Thomas Haas Chocolate

Today’s post is sort of a “part one of two” gig.  Part one, today, is all about the chocolate.  Part two, which will be on Monday, will be all about the photography.  If you are struggling at home with your blog photography, I’m (hopefully) going to make you feel better about it with a few insights into post processing!

But on to the chocolate.  These two bars of chocolate were another little present from my friend Michelle (the Choxie Bar supplier, who, incidentally, just informed me she has another care package on the way… with raspberry bars in it! Can you say “yay!!!”?).

She gave them to me when I was visiting Ontario in October and couldn’t remember where she’d got them from.  I assumed it was somewhere, well, IN Ontario.

The bars found their way into my suitcase, arrived back in Vancouver a little bit worse for wear and have been selectively nibbled on since then. I loved them both.  The Tea (Chai) was my favourite – I’d never tried a tea infused chocolate before but it was smooth and creamy and had the wonderful spicy fragrance of chai tea.  The 67 (referring to the percentage of dark chocolate) was the perfect dark chocolate for me… when it gets into the 70s I find it a little too bitter for my palate. But this was just right, not “wild” at all!

I loved the packaging.  The bars are scored differently so they break off in odd shaped pieces, which appeals to my odd shaped personality.  But it’s simple, clean modern on the outside, with some lovely whimsy on the inside (note the quotes on the inner box).

Once they were all gone, I found myself wanting more and wondering where I could find them.

So, imagine my surprise when I googled them and discovered that…

Thomas Haas Chocolates is a Vancouver chocolatier!  Woohoo!  You can buy a number of their products in various local boutique grocery stores (Urban Fare, Capers, Stongs to name a few.) Not a Vancouverite?  Do not fret – they have mail order (within N. America).  And, and, AND… not only that, but they also have two local pattiseries!  One in North Vancouver on Harbourside Drive, and one in Kitsilano on West Broadway.  Looking at the beautiful cakes and desserts on their website almost had me whimpering.

So then, I trundled off to twitter to find them and this is the first tweet I saw:

Our #HotChocolateFestival flavour this week: hot chocolate with caramel and fleur de sel, served with salted caramel chantilly and sparkles

Well, be still my beating heart… Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.

That’s it, I’m done.  I may possibly be in heaven.  I’ll let you know after I sample that hot chocolate.

(ps. stay tuned for more on the photos, as well as a third photo from this shoot, to show you what a little post processing can do.)