Spring here in the Pacific Northwest hasn’t been spectacular; in fact, it’s been downright depressing.
The weather gods have smiled on us, and we’re about to enjoy a nice stretch of sunny warm weather in the next couple of days.
After spending many rainy days in bed watching tv or baking, I decided to venture out on rainy days, and most days I’ll stop by Mink for a hot chocolate break.

I’ve written about Mink before, and if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I love chocolate.
I’ve lived just a few blocks away from this chocolate café, so why wasn’t I spending my rainy days there?
It’s the ultimate anti-depressant.
The café is in the little courtyard facing Canada Place; it’s quiet and bright with windows looking out to lush green gardens.
After passing by this café to (and from) work daily for years, I finally found the perfect rainy day to settle in for some hot chocolate.
Mink has really good hot chocolate; smooth, rich and creamy – just like their delectable chocolates except drinkable.

Not only am I spending my gray days drinking lots of hot chocolate, I’m also amassing a small fortune in chocolate bars.

Because that’s the kind of day it’s been!

Sweet tea and an apple for snack

White chocolate with caramelized coconut from Monoprix – Snack #2

Snack #3 – Dark chocolate and Fentimans burdock soda

I love these chocolate bars just for their retro automobile artwork – how cool are they?
It’s pretty good chocolate too, Belgian chocolate made with real cocoa butter.
It’s made by Starbrook Airlines (it’s an imaginary airline), with art illustrations by Jaak De Koninck.
Some of his oil and watercolour paintings can be see at the Brussels Airport.
According to the company’s website their chocolates are produced in a semi-artisan way.
And they’re adherents of the ‘Belgian Chocolate Code’ this could also be an imaginary code, but like I said, it’s good chocolate.

Don’t they seem like the perfect bar for a road trip?
With its nostalgic renderings of cars, planes and airline travel.
I got a few this afternoon for my mini road trip this weekend

Urban Fare on Alberni (next to the Shangri-La) carries these, the Dan-D Pak store on Broadway has them too.

I haven’t done a ‘curious product’ post in a while; I guess I haven’t been as adventurous lately.

Today’s product isn’t really a curious product, it’s chocolate from Ghana; Dean and Deluca’s single origin 60% dark.
I’ve been curious about single origin chocolates for a while; they seem to be everywhere these days. 
These chocolates are marketed by chocolatiers for being made from beans from a specific country, region or farm.

They’re packaged and sold as sets in most specialty supermarkets.
It looks like while I wasn’t paying attention single origin products became hip. 
It’s not limited to wines anymore; it’s coffee, chocolate, tea, honey etc. 

The idea is that food tastes unique to the region it is grown and perhaps that differing taste is lost when we mix it up.
With this bar I also wanted to see if it tasted anything like the other made-in-Ghana bars I’ve tried.
I assume those are made from wholly Ghanaian beans.

Chocolate from Ghana tastes different.
For years people have tried to determine why chocolates made in Ghana tasted different from those made in… say… Hershey, PA
But I really picked up the bar at Dean & Deluca because I liked the earthy brown and bright yellow packaging.

It doesn’t say on the package whether the beans are from a specific farm or region in Ghana, so the claim of single-origin is still a tad vague.

What I liked most were the ingredients…. simple and few; dark chocolate, sugar, vanilla and an emulsifier.
The taste was surprisingly similar to the other Ghanaian cocoa bean bars I’ve had, the texture is smoother.
It’s firm with a bold cocoa taste, it has slight fruity notes and a mellow nutty flavour.

It also has the same deep hints as Divine Chocolate’s 70% dark, except the Divine bar is richer (taste wise).
It wasn’t too bitter or too sweet except for a mild bitter aftertaste that lingered.
In all, it’s a delightfully centred bar; smooth, rich, dark with nutty hints.
Maybe the proponents of single-origin-beans are on to something after all.

My Other Chocolate Posts:

• Mink Chocolate
• Terra Nostra Ricemilk Chocolate
• Kingsbite Chocolate
• Kras Dorina Chocolate 

I miss the excitement of US Thanksgiving.

I miss the rush of preparation and the travel leading up to the day, the food, festivities, gathering and cheerful gratitude of the day, and the retail madness that follows the next day.

The Canadian version somehow doesn’t quite manage to evoke all that, but I’m grateful for a holiday in October.

For our Thanksgiving last month we got some Mink chocolate bars.

Mink is a chocolate café here in Vancouver; their chocolates are handcrafted here using the finest Belgian chocolate.

The bars come in beautiful arty packages with fun catchy names.

I tried two; The Girls’ Favourite and Mermaid’s Choice.

The Mermaid’s Choice is a dark chocolate with ganache filling of burnt caramel and fleur de sel with a hint of rosemary.

The taste is amazing! The sweetness of the caramel and the salt makes for a very flavourful combination.

The dark chocolate shell is smooth and creamy and has a nice crunch.

The Girls’ Favourite is a 30% cacao milk chocolate with French hazelnut and almond praline.

It’s smooth and nutty with just the right amount sweetness to it. It’s rich and decadent.

Since today was a normal working day for us, I went by Mink Café on my way from work and got the Dream and …By Any Other Name bars.

We had them for dessert after our lovely dinner while pondering the things we’re thankful for again.