Dorea R.
Yelp
I recently went to the new Chocosol store front for a private birthday party, and I was blown away by them! We were there for a chocosol workshop, and we got so much more, including: wine, a delicious dinner and dessert, tons of chocolates, hot chocolate (or mocha, espresso or coffee if you wished), and we got to make our own corn tortillas and chocolates! That's my brief summary, now I'll break down the entire experience for you.
The Food and Drinks: Absolutely yummy!
*Chocolates: I tried 6 kinds, including coconut, 65% chocolate, coffee bean, vanilla, unsweetened, and chili (I may not have the correct names). They were all delicious! My favorite was a tie between the coconut and the chili. The coconut chocolate is a bit creamy, and the chili chocolate had just enough spice to have the right amount of kick. All of the chocolates were also vegan!
*Dinner: We got to make our own corn tortillas (see workshop below), which was so much fun! The corn tortillas were used to make little tacos (I don't know that they were tacos, but I am not sure what else to call them. They were more like mini burritos) with a variety of tasty fillings, and these were all vegetarian. They also made us some vegan versions (no cheese)!
*Dessert: For dessert, they melted chocolate into the corn tortillas. This was SO SO GOOD!
*Hot beverages: They primarily made us a rich and decadent hot chocolate, which is unlike any traditional North American (American and Canadian to be more specific) hot chocolate. It was rich and not very sweet, but you could add sweetener if you wished. There were other options as well, like coffee, espresso or mochas. I didn't have these drinks, but I hear they were also really good! I was also told that if we had brought some beer we could have made chocolate beer floats, and that the hot chocolate is also really good chilled and makes a great sauce.
Workshop: We got to make 2 things, corn tortillas and chocolates. Learning how the corn tortillas were made was a lot of fun. We started with how the corn is ground and got to see it all getting ground up, then we made the dough, then the tortillas. While I helped make tortillas, one of the staff members (Matt I believe) told me a bit about how the left over corn meal could be used and is used in the jungle in Mexico. The corn tortillas we made were used for our dinner and dessert! We also had a chocolate making workshop. I missed some of that because I was too busy in the front eating delicious food, drinking wine and chatting with friends, but I did have a chance to go to the back and mould some chocolates!
Staff: There were 2 staff and a volunteer working during our event. They were all very friendly, and they were happy to share their knowledge with us. I certainly learned a lot from them during our visit, and I appreciate their enthusiasm for the ChocoSol products.
Store Front: Perhaps my only (slightly) negative review is the location, but that's for selfish reasons. I wish that it was located closer to ME! The store itself is quite lovely and is decorated with fantastic informative posters, ChocoSol products and items of Mexican culture. If you didn't feel like chatting with anyone for a bit, there was plenty of interesting items to check out! The store was spotless, and they required that we wear hair nets and aprons while in the kitchen to ensure no stray hairs got into any of the food items. I really want to commend them for their posters. I am quite picky about both the accuracy and validity of information shared by a number of well-meaning companies, and I am happy to report that ChocoSol presents the science, environment and health related facts of their products and company expertly and in an engaging manner.
All in all ChocoSol is the full package, and you would be giving yourself a real treat by visiting them. I know I will be purchasing lots of gifts from ChocoSol in the future! Although, I will probably make most of my future ChocoSol purchases at stores and farmer's markets that are a bit closer to me.