Soma Chocolates in Toronto

Hidden in the distillery district, the casual visitor will not find Soma. In fact, the determined visitor also may not find Soma, as I found out.  Thank goodness for the kindness of Torontonian strangers!  I finally found my way out of the 30C heat and in to the cool interior of the shop.

Chocolate and heat do not mix.  So too would I say chocolate and a bad attitude or chocolate and the worst directions humanely possible.  Soma may have good chocolate but they HAD seriously bad attitude. That person has left and those who help now are never short of a smile and friendly helpfulness!

Soma was almost impossible to find in life and online, and only dedicated Soma fans saved me from missing the shop.

I will not argue that of all chocolate in Toronto that I have tried, Soma chocolate was the best.  The complexity of flavour with the high quality of the underlying chocolate married perfectly for me to create a brilliant chocolate.  The complex nature of the base of many of the chocolate was superb.  That is perhaps why they are happy to remain hidden.

When trying chocolates, I always find it helpful to discover the best chocolate by asking the experts – the people who made them.  Chocolate is individual and each person will like different flavours.  Every milk chocolate truffle is slightly different and the best person to ask what their crowning glory is, is the chocolate maker.

I asked here, as I had at many other chocolate shops in the UK, Toronto, Amsterdam and other major cities for their signature chocolate.  The one chocolate of the lot that I, as a reviewer, could take and hold up as the prime example of the mastery of the chocolate makers art.  I was pointed to the sea salt caramel.

At the suggestion for the third time that day that a sea salt caramel was the pinnacle of their art, I did wilt and request an alternate suggestion and was met with irritation.  Upon trying this sea salt caramel, I found the salt on the top of the chocolate to be too intense, the caramel flat and lacklustre and the chocolate of a middling quality.  It was absolutely nothing to recommend.

The balsamic vinegar chocolate was much more pleasurable with a tangy bite and yet not too much acidity balanced by a darker fruity chocolate.  The cocoa chosen married well with the balsamic vinegar to create a subtle and pleasurable combination of flavours.  Not so for the douglas fir but what can one expect from a chocolate named after a pine tree.  It was intense and overpowering and I could not finish it.

All in all I found Soma well worth the trip but NOW you’ll find it an even better experience.  It is great now the one problem staff member has left and it is an absolute joy to shop in!!