"Don't be afraid of the dark." - Honest Chocolate Café
Here is a primary nook of Cape Town that settled sweetly and softly upon my heart when I had first begun university. Flying the nest from my hometown was exhilarating and saddening and hopeful and nerve-wrecking all at once.
To contain and release these inward conflictions, I busied myself with exploring the uncharted territories of a new map laid before me by the loving Abba Himself.
I remember my first time touring alone in what was then to me a foreign city, dodging and ducking my way through bustling streets of motoring vehicles and hustling pedestrians. Stumbling upon this side-walk slip-in, I ascended the steps to enter, grateful to be escaping the pavement pandemonium.
This corner of Cape Town's CBD had been a sigh of relief to me then, and continues to be so.
Lacing my fingers round a warm handle-bare mug, I sipped aromatically from a deep dark concoction of spicey orange hot chocolate, enchanted to return many a time to this comfort spot ever since.
Oh for the love of Honest Chocolate! It is a place where countless heart-to-heart chats can be recounted, in the welcoming front-facing chocolaterie, the inner stone-walled courtyard, and the charming Secret Gin Bar that opens at eveningtide. It is the place where those three sacred words were first expressed to me by the love of my life. I tasted how sweet, oh so sweet, true love is. It has been a place to leave me with an aftertaste of memories.
Now I'm no chocolatier, but I know true chocolate when I taste it. From indulgently customary hot chocolate options, to strong coffee and thick milkshakes; chocolate guacamole nachos; sweet potato brownies; dark chocolate-based baked cheesecake; dark chocolate macarons, croissants and muffins; tasty tarts (think buckwheat, dates, and coconut, and chocolate goo); ice-creams and nice-creams. Everything vegan-friendly.
I bestow a separate paragraph to my personal favourite go-to: the iconic sweet-tooth bunny chow. This is constructed from a baby banana bread bun filled to the brim with n/ice-cream, oozed over with dark chocolate, and sprinkled with salted cashews to taste. And yes, a vegan option applies to this too!
What's more to love, is the selectable delectable gifts to pick and choose from to treat your loved ones with. There are various Honest Chocolate slabs and spreads to take home with you, but what piqued the most interest for me was the artisanal assortment of confectionaries arrayed at the entrance to welcome passerbys. I remember squealing with delight at the sight of a bonbon fashioned after hexagonal honeycomb.
Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. - Forrest Gump
Let me declare that the culprit behind chocolate being this decadently good, is simplicity. Crafted from two ingredients and two ingredients only, this is Honest Chocolate's old-school, handmade method to being the real deal.
The first ingredient: fresh cocao straight from Tanzania's Kilombero Valley. These magic beans are grown, harvested, and traded by the local farmers in a sustainably ethical manner, before being brought directly to Honest Chocolate's own quaint-sized kitchen in Woodstock Cape Town. There they are roasted, winnowed, ground, and hand tempered upon a granite slab, ready to receive the finishing touch.
The second ingredient: sweetener in the form of coconut blossom sugar or unrefined cane sugar, depending on the choice of chocolate.
Saying something about my own bucketlist, this astonishing process is one in which I have wished to still witness, and matter-of-fact it is an achievable dream-come-true. Honest Chocolate offers monthly chocolate-making workshops at their Woodstock Exchange Production Kitchen. This poses a fun activity to do with friends, or alternatively you can bring the chocolate connosiers to you for an interactive and educative chocolate tasting session. You can book your private event at info@honestchocolate.co.za.
To experience homeyness-away-from-home ambience, you will find this treasure chest tucked away where Loop Street meets Bree. More specifically:
64A Wale St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000
Business Hours:
Mondays - Thursdays: 09h00 - 18h00
Fridays & Saturdays: 09h00 - 22h00
Sundays: 09h00 - 16h00
With chocolate-for-lipstick kisses,
Hannah Mia xxx
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