Shocolate

Shocolate

(website should be up and running soon)

3/296 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

03 9415 6556

After driving past Shocolate for the past few months and trying to come up with any excuse to go in, we finally bit the bullet and had some chocolate with the dynamic V duo. Shocolate opened its doors in the latter half of last year, and it seems from a few reviews going around the blogsphere they are ding some good work. WE had the pleasure of meeting Nick the owner, and had a good old chat about all things chocolate. After asking nicely if I could take a few photos I got the royal treatment with lights turned on and chocolate ark taken out of the display cabinets, I was pretty chuffed. You could tell that Nick and his staff are extremely dedicated to their field and the service we got was above none, I couldn't help but feel that they put this type of service on for anyone who walked through the door. If you're not a fan of chocolate, still get down there to check out there chocolate art. Its really impressive!!

So bring on the chocolate I say!! All their chocolates and patisserie's are made on site with quality ingredients, such Callebaut cocoa powder. We started our chocolate indulgence with a few hand hand chocolates.

Top two chocolates, left: Bloody Fruit - A mix of berried encased in white chocolate. Right: Basil - Fresh Basil ganache encased in white chocolate

Middle two chocolates, left: Strawberry and Lime - Fresh strawberry puree with a hint of lime ganache encased in white chocolate. Right: Irish - Whiskey flavoured ganache encased in dark chocolate

Lower two chocolates, left - Champagne chocolate. Right: Chilli - ganache infused with a chilli spice blend encased in dark chocolate

They were all so good! Often you get ganache centered chocolates that have a very thick outer coating, not these ones. The shells were as thin as an egg shell, giving you a bigger hit of the inner ganache.

My favorite by far was the basil. V1 hit the nail on the head, saying that only I would order basil, yes its true I am addicted to basil and will almost always order it if given the option....but I'll try to put my bias aside. The basil flavour was so subtle, meaning that you could eat a whole hand full and not feel like you've just eaten pesto. I really enjoyed it. I was just a little annoyed that I had eaten the chilli chocolate first, meaning that everything from then on had a tainted taste. Don't get me wrong, the chilli was great.....just over powering on anything else.

Desserts were a piece of art. Not only were they appetising in the display cabinet, but they were so beautifully presented. V2 had the Exotic Meringue tart: A combination of citrus, banana and passionfruit topped with a fresh lime meringue. I didn't get to taste this one, but it was so darn pretty it was almost a same to ruin it.

Daz had the Berry Eclair: Chox pastry filled with raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrent cream with vanilla bean and lychee. Oh my!! This was good, totally delivered on everything it promised. The berry combination was just great. The choux was soft and yielding, with the creme patisserie fluffy and creamy. I wish I had ordered the eclair!!

V1 and Myself ordered the Bombay: Hazelnut mousse with a creamy cardamom epicenter on a pane de gene sponge. This was pretty darn good, except I would have loved to taste more of the cardamom. The dark chocolate ganache seemed to cancel it out, although the dessert was good, I would have loved to taste more of the flavouring.

We decided to write Nick a note in our chocolate smear. Nick tells us that a customer tried to pass their mobile number onto him this way, unfortunately it got washed off before he could note it down!!

We all drown our chocolate feast with more chocolate. We ordered a few different hot chocolates; Chef's Blend: flavoured with nutmeg, cinnamon and lemon zest; Orange: Flavoured with fresh orange zest; Classic: authentic European recipe.

We spent about 5 minutes just sniffing the hot chocolates! The aroma was intoxicating, especially the chefs blend. My favourite was definitely the chefs blend. When the weather gets cooler, I definitely recommend trying one of these to warm your winter nights!!

Before we left Nick wanted to treat us to one of his favourite chocolates. He brought out a small plate with four chocolates, Caramel: salty caramel ganache. It was wonderful! I swear it was filled with dulche de leche!! We all know that chocolate, caramel and salt are a winning combination. A perfect end to a perfect adventure out for dessert.

Next time I get down to Fitzroy I'm trying this......Tropical Macaroon: Crispy yet tender French style biscuit, centered with fresh mango sauteed with passionfruit pulp, enclosed with whipped milk chocolate ganache.....its HUGE!!