Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Xococava [CLOSED]

After hearing this was one the best places to get ice cream, of course we had to try it for ourselves!


XOCOCAVA
Where: 1560 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M4T 2S9
Price: Goodies usually range from $0.50-$20 (I spent a total of $21)

**NOTE: It's pronounce "Shoco-cava"


It's located in an old pedastrian plaza - we actually walked by it because we expected to see a huge extravagant shop. Instead we were surprised to see it was inside a small plaza and was an even smaller store.

Hours

Very small store! To it's direct right, is its parent-restaurant, Cava!

When you first enter the store, you'll be surprised at how.. SMALL it is! But the lack of store is made up with the excess of flavour in their goodies!


This is literally the entire store, just a narrow strip.
First impression: This is NOT your typical chocolate.. This is chocolate gone mad-science. Although, I must commend Chef Cava for having that certain kind of insane confidence to mix chocolate with a odd variety of things and actually have it taste.. GOOD

Broken plates cover one side of the store!
Their chocolate truffle menu looks like a hip periodic table of elements.
No, you're not reading it wrong. Some of them DO say oddities such as Szechwan peppercorn, fennel pollen, and even mushroom! The choclates aren't cheap though - it's $2 and 5 chocolates go into ONE collection. So really, you aren't saving unless you get 5 collections..!

Prices


Ice cream flavours

Ice cream - Medium ($5.25)
Hazelnut and salted caramel
Creme Brulee
The ice cream was heavenly. The creme brulee flavour actually had bits of crispy caramelized sugar in it. Tasted exactly like a frozen creme brulee! I was a little sad that the hazelnut didn't have more salted caramel but it was decent as well. They were also really generous with the amount they gave!

Cavacorn
Popcorn with caramel and chipotle

This was really interesting. The popcorn didn't have the crackly, light texture I was familiar with, but instead had almost a stale-texture because it was so heavily loaded with caramel.In the aftertaste you can really taste the chipotle which leaves a zing of spice in your mouth. Quite good!

These "boring" squares of chocolate are deceiving!!
1 collection ($10)
Flavours chosen (from bottom to top):
- Chorizo (Charcuterie and chocolate? It works better than you think!)
- Saffron Vanilla
- Coconut
- Salted Caramel
- Szechwan Peppercorn

Unfortunately, I only had the pleasure of trying the Saffron Vanilla which was literally an explosion of flavour. The entire truffle is just a creamy vanilla! Not too sweet either, which I expected! However, I heard that the chorizo chocolate is the perfect balance between spicy, salty and sweet. I have yet to try the other ones (my family just devoured them way too quickly!)

We also got churros ($0.50 - not pictured here) that were decent. I was surprised as how much spice they had! You can definitely taste star-anise and loads of cinammon! It would have also been nicer if they were warmer when we ate them :( But for the price of $0.50, you really can't complain :)

Overall, very interesting chocolate AND ice cream place to go to! Excited to try their other flavours of ice cream! 

Xococava on Urbanspoon