Easter chocolate

Easter chocolates

My attempts at healthy eating completely failed this weekend. Not only did my meals consist of Mexican and Chinese food (more on that later this week), but I also indulged in some Easter chocolate. Specifically, chocolate from Kerstin’s Chocolate and their store The Cocoa Room.

This year Kerstin had an Easter egg hunt where if you found six eggs you would get a special basket full of chocolate. If you found three eggs, you had your choice of one Zotter chocolate bar. The eggs were scattered in various local stores that sells Kerstin’s line of Chocophilia chocolate bars. And they went quick. It was awfully frustrating to call or end up at places that had already given theirs away, and yet fun at the same time to go on a treasure hunt. Some of the places were just too far away to get to; I figured I might as well buy my own chocolate than waste gas driving out to some locations. It was an interesting cross-marketing idea though, and I actually ended up spending money at a couple of places while looking for the eggs (also more on that later in another post).

In the end, I ended up with three plastic eggs that I traded in for a Zotter bar. Zotter’s chocolate bars are Austrian organic and fair trade “hand scooped” bars that specialize in unique flavours like Bacon Bits (Kerstin told me those sold out very quickly) and Sour Cherries with Sesame. I chose Cheese – Walnut – Grapes, which Zotter describes as:

“A harmonious combination: Austrian mountain cheese, walnuts, grapes, almonds and a touch of balsamic apple vinegar, altogether dipped in dark alp milk chocolate.”

It was definitely interesting. The closest that I could think of as a description was eating a cheese and walnut plate with a side of wine (actually some Grappa that was one of the ingredients), accompanied by small pieces of chocolate – but with the experience all rolled into one bite instead of separate nibbles.

Cheese - Walnut - Grapes chocolate bar by Zotter

I also bought a box of Meltaway Mix for myself, consisting of praline and mint meltaways. The meltaways are a little like eating Moritz Icy Squares, except that they aren’t minty (except for the mint flavour, of course), and they are made with a much higher quality of chocolate. I’ve been nibbling on all of these all weekend.

Meltaway mix by Kerstin's Chocolates

I also picked up a couple of truffles – a caramel fleur de sel and a passion fruit one. I totally understand why people rave about salted caramels and chocolate, but the more I try them the more I think they are not for me. I enjoyed the passion fruit one much more, although both were quality chocolates.

Caramel fleur de sel and passion fruit truffles

And I couldn’t leave the store without an Easter egg. For a gift I picked up a large Chocophilia Venezulean 65% dark chocolate egg filled cinnamon latte meltaways. It was a huge egg – bigger than most people’s hands.

Dark chocolate Easter egg with cinnamon latte meltaways by Kerstin's Chocolates

Kerstin’s Chocolates – The Cocoa Room
10139-112 St.
Edmonton, Alberta
www.kerstinschocolates.com