The city chocolate fix

Hur­ray, anoth­er guest post from Heath­er at Food­ie Gems of Wel­lie

Where to go in the city for a qual­ity chocol­ate fix between usu­al excuses – chocol­ate fest­ivals, Valentines, East­er, Xmas, nation­al chocol­ate day, your birth­day, your best friend’s birth­day, White Day in Japan, Chocol­ate Dipped Fruit and Fon­due day in the US (hmmm, any oth­ers?)?

Fol­low me, and know that the cal­or­ies will go straight out the bot­tom of your legs if walk­ing…

Start at Bohemein Fresh Chocol­ates, 109 Feath­er­ston Street (unless it’s Sunday and then start at the Esque stand at the City Mar­ket in the Chaf­fers Build­ing).  A two-bite sens­ory exper­i­ence of fresh ingredi­ents, no pre­ser­vat­ives, and inter­est­ing fla­vours.  To be eaten with­in 2–3 weeks if you take some away and can hold out that long. Try the award-win­ning Sea Salt Car­a­mel.

Call past Kirkal­die and Stain’s gour­met shop to pick up your favour­ite Schoc tab­let.  The Xmasy Frankin­cense, Myrrh and Gold is all go again.

Pop into The Chocol­ate Cake Com­pany in Cap­it­al on the [Lamb­ton] Quay (a mouth­ful in more ways than one!) to order a take-home dense and deli­cious chocol­ate mud cake for shar­ing.  To appease the guilt of hog­ging out all day by your­self.  Unless its Sunday, and then order online once home and you’ve licked away any tell­tale chocol­ate mous­tache.

The next stop should be Tempt Cup­cakes in the Old Bank Arcade (front corner of Smiths The Gro­cer) to see if you can res­ist a Chocol­ate Car­a­mel or Tra­di­tion­al Moist Chocol­ate Cake cre­ation.  Just beau­ti­ful to behold.

As you stroll up Wil­lis Street, stop by But­lers Chocol­ates near the Man­ners corner.  Whilst not a loc­al pro­du­cer, they offer some nicely pack­aged good­ies for Xmas stock­ings, and have a delight­fully sunny after­noon upstairs bal­cony for a wee chocol­atey rest if required.

For the reg­u­larly-voted best hot chocol­ate in the city, pro­ceed to Scopa on the corner of Cuba and Ghuznee Streets.  One of those exper­i­ences that just simply should be on your buck­et list.  Although the shot size is very cute, go for the reg­u­lar at least.  If you’re gonna do it, do it thor­oughly.

I’d sug­gest a sit down in a dark quiet room by about now, so loop around to lower Tarana­ki Street and Hashigo Zake (down­stairs below Zib­ibbo), and order up a Rogue Chocol­ate Stout.  And if you’re hungry, one of Hashigo Zake’s famed gour­met pies to go with it.

And for a dessert finale, uplift your stom­ach and meander along to Mat­ter­horn oppos­ite the buck­et foun­tain in Cuba Street, and order up the Eight Tex­tures of Chocol­ate ‘Thai Style’.  A clev­er and deli­cious fin­ish.

From here there are a range of buses and tax­is nearby, who will take your chocol­ate-sat­is­fied self wherever you need to go….