Tasty Tours ~ Chocolate

I have been invited to a 3 hours guided Chocolate tour by Tasty Tour (@tasty_tours) this past Saturday togerther with Amy (@lu_amy7), ChrisUnagi (@chrisunagi), Claire (@clairehohoho) and Manley (@manleyh) etc.

Throughout the tour our guide Audrey Ooi (here in red) introduce to the history, origin, making and all the different types of chocolates

Stop #1 : Soma Chocolate (@SomaChocolate)

As you may know by now, I've a huge fan of Soma (post here, here & here), but this is my first time to this King St. West location which was a lot bigger and brighter which I love (^_^)

Soma is one of the few artisan chocolate makers in North America that makes small batches directly from the cacao bean. They buy their bean diretly from plantations all over the world.

We were given a detail explanation of the process of turning the cacao bean into chocolates.

 We were given a tasting of their dark Peruvian Chocolate which was super delicious #♥Soma

Also bought a Butter Caramel w/ fleur de sel truffles to try, yummmmm

Also bought a Ruby red bar to try and one of my all time favorite English Toffee

Walking over to our 2nd stop

Stop #2 : Alimento Fine Food Emporium (@alimentofoods)

                   I have been meaning to give this place a visit either for a quick lunch or some Italian grocery shopping but this time we are here for Forno Cultura! where Italian baker Andrea Mastrandrea makes everything fresh here

Will have to come back to try all this goodness

Our tasting : Gianduia Cake which is a chocolate and hazelnut cake with quite a heavy glaze of rum/brandy here =P

A lot of cheese tasting available as well. will have to come back to get some since tried quite a few that was super good (I ♥ cheese)

Also got a free Olive Oil demo/tasting 

Stop #3 : Delight 

I pass by this place so many time but have actually never given it a try but after this visit, I sure will be back for their organic and fair trade treats

Me and Ben tried the Quebec Blue Cheese & Mojito Truffles which sounded strange at first but was very delicious.... chocolate actually tast really good with cheese and Mojito, alcohol & mint with chocolate is obviously good =D

After trying some of their Organic Ice Cream, I just have to get a scoop of their Quebec Blue Cheese Ice Cream. It was slightly crumbly in texture just like the cheese itself but was surprisingly mild in flavor (not very stinky) which will be great way to start enjoying Blue Cheese =P

Stop #4 : Nadege (@nadegetoronto)

I ahve this say this was kinda a surprise stop, I have been to Nadege before but wasn't a big fan since their macarons and cakes are a bit too sweet for my taste but I have actually never tried their chocolate before.

We got to try their pop candy chocolate but I have to say it was a huge disappointment, given that we were only offer small pieces I didn't feel like finishing mine (O_o) The chocolate was not smooth, a bit tastless and maybe not-so-fresh?!

Stop #5 : Sanko

This Japanese grocery store hosed a lot of yummy Japanese snakes and chocolates therefore I was quite happy that this happen to be one of our stop.

Here we got to try the limited edition of Sakura Maccha Latte KitKat

Regular Green Tea KitKat is also available for sale here :)

And quite a few other Green Tea snacks...

And quite a bit of snacking selection (my kind of heaven, see some of my favorites here & here)

Stop #6 : Chococrepe (@chococrepe_)

This is the final stop and what can be better than chocolate and crepe (^_^) I have been meaning to try it out since they first start following me on twitter but as usaul haven't had a chance yet until now.

They also have gelato :)

 OMG, can I take this home =P

Very cute decor (^_^)

 Our tasters, super adorable mini crepe and hot chocolate.

Love the crepe which was super soft and moist and the dark, milk & white chocolates y different distict flavors.

 The dark was slightly fuity tart, the milk was sliky smooth and the white was milky sweet.

Surprise, there was a prix to be drawn : Milk Chocolate from the taster.

Me and Amy (@lu_amy7) couldn't resit and just had to order one of their crepe

Pear. Goat Cheese & Honey Crepe ~ This was consider their savoury crepe and all their savoury creper are in buckwheat which tends to be not as moist as regular crepe a say it's not the greatest presentation here but I did like the combination of texture and taste here 



Verdict :

Thanks to Audrey from inviting me, I came our with a better knowledge of chocolate.

If you are not very familiar with the downtown Toronto and love sweets, this is a great tour to discover all the treasurs that we have (^_^)

Tasty Tour are currently having a special on their chocolate tour for only $20pp instead of their regular price of $35pp.

 For those who haven't bought a Mother's Day present yet, this may be a great idea to treat mum to some yummy treat and spend some time together was well.