Many of you who purchased a Living Social coupon have been contacting us, eager to use your coupons before they expire. To accommodate everyone, we have decided to have a full day of tastings on Sunday, August 21st. You may have noticed that the dates for all chocolate tastings can be found on our online store, chocophilia.ca. under tickets, and that you can book your spot through the website.

For this particular day, only the last tasting will be available online, so we ask that you either give us a call at 780-990-0011, or shoot us an e-mail at info@kerstinschocolates.com to reserve your spot. The tastings start at 1:30pm, 3pm, 4:30pm, and 6pm, and are approximately 1 hour in length. For those of you without a coupon, a spot can be purchased for $15. Hope to see you soon!

We are having a party to celebrate our new ice cream this Wednesday, August 3rd from 3pm to 7pm. Come in to sample a flight of 3 different ice cream concoctions: A scoop of Valrhona chocolate ice cream, a thick and luscious chocolate milk shake and an ice cream float made from stout beer! The flight costs $7.00 and if you bring a friend the second one is only $3.50! There will also be ice cream sandwiches and pints of ice cream for sale. Put your name in the draw for 5 chances to win ice cream for a month.
See you on Wednesday!

It’s been about 3 weeks since I got back from Oaxaca and the memory of the city with it’s beautiful streets, colorful zocalo and delicious food is beginning to fade. In order to revivie it, I will make and serve Tajate this week at the shop. If you’re unfamiliar with Tejate, I wrote about it in one of my first blog entries during my visit to Oaxaca. Basically it’s a mixture of corn, cacao, flowers and water. Isn’t that lovely? If you would like to try it, drop by on Thursday, Friday or Saturday for a free sample.

I’ve been meaning to post all week about my trip to a local cooperative that makes chocolate from the bean to bar, but somehow I’ve just been too busy relaxing. Now, on this rainy day, I’m finally getting a chance to post some pictures and write a brief description of the visit.
Everyone that I spoke to has assured me that there’s no cocoa growing in Oaxaca, that it grows in Chiapas and Tabasco only. But last week I visited a little cocoa processing operation that makes chocolate from trees grown right here in Oaxaca. The place is called Toltepec and you can check out a cool video on U-tube if you google “Chocolate Toltepec”.

Ilona and I hired a taxi to take us there and after a 2 hour ride, we discovered the place was closed! Luckily our taxi driver found one of the members of the collective and asked him to show us around the facility. To be honest, there wasn’t much to look at. Operations seemed to be on hold. When I asked the man giving us the tour how often they made chocolate, he explained that the chocolate is made on demand. I can imagine that without some marketing, there is a huge disconnect between this little chocolate manufacturing facility in the mountains
and the markets of Oaxaca or elsewhere.
Even though there wasn’t much to see in terms of chocolate being made, it was still cool to be surrounded by cocoa trees. We asked to try the fruit fresh off the tree and it was delicious! Quite sweet and a little tangy at the end. That tanginess must be what gives chocolate its acidity. I asked what type of bean they use in their chocolate (which is really good, by the way) and the man said that they use criollo beans. That must be why it’s so good! I bought a bag of the chocolate and a bag of raw cocoa beans to experiment with when I get home. I have yet to try roasting my own beans-now I have the perfect excuse.

We have just debuted our new-and-improved ice cream sandwich for the summer! The ice cream has been made  for us by the lovely folks at Pinocchio – we gave them a special 80% Valrhona chocolate, and the result is a rich, silky, not-too-sweet ice cream.

But the cookies are definitely not an afterthought – soft and chewy with plenty of cocoa, they recall the texture of a classic chocolate wafer; but with a true chocolate flavour and a pleasing thickness, they are tempting to eat all by themselves. Paired with the ice cream, they are elevated to new heights. A roll in some crunchy cocoa nibs, and the result is an intense chocolate treat to enjoy in the warm weather.

For those of you with hardier constitutions (than me), we sell them whole, but we are also selling them in halves. If you can afford to slip into a chocolate coma for a few hours, though, there is something deeply satisfying about holding an ice cream sandwich potentially larger than your fist!

Here are the newest additions to our truffle case, in time for Father’s Day:

Dark milk chocolate with maple ganache and bacon

Dark milk chocolate with Alley Kat Blueberry Ale ganache

We’ve set up a couple of sale tables to make way for new stock – come in soon to get a great deal.Also, any purchase over $100 is discounted 15% this month!

We have beautiful teapots and drinking glasses from Bodum, with a unique design to keep your beverage warm (and stylish):

Along with assorted bars, all at a discounted price:

We’ve also started selling slabs of Felchlin chocolate in milk and dark:

And some books and chocolate molds, for those eager to try their hand at baking/chocolate making in their own kitchen!

Here is Rebecca’s truffle collection for Father’s Day this year (Blueberry Ale, not pictured):

Mojito - Dark chocolate with organic mint, lime and spiced rum

Canadian Whisky - Dark milk chocolate with Gibson's Finest whisky

Orange Martini - Dark chocolate with organic orange juice, Cointreau and vodka

Piña Colada - Organic milk chocolate with caramelized pineapple

If you have tasted any of these flavours and would like give us any feedback, please feel free to post comments below!

Two two types of chocolate bacon bars!

Father’s Day is on June 19th this year. To commemorate this special day, we are bringing back our Bacon Bars for a limited time. Come in from June 9th to June 19th to pick up our:

• Milk Chocolate Chipotle Chili and Bacon Bar or our
• Dark Milk Chocolate Salt, Pepper and Bacon Bar.

All of our bacon is locally produced by Al and the team at Irving’s Farm Fresh in Round Hill, AB. We are using certfied organic milk and dark chocolate for these bars.

If bacon chocolate is not your thing, then we’ll also have a wonderful selection of truffles based on dad’s favorite beverages such as:

• The Orange Martini- Madagascar Dark Chocolate with vodka, cointreau and fresh orange juice

• The Mojito- Venezuelan Dark Chocolate with spiced rum, mint and fresh lime juice

• The Virgin Pina Colada- Venezuelan Milk Chocolate, caramelized pineapple and coconut milk

• The Canadian Whiskey – Dark Milk Chocolate and Gibson’s Whiskey

• The Blueberry Ale- Dark Milk Chocolate and Alley Kat Blueberry Ale

We would like to announce a special discount: For the month of June 2011, we will be offering a discount of 15% on any purchase of $100 or more at our store!

Here’s a look at what we’re featuring in the showcase this week. A peek at the Father’s Day flavours is coming soon!

Morir Soñando - Dominican chocolate with orange and rum, rolled in cacao nibs

Island Dreaming - Organic dark chocolate with a pineapple ganache

Theobroma - Organic dark chocolate with cacao fruit purée

Sweet dates with goat's cheese and chocolate ganache, topped with a walnut

A great little video from KQED about TCHO and talks about how they make chocolate.

Kaylin, the winner of our draw for a year’s supply of chocolate, came into the shop recently to pick up her first batch. Here are a couple of photos:

Here’s a look at what we put together last time: http://instagr.am/p/D5maD/

With Kerstin

Congrats, Kaylin! We look forward to picking out some fun stuff next time.

The Lemon Dream bar review by www.nearof.com

The nice folks at NEAROF just posted a review of our Lemon Dream bar. Take a peek!

Mother’s Day is coming up quickly and our chocolatier Rebecca has debuted three new truffles to please your chocolate-loving mom, wife, sister or daughter! As you may have heard, Kerstin’s now uses organic and local ingredients in our confections, and the taste really shines through in these gleaming little beauties. A box full of these truffles is sure to make your Mother’s Day even more special. You’ll want to make sure to save some for yourself too…

Raspberry Rose (organic milk chocolate with rose ganache and raspberry compote)

Lemon Mint (organic dark chocolate with lemon-mint ganache)

Sparkling Ginger (organic dark chocolate with a milk chocolate-ginger ganache and a crystallized ginger accent)

We will also have plenty of bark – a dark chocolate ginger, a dark-milk sour cherry and a milk chocolate-hazelnut praline. We hope to see you soon!

Kerstin’s Chocolates will be open from 11am to 4pm today, Friday April 22nd and 11am to 5pm on Saturday April 23rd. We are closed on Sundays and Mondays.

This Easter we are going to give one lucky person a free 1-year membership to our new Chocophilia Choc-o-the-Month Club (worth $600!). Everyone who comes down to Kerstin’s Chocolates and makes a purchase at the register will get an entry form to fill out. Each form entered give you one chance at winning! The contest ends on April 23rd, and we will draw and announce the winner on April 25th. [There is no limit to the number of times you can enter, but only one entry per visit please!]

Each web order will also give you one entry, so please order chocolate this week from our web shopping site, Chocophilia.ca, if you can’t come down to our shop.

Well, it’s that time of year again. I know there’s snow on the ground, but I suggest we all go on like it’s spring. A little chocolate doesn’t hurt the cause…

First of all, we’ve had a shipment of Zotter recently. These Easter bars are quite something, and I can’t resist the art work and title that inspired the name of this post:

Raspberry and Coconut

Advocaat and Chili

And not really Easter-y, but check out this ‘Peanuts and Ketchup’ bar. Perfect to pair with their ‘Bacon Bits’ bar.

As per usual, the shop is full of chocolate eggs in all shapes, sizes and flavours. New this year are Peanut Butter and Jelly eggs and Caramel filled eggs in either milk or dark versions. Rebecca has also hand decorated hollow eggs and filled them with a ‘surprise’ for the lucky recipient. And finally, large eggs made from our Fleur de Sel and Lemon Dream Chocophilia bars are also on the shelf and there are bunnies and other animals hanging around the shop as well.

Fleur de Sel

Rebecca has created some beautiful spring truffle flavours this year, including Grand Marnier with candied violets, Honey-Rosemary and Saskatoon Berry with toasted walnut. We’ll have some beautifully wrapped for your ‘Easter Bunnies’ next weekend.

Grand Marnier and Violet

Honey-Rosemary

Happy Easter!

If you bought a tasting on LivingSocial or GoodNews, please click here to reserve your spot at an upcoming Chocolate Tasting Workshop.

This Saturday, March 5th, we will be having our 3rd year anniversary party.  Come in between the hours of 5 and 9 to sample some new chocolate creations and help us celebrate with a Chocolate Martini!  Everything in the shop will be 20% off (except for our sale items).

To RSVP for this event, send an e-mail to:

rsvp@kerstinschocolates.com

(If you don’t RSVP, you won’t be on the guest list, so make sure to RSVP. Also, if you are bringing friends with you, let us know how many!)

O.K. I’m scaring myself now. I must have licked 1/2 a cup’s worth of olive oil ganache out of the bowl. I’ve been meaning to try this recipe for ages and I’m happy I finally did. It’s SO good! Basically you replace the cream for olive oil to make the ganache so it’s super rich but firmer than a normal ganache. I used my friend’s olive oil that his family makes in California and cut it with regular olive oil. Because it uses so much of his super high end olive oil, it would be an expensive little bon bon. I may put it in the display for special occasions only.