Schokolade Artisan Chocolate & Cafe, in Hastings Sunrise, is a cute little place that I have passed often but never visited. Their entry into the City Food Magazine Hot Chocolate Festival seemed like the perfect opportunity to drop by. Although their entries are some of the priciest to date, at a whopping $9.99 a serving, I was not disappointed with the hot chocolate, the accompanying truffles, or the attentive service of proprietor Jane Suter and chocolatier Edward Suter.
After much deliberation and discussion with Jane (who knows just about all there is to know about the relative merits of white chocolate vs. dark chocolate vs. milk chocolate), I chose to go with the Ginger Milk hot chocolate:
This hot chocolate may be a festival favourite. Expertly prepared by Jane (who was too shy to have her photo taken), this hot chocolate had just the right amount of crystallized ginger (which is prepared in-house by Edward, without sulphides), and sprinkled with marigold flakes, so it had a nice crunch to it (it sounds weird to have a crunchy drink, but it's delightful). Jane told me I'd have to drink the milk chocolate version faster than the dark chocolate, as the milk curdles faster, but I was more than happy to do so.
The hefty price tag made sense when Jane told me that the hot chocolate was accompanied by three handmade truffles. This included two coconut ginger truffles, and a raspberry heart, which I substituted in place of a brandy truffle - one of Schokolade's house specialties, I'm told, but I'm not really into boozy chocolates.
In addition to these truffles, Jane presented me with a Mah Jong piece truffle, as a Chinese New Year blessing:
The chocolates chosen were the perfect accompaniment to the hot chocolate - although I was starting to head into a sugar coma by this point. Hot chocolate and truffles may not be the healthiest Saturday morning breakfast I have ever had.
Chocolatier Edward Suter was kind enough to come out of his workshop to answer some questions for me about his chocolates. Most of his ingredients are sourced locally, he told me - he prefers to go and pick his own berries for some of the ganaches if possible. He sources his chocolate from Switzerland, where he did his apprenticeship.
Chocolatier Edward Suter.
Edward told me that these heart designs are "silkscreened" from plastic onto the wet chocolate using chocolate tinted with colouring...
...while these peppermint truffles are hand-painted.
Despite having filled myself to the brim with sugar, I couldn't resist buying a few more chocolates to take home for later (which I was sternly warned by Jane not to refrigerate - the chocolate gets rubbery). Particular favourites included an earl grey truffle, and a white chocolate jalapeno mango truffle - which I was dubious about, but was actually delighted with.
Schokolade offers a chocolate high tea, and a great selection of chocolates. Their wares may also be found at Urban Fare. I highly recommend a visit to Schokolade's cafe - it's worth the trek.