About Kerstin

I am the founder of Kerstin's Chocolates, and a chocolate fanatic.

Chocophilia bars voted one of the top 25 things to eat in Edmonton.

We were very pleased to find out that our Chocophilia bars were voted by an expert panel of local food celebreties as one of the 25 best things to eat in Edmonton. The full list of winners is available here in this article. We appreciate the recognition, and will continue to focus on delivering the highest quality chocolate possible.

The Fleur de Sel bar was listed as their favorite flavor. What is your favorite flavor? Let us know! Comment by clicking on the link below.

New display case now houses truffles, bark and other treats.

Our new display case.

Our new display case.

We recently added a new bit of furniture to our store: a glass display case. It was custom made to hold our fresh confections as we increase production. It will contain all of our fresh truffles, as well as other fresh confections such as our peanut butter cups, coconut cups, dulche de leche cups and others. It will also contain chocolate dipped dried fruit, chocolate dipped candied ginger, and many flavors of chocolate bark. All of these products are sold by the gram, so after you chose which ones you would like, we will weigh them and then calculate the price.

To find out what types of truffles, fruit and bark are available, please call the store at 780-990-0011. We also hope to have this info available on this blog soon. Also, let us know what kinds of fresh chocolates you would like to see in our shop, and we will add them to our to-do list!

Chocophilia Spiced Drinking Chocolate: A truly grown-up drink!

Chocophilia Spiced Drinking Chocolate

Chocophilia Spiced Drinking Chocolate

In this entertaining article in the Edmonton Journal, Liane Faulder had two pre-teens test our four types of hot chocolate. The kids found our drinking chocolate to be a little to spicy, but Liane said that she “loved the Chocophilia, which is best in small doses, like caviar. Thick and slightly bitter, the drink spread a warm tingle through the back of my throat and made me want to sigh with pleasure, and gratitude.

We could not have said it better!

Steaming machine speeds up production of drinking chocolate in shop!

Astra Steamer

Astra Steamer

We recently got an Astra steamer. It creates steam (no coffee, just steam.) Not just any old steam, but an enormous amount of beautiful steam with a good pressure! We use it every day in the front of the shop to whip up our Chocophilia Drinking Chocolate. We have found that it much faster than our old way of making it, and the drinks taste better than ever!

We use two pitchers, one for the Spicy, and one for the Dark drinking chocolate. If you haven’t tried our Drinking chocolate before, come in to the shop and taste some. It will be ready in a flash!

New Cardamint recipe

After more experimentation, I’ve decided to change the Cardamint recipe. I felt that it was unbalanced, with too much cardamom at the onset and only a subtle mintyness. Since I am a big fan of mint, I decided to make it more minty. Now it tastes like a really good mint chocolate with a hint of cardamom. I think it’s better. I hope others agree!

Getting ready for the opening day-tomorrow!

After a month away from the Cocoa Room and with a trip to Europe under my belt, I’m ready to begin a new season of chocolate making. I think that our trip to Hamburg didn’t inspire me as much as it confirmed that the Cocoa Room is on the right track. It seemed that the trend in chocolate culture there strongly favored high-cocoa content, single origin bars or bars that were “seasoned” with herbs or spices. I visited a great shop called “Chocolate World” in Hamburg and picked up lots of interesting chocolate. My favorite bar was a Mace bar by a Belgian company called Zabaar. I thought it was perfectly spiced and super fresh because it was vacuum sealed. I didn’t visit any chocolatiers in Hamburg-I don’t think Hamburg is a hot bed for that sort of thing. I had some pretty awesome wheat beers, though.

Our first chocolate tasting.

The first chocolate tasting was held at the Hardware Grill in Edmonton. It was organized by the Edmonton chapter of Slow Food and was well-attended. We tasted over 7 different kinds of chocolate from European chocolatiers. For those of you who were too late in registering, we will be holding another tasting in the near future.

Tasting Photo