HoCho Fest Day 13: Twisted Romance

What a sunny day we had here!

With good company at my side, today's hot chocolate festival visit took me to a spot I visited during last year's festival: Gem Chocolates. To the unprimed eye, one may mistake the location for a small Bell outlet, based on its simplistic white and blue exterior - but when you walk inside, you are greeted with not the latest cell phones, but the delicious aroma of chocolates crafted by the store's visionary, Glenn.

Uncertain about the flavour, I ordered my Twisted Romance with soy milk rather than almond (slight uncertainty on Glenn's face as he took my run-on-sentence order); you see, the second of three drinks offered at Gem's is flavoured with Aussie black licorice (that's how they've spelled it online, at least). As it has been some time since I indulged in anything of this flavour due to my acquired childhood aversion to it, I thought that the soy milk would cause less of a fuss flavour-wise.

You'll go gaga over hot chocolate made with Aussie natural black licorice. 
Served with chocolate-dipped natural black licorice. 
Available: January 25 - February 2

I was surprised by my fondness of the drink - perhaps it was because I was being inducted into the black licorice world by way of creamy soy milk absorbing the stronger taste and not being shocked by it. AA and I both agreed that it was a very nice surprise! And beautifully topped with, what we eventually discovered was, chocolate dipped licorice (I couldn't get a hold of it until I got to the bottom of the drink!).


Alongside the drink, I was expecting the item listed online: chocolate-dipped natural black licorice. Out of kindness I'd like to think, Glenn acknowledged that A and I shared one beverage, and he gave us two types of treats: One, the chocolate-dipped licorice, and the other his "Zebra" creation. The Zebra (he pronounces it "zeh-bra" not "zee-bra") is a "natural Australian black licorice infusion in dark ganache"... and it is delicious.

The beverage was consumed with slight haste, as the sun was shining directly into the store window and was melting our chocolate and making it feel quite like summer time. Once complete, we turned our attention to Glenn, and I asked how he creates a black licorice-flavoured hot chocolate; his response was lengthy and sounded very impressive. Though I do not recall the process, I do know that he expressed his wishes for me to have tried it with almond milk, because it would have been a lighter milk and may have showcased the flavour a bit more. Kindly, again, he shared the raw ganache with us - prior to being added to a drink - and I think it would have been very good with almond milk!

Amidst all of the enlightening conversation, I also learned why the shop is named as it is! But perhaps you should go speak to Glenn about that yourself, as it will give you a good excuse to enjoy a treat.

Their next flavour has cherry and fig, so that should be fun!

HoCho Fest Day 10: The Campfire

The day's gray weather seemed to reflect my mood: Nothing too extreme, but somewhat low energy, and very much conducive to collapsing into a nap. This was not an ideal mental state with an interview later in the afternoon, but what better to help remedy a melancholy wave than with a cup of hot chocolate?

I returned to my first stop in the festival to satisfy today's chocolate quota, as it was close by and I was in a time crunch with my interview fast-approaching. Plus - the second option on their festival menu had looked very good when my friend had it. 

With a couple of good folks, I headed off to Thomas Haas for the second time this month.

A classic hot chocolate, only with smoky caramel, smoked Hawaiian sea salt.
Served with vanilla marshmallows.

($5.95)

The drink was meant to come with vanilla marshmallows, but they had run out of these (I likely would not have eaten them anyways, as gelatin is something I try to avoid despite its lack of explicitness in its non-vegetarian-ness).

Anyways! As a replacement, they offered Grand Marnier-infused whipped cream (which I requested be left out) and provided DELICIOUS dark chocolate almond sugar cookies - however, they didn't seem like the traditional sugar cookies - they were ooey gooey good on the inside! And did not crumble in the least. Perhaps I misinterpreted what the barista described to me.

I ordered my drink to be made with almond milk, as I thought it would complement the rest of the beverage's characteristics: Chocolate, smoky caramel, sea salt... The nuttiness of the almond milk made the dark chocolate flavour less heavy, and the "smoky caramel" left a pleasant aftertaste on the tongue while making the drink's name come to life on the tastebuds.

Towards the middle of the drink, the true caramelly flavour began to really show itself; evidently, the caramel usually drizzled atop the marshmallows had sunk straight to the bottom of the drink undetected! So, as the rest of the beverage disappeared, the caramel could more easily slip into each sip (deliciously). The Hawaiian sea salt was very subtle, and I probably would not have taken notice if not for the drink's description being read ahead of time. I quite enjoyed this drink, and think soy milk would make its body feel more full; but the almond milk was lovely and light.


I've begun to schedule where my next stops will be, so I look forward to trying something new tomorrow with some free time on my hands!