Sat, Nov 14 2009 - 13 km Urban Hike – Tour de chocolat de Toronto (View Original Event Details)
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Chocolate, chocolate. Rah Rah Rah!
TOCs first chocolate hike was a bit of an experiment. The coordinator (Stacy) used google and another mapping website to find the “best” chocolate shops in Toronto, along a route that was going to be all accessible within a day’s worth of urban hiking. In the end, 9 shops were chosen, and she had only ever actually been to one of them! Since many of these shops are small, independently owned storefronts, it had to be taken into account that only so many people could fit into a store at once. But there were so many people on the waiting list! Like the superhero she is, Kate stepped forward and offered to take a second group the same day, just ½ hour later! Now twice the number of TOCers could enjoy a day of chocolate :)
Being mid November, the day began just a little on the brisk side. Our meeting spot near the Yonge Eglinton station was an easy find for everyone, and the first group was quickly on the way up the street to the first little shop: Chocolatease. Wow! So many choices! But I hadn’t even had any breakfast yet, so I opted to buy a few truffles and save them for later. There was a lemon-basil, lavender, and chili! They all looked absolutely delightful, but I had to ration the budget out. Still 8 more shops to go, after all!
From there we walked east to Mount Pleasant, and then south to Le Feuvre’s. There I was the last to finally make up my mind with a banana truffle. The owner also talked me into “Irish potatoes”. These aren’t really chocolates, they’re fondant with crushed walnuts, shaped into little oblong balls and rolled in cinnamon. They’re a specialty only available at that store (family recipe), and really do look like miniature potatoes!
South and back west again, we winded our way along streets and paths to end up near Yonge / St Clair. There was tucked away Xococava. You might never see it, but there we found such unusual flavours such as birch syrup and wild rose. Toronto Life declares them “Toronto's Best Chocolatière”, and the Globe and Mail “Toronto’s best Gelato”. Many stopped to sample the gelato, and judging from their rave reviews, they don’t disagree!
Next stop just around the corner, Dahso’s. This store carries fine European chocolate, but the impression was that they are not hand made in the store in Toronto. Many of the selection was praline (made with hazelnuts), and aren’t my favourite, but I found something that was more up my tree: Caramelized Milk Almond. They also make fresh Belgium waffles, which looked really yummy, although none of us bought one. This store had washrooms, which some of us happily made use of!
Four down, five to go!
We booted it along St. Clair to Avenue Road, where we veered left, and down. As we neared Whole Foods Market (not on our list!), someone requested a minute to run in. A quick vote revealed that everyone might like a minute to grab a juice, or some fruit, so we all took a 10 minute break to get some “real food!” Refueled, we headed for a shop on Cumberland: Simone Marie Belgian Chocolates. One look and we were convinced this might be the most expensive place on our trip. A few of us hung around outside eating our fruit, while others ventured in to take a look. Soon word got around that this was actually one of the least expensive places we’d been to that day! The rest of us piled in and made our selections. I chose a Chessnut truffle, and now that I had some apple and muffin in my system, I was free to finally indulge! What a treat!
The next store was just north on Yorkville: MoRoCo. This one really did look expensive, and this time we were right! One truffle with tax came to $3.14! But by now we were really starting to all become real chocolate experts, and were noticing some flavours we’d seen before: lemon basil, chai. But here’s a new one: curry. I opted for that, and a couple others experimented with cardamom. The fresh, handmade macaroons tempted a few others before we made our sweet escape!
Next up: Dessert Lady. A cute little place, but not really a great selection of chocolates. Looked like delish pies, and I broke the mould and bought three smoked chilli, chocolate chip cookies. After this store, we lost a couple of hikers who had some other things to do that day.
But the rest of us marched on! Just two more to go…
Adam and Eve on Maitland was a very quaint shop, and the owner was thrilled to see us all pile in at the same time. She loved our story about why we were there (well, most shop keepers got a kick out of it, and certainly loved the business, but this one stood out in that respect). This is where I bought my Quebec maple truffle. By now, most of us were actually mumbling some insane comments about having had enough chocolate for one day. Perhaps the warm weather was getting to us. Can you believe it reached (according to one pixel board we passed) 16 C … Nov 14! Crazy.
Now on to the final shop: Soma in the distillery district. This was a hike. By now we were getting tired. As we got near, we passed the strange (chocolate) monster statue, and stopped to take a pic with it and our crew. Over to Soma. Again, many of the same flavours we’d seen throughout our long day… but one I have never seen before: Cloudberry. This is a berry that grows in Scandinavia, where my dad hails from, so I know it well. It was the flavour of the month, so I bought two, thinking he’d eventually get one of them (he never did, I couldn't resist any longer after finally eating the one meant for me) Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a regular flavour there! They were good ;) This place was packed, but also has tables and chairs, so most of us ordered a hot chocolate and sat down for a quick rest. I ordered the spicy version, and enjoyed it … it warms you twice, once with the temperature, and then again with the spices! Another girl in the group didn’t quite have the same affection for it, however!
A few moments later, Kate and her crowd piled in and joined us! Perfect ending to our chocolate hike. After a brief rest, many of us headed back towards Yonge st, where at least 10 (or was it 12?) of us went to the (former) Marche for dinner and beer or wine. Sure, they sell truffles there, too, but we all had a real dinner and great conversation.
It seems my gps is wont to go a little crazy whenever I’m in a store, and it added extra mileage onto our trip here and there; but it was probably close to 14 km when all was said and done.
Good job for the first TOC chocolate hike!
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