Cocolat Easter Chocolates

Originally known as ‘Death by Chocolate’, Cocolat is a South Australian owned and operated company based at Balhannah in the Adelaide hills that specialises in hand made chocolates, cakes and desserts. They have two dessert cafes that I have been regularly frequenting – one at the airport (thus catering to hungry and/or homesick-but-departing South Aussie travelers) and the other in Rundle Street; hub of the Fringe comedy, theatre, busking, burlesque and juggling action. Many’s the time I’ve required a chai latte and a truffle or two after witnessing a particularly entertaining show. Judging by their packed tables well into the night, so do a lot of other midnight oil-burning chocophiles.

I will write later about their selection of cakes (such as their original ‘Death by Chocolate’ which was also my brother and sister-in-law’s fantastic wedding cake) and truffles another time: today it is their Easter fare. I bought a bag of their little Easter shapes – bunnies and chicks – because they came in white, milk and dark chocolate, and their Speckled Eggs because, well, they looked really pretty.

Unfortunately, neither the bags, the brochure on the counter or their website gives any information on cocoa content, fat or what other ingredients are in any of their chocolates or other products, so I’ll be writing this on taste and feel alone.

Even more unfortunately, I did not enjoy two thirds of the chocolate shapes. To be fair, white chocolate has never been my cup of tea and besides, it isn’t really chocolate, but I just didn’t enjoy it. The dark chocolate tasted suspiciously like the cooking chocolate that’s commonly available everywhere and is mostly used as a ‘coater’ for other stuff such as dried fruit. Out of the three, only the milk chocolate tasted nice. Yes, ‘nice’ is a very ordinary word and I guess that’s exactly what it was: just OK. Nice, not mind-blowing and certainly not worth the rather inflated price.

The speckled eggs had a coating that was thicker and harder than my poor teeth could handle. When the shell finally cracked, for a few awkward seconds it wasn’t clear if it was the coating or my own teeth that I was chewing. Sadly, this obscured the taste of the milk chocolate. It was in there somewhere, but over powered by the gobful of gravel that masqueraded as the crispy coating. Pretty to look at, but not to eat.

All is not lost, however. They have truffles to try (heaps of them) and they are particularly famous for their desserts so for the sake of good chocolate and you, dear readers, I’ll keep trying.

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