination of chocolate cake and maple icing worked perfectly with the moist chocolate cake seeming to become more complex as the maple icing combined with it.

The cake, made fresh, was cut into the squares you see and they are large – enough to eat instead of lunch with a cup of coffee which is exactly what I did!  YUM!

This creamy delicious almost molasses-y milk chocolate is almost too rich to take!  At £4 for 50g it is one of the most expensive bars I have ever bought so it is a good thing it is too rich to eat more than a single piece at a time.

If anything will teach you to slow down and enjoy a deliciously gorgeous piece of chocolate, this certainly will.  This creamy milk chocolate won’t allow you to rush it – it will demand you to slow down and enjoy it slowly.

The flavour of the chocolate is subtle – so subtle that it is almost lost to the flavour of the dark sugar and creamy milk.  These flavours are so strong as to almost overtake all chocolate flavour.  When it hits the chocolate is delightful and light, with none of the bitterness some other chocolate can have.  These beans have not been over fermented at all.

This bar is a delight and while I might love Askinosie an awful lot, this bar is arguing with my taste buds for supremacy.

William Curley has a wonderful shop within which are some fantastic chocolates filled with the most lovely ganache made from some of the best chocolate, co0vered in a thin coating of that same delectable chocolate. From their selection I chose Earl Grey Tea, Mulled Wine and Sea Salt Caramel.

Earl Grey Tea chocolate – This chocolate had the lovely scent of dark chocolate but none of the lush bergamot scent.  Biting into this chocolate releases the most lovely delicate flavour of real Earl Grey tea.  It is subtle and delicious and not overwhelming.  I could eat a box of these!

Mulled Wine chocolate – Once again, this chocolate does not reveal its interior from outside with the delicate scent of the Amedei chocolate used the only scent.  Biting in to it releases the flavour of the jelly mulled wine interior with the chocolate ganache.  Yummy and delicious, this is a lovely chocolate.

Sea Salt Caramel – different from other sea salt caramels I’ve tried in the past, this is a thick base chocolate with a liquid caramel interior closest in flavour to Kraft caramels from my childhood.  The caramel oozes out in deliciousness making you gobble the whole chocolate up.

Whoops… looks like I munched these before I had a chance to photograph them!

Born on the 1st of July 2008, Xococava is one of the newer chocolate shops to hit Toronto.  Located in Deslie Court just north of the St Clair subway station, this ideally located chocolate shop brings some of the most innovative chocolates to Toronto.  From the perennial salted caramel favourite – a popular chocolate in the shop – to the exotic churitzo including real meat, this shop pushes the boundaries of chocolate making to a higher art form.

Laura White, a former pastry chef and 5 year expert chocolate maker, invents some of these innovative chocolate flavours at the front of the shot in full view of the window to the outside tables where people sup on home baked cookies with some of the finest chocolate chips nestled in excellent dough.

Utilising Tuscano Amedei chocolate in her creations, Laura balances the flavour of the base chocolate against the exotic fillings.  Often utilising Belgian style chocolate as a carrier for her more exotic flavours, Laura uses her knowledge of flavour and chocolate to balance flavours off.  Marrying tea and coffee both with chocolate but in very different ways, she is committed to creating delicious and innovative chocolate.

I found her sea salt caramel to be one of the flavours of hers I liked best.  The chocolate did not seem to be the highest quality but the sea salt caramel was lovely. The Earl Grey tea was way more intense than I was used to but it didn’t detract from the overall experience.  The chocolate covered almond dragees were nothing I hadn’t enjoyed elsewhere in the UK but I have a feeling they are a rarity in Toronto.  As such it is nice to see these lovely roasted almonds with caramelised sugar covering them before the delicious chocolate and powered cocoa finishes it off.

Pop by and try the chocolates.  They are yummy and unique and fun at a dinner party.

Stubbe chocolates are some of the best chocolates in the world.  This is the conclusion I have come to after trying chocolates in various cities across the world and while limited in experience though I may be, this chocolate shop is absolutely fantastic.

Stubbe chocolates creates some of the best chocolates by pairing good quality chocolate they create themselves in the back of the shop with both traditional and non-traditional flavours.  The one chocolate which stood out for me was the blood orange chocolate which has a slightly sharp tang without being sour.

The special milk chocolate truffle had a unique sugar fronting which I thought would make the chocolate far too sweet but in fact was perfect when savouring or chewing the chocolate.

The cappuccino was a triumph of coffee flavouring, which was for once not overpowered by the sweetness of the chocolate.  The white chocolate was used masterfully here to sweeten the coffee without it tasting of nothing but sugar the covered in a beautifully balances dark chocolate.

I wish I could get these chocolates more regularly but have to settle for my annual trips to Toronto.

I highly recommend this chocolate shop and would be confidant buying any chocolates from here as a special gift.