Happy Monday to you Dear Reader! Today I am meeting Chocolate Pied Piper Myriam. The reason why I call her a Pied Piper is because she holds chocolate tours across Sydney (check out her upcoming 13 desserts of Christmas lunch!). This isn’t a chocolate tour but after reading about her rave for the Kakawa Lemon Chocolates naming them the best lemon chocolates in the world I just had to visit Kakawa. After all, this is a woman who travels across the world to find the best chocolate and she somehow stays sylphlike and thin (arrgh French women! 
). And you know I’m on a general life pursuit to find the best of everything so this peaked my interest and we made a date to meet up.
Wall of single origin chocolate
Kakawa is a little chocolate shop in the middle of busy William Street which has a slightly different appearance and philosophy to other chocolatiers. Started by the chocolatier Jin (former pastry chef of Flying Fish) and her partner David (former chef at Quay) just over a year ago it is quietly snapping up awards for their chocolates. The kitchen is open plan and if you walk in around 8.30am you might see them either making the ganache, if you pop in at 9am they may be tempering the chocolate or between 11am to noon you may see them busy enrobing the chocolate.
Chocolate CDs
The other thing that they emphasise is that their chocolate shelf life is a mere 10 days. Not only is this because they use items like fresh cream but they also do not believe that chocolate that sits on shelves for longer tastes as good. As a result each type of their rotating and sometimes changing 32 flavours is made by hand in batches as small as 20 pieces to ensure turnover and freshness. The chocolates take between half a day to two days from beginning to end. And chocolate is ideally stored at between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius says Jin.
And then there’s the water ganache. Keen bakers will know that water is always thought to be the enemy of melted chocolate. But here, they create a water based ganache where they use water, usually flavoured with a herb in a tisane and slowly adding it in. This takes more time and this perhaps accounts for why they are the only chocolatier that does this water ganache. The result as seen in the sweet Thai basil truffle is a very strong and clear basil and mint flavour. These are particularly susceptible to the 10 day freshness rule and after 10 days a mold will develop.
Jin and David
“When people try our chocolates, they can identify the flavour” David says. They use a combination of chocolates from several chocolate producers: Amadei, Valrhona, Michel Cluizel, Callebaut Single Origin and Belcolade.
We do a little chocolate tasting of three single origin chocolates as they have a wall of single origin chocolates. We try a Valrhona from Ecuador called Jivara at 40% cocoa, a Michel Cluizel Santo Domingo 67% and an Amedei Chuao which is my favourite chocolate as it is a dark chocolate without any bitterness to it at all, just a lovely smoothness. It is so prized and expensive that squares of it are sold alongside the truffles so that customers can try it in a smaller quantity and understand why it costs so much more than the others. Along with the single origin chocolates there are 120 different products from ice cream sandwiches, iced chocolates, rocky road, nougat, chocolate CDs, caramels etc as well as the glass display case of bonbons and moulded chocolates. Some items are developed because of customer demand such as the rocky road, nougat and marzipan.
The next chocolate we try is one of the three most popular chocolates. Sydney siders seem to have a complete love of salted caramel and this salted caramel bonbon lightly dusted in cocoa has a soft, oozing salted caramel centre. It’s gorgeously liquid and runnier than a thick caramel without any grittiness or crystallisation. The salted caramel is so popular that they sell the filling by the jar (and a spoon perhaps! 
). Speaking of delicious goodies by the jar, we also try some of the chocolate and fruit preserve which is also sold by the jar. Today it’s a raspberry preserve and the fruit is strong but there is also the presence of the rich Valrhona Manjari chocolate and the two together has the consistency similar to pate de fruit and jam.
But what about that lemon chocolate? The chocolate itself has a pretty floral pattern and the lemons are sourced from David’s parent’s place in the Hunter Valley. They’re wild lemons and he tells us they’re not pretty but they make up for their appearance with flavour. I pop the milk chocolate ganache and lemon chocolate into my mouth and await. A slow but sure burst of pure lemony sunshine erupts on my tongue and palate and the filling is soft and airy. It’s utterly delicious and almost sherberty.
My shopping bag!
I buy some chocolates for Mr NQN and I to sample and because I want to see whether he can discern the flavours easily. The caramels are absolutely divine-true to flavour with the raspberry caramel being my favourite whereas Mr NQN loves the ginger caramels with tiny flecks of stem ginger. The texture for these caramels are soft and melt in the mouth and if you run these over your tongue several times savouring the pure raspberry flavour like I did they will soften and melt quickly.
Clockwise from top left: strawberry pox, lychee, banana caramel, lemon, peanut butter and apple and calvados caramel $1.80 each.
The strawberry enrobed in a thin layer of white chocolate is sweet and instantly recognisable but never too sweet and tastes of pure, fresh strawberry. The banana caramel is also very recognisable with the taste of freshly caramelised banana apparent within seconds (and Jin tells us that when a fruit is reliably consistent like citrus and banana, she always uses the fresh fruit). The Lychee is about the only one that isn’t instantly recognisable, even when you know that that is the flavour. The Lemon, well that is divine (and I just had to have a second one). The peanut butter is a nutty confection and sophisticated so at first you think that it’s more a nutty flavour than peanut butter. The apple and calvados takes a bit of time for the flavour to come through as it has a liquidy calvados burst and then a hint of apple.
So tell me Dear Reader, if you could eat one chocolate for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
Plus a little goodie mixed bag of bits and pieces for $4
Kakawa Chocolates
47 William Street, Darlinghurst, NSW
+61 (02) 9331 8818
Monday-Friday 08:30-18:30
Saturday 09:00-16:00
Closed Sunday and Public Holidays
If you enjoyed this post, why not share it with your friends?
What is NQN up to now?
NQN on Facebook
RSS
59 Comments | Add your own
Sounds lovely! I’m not a fan of filled chocolates and I can only enjoy chocolates that are 85% in cocoa or darker! Once you get used to really dark chocolate everything else just seems too sweet!
Yum, you find all the best places! I can’t imagine how you managed to control yourself. All the flavours sound so amazing,I would have needed to try one of everything!
They should open one at Melbourne . T_T I want to eat lemon chocolates too!
I love caramel and chocolate – so I think it would have to be the salted caramel. But, why oh why only one flavour for like – too cruel!!!
oh my – its like you read my mind! I have been addicted to chocolate lately!
I am never going to say no to chocolate – and these look and sound devine. Gosh, only one chocolate for the rest of my life – a tough call, but perhaps it would be a chocolate filled with smooth flowing caramel – and a hazelnut.
ONE type of chocolate for the rest of my life?! I would have to say the dark chocolate Lindt Lindor balls
I can’t imagine a better way to start the week than a post full of chocolate, darling! Everything is really lovely, and that sweet Thai basil truffle sounds like a unique and intriguing combination of flavors!
I would eat a chocolate covered gooseberry. I can get them in Italy, but I have not seen them here. Thank you for reinforcing the view that chocolate goes off quickly – that’s why I always like to eat all the chocolates in the box immediately.
Lemon chocolate all the way. Dark chocolate.
YUM!
Thankyou so much for posting this – I love lemon chocolates so I just have to work out when I can get to Kakawa!!
Yum! Great work LL!
If I went on such a tour I would think I had died and gone to heaven.
It’s not nice to make people crave chocolate so early in the morning! Those chocolates look divine.
I think it would be a toss up between lindt milk chocolate balls and ferrero rochers for me.
You are so lucky, Lorraine!
I suppose I’d pick the chocolate with peanut butter:)
I had the most divine white chocolate with a passionfruit centre once in Leura and even though I know ‘white’ isn’t the real deal it was so divine I actually miss it sometimes
First of all it seems so strange to be greeted with a Monday greeting on Sunday here. But it is what it is, Fall and a rainy and cool day here in California. I was craving chocolate after my lunch today. I have not eaten chocolate in months but love a really good chocolate. How ironic that you post a chocolate store, but too far to but dream of going to. I love raspberry. My absolute favorite. I can almost taste each flavor as you describe them. What a perfect post with such great photos as usual. Thanks Lorraine. You made my day.
Hi Lorraine, thank you for another gorgeous post, and I’m so glad you liked our little visit to Kakawa!!
The lemon chocolate is definitely one of my favourites, along with their passionfruit and espresso ganache – which is just to die for.
Whenever I’m trying some of their new chocolates, I’m just pinching myself with disbelief – “is that really my job now, to explore Sydney in search of our best chocolate artisans?!!”. Luckily for me, it is
Oh dear, this is totally the Wrong Time Of The Month for me to be reading this post. (Sorry for TMI). Now I totally want, no, NEED chocolate! xo
Looks delicious! I love the chocolate CD’s – cute!
Hmmm I’m not sure I could pick just one. My two favourites are chocolate orange and caramel chocolate.
Wowee, you do find the bestest of places you do. I’m going through a white chocolate phase…, not sure how long it’ll last…, I’m a bit fickle like that
Chocolate heaven! I have a friend who adores everything lemon and would go wild for these.
Walked pass by but sadly didn’t give it a try T T
Well, this place is definitely going on my list for a visit on our next trip to Sydney!!
And they are dead right about the short shelf life. All the very best European chocolatiers only have short shelf lives for their products.
The tour sounds like fun. And the best lemon chocolate in the world sounds intriguing.
Lorraine, you know I couldn’t POSSIBLY answer that!!
This post, and that question, is like torture to me.
Perhaps Valrhona’s Guanaja or Amadei’s Porcelana for plain dark, Askinosie’s Dark Milk with goat’s milk and fleur de sel for the milk, Mast brothers dark chocolate with serrano pepper for the chilli chocolate, and… (Okay. Have to stop now, or I’ll go on for hours.)
Oh what a terrible job you have. (hahaha) I of course am off to Zurich and the home of Lindt for a quick business trip…chocolate nirvana here I come!
Fantastic post Lorraine – I was privileged to be able to join Myriam and friends on her artisan chocolate tour earlier this year – and Kakawa was excellent.
You and your readers might enjoy this Flickr set of mine capturing my favourite chocolate photos on the day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyhollingsworth/sets/72157624353777026/with/4623566081/
Cheers,
Tony
I’m just not sure, I would love to try the lemon version though, sounds divine.
Only one chocolate? That is a huge ask!
As I sit here at my kitchen table, having just finished a tall glass of raw, iced-chocolate, banana and almond milk sorbet, I would have to say Lindt dark chocolate balls.
But wait…on second thought, I don’t think I could only choose one. Impossible!
PS I loved your post and photographs. Wow!
I am trying to remember if I had walked pass this when I went to Bills last time. Maybe I will check it out on this trip as I do plan to go back to Bills again
Definately dark chocolate as it’s lactose free, but my favourite flavouring is raspberry. Yumm…
yum, I think a trip there for christmas presents is in order. They look like such a cuuuute couple too!
any chocolate I could eat for the rest of my life!
Ahh my idea of heaven!
What a horrible thought only having one chocolate to eat for life… I guess i’d have to choose plain dark chocolate.
The flavours sound divine! Will have to check this place out soon.
Pick just one? Couldn’t possibly! It would definitely be very dark and maybe nutty. I was just in Sydney on the weekend, why didn’t you post this last week so I could have planned a visit?
If I could just eat one for the rest of my life? I’d chose death please – death by chocolate! =p The rocky road looks gorgeous and those caramels sound devine!
I am a self confessed CHOCOHOLIC!! I will have to make my way to Kakawa Chocolates next time I am in Sydney, their chocolates look fabulous
I’m a real latecomer to salty caramel so it has to be the salted caramel chocolates all the way!
Drooooool…
Well it’d have to be something healthy if I wanted to eat it forever – smooth dark chocolate, like Club’s original.. I think I would love the Amedei Chuao you talked about in your review, might have to pop in and try some of this Chocolatier’s saffron – the smoothness is what I love and usually find anything over 70% is too bitter for me.
My nan’s doctor recently just advised her to eat more chocolate – !! dark chocolate that is, but still what an awesome and clever doctor.
oh wowwww.. I would LOVE to take part in a chocolate tour! Those chocolate CD’s are too cool
Delicious post but now I feel like eating some of that divine chocolate.
Even though there is an infinite number of chocolates and flavours, after some thought I’ve come up with Chocolate Liqueur Cherries as my lifetime chocolate…Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Cognac and lime or chilli
No, no, no Lorraine. That is cruel, you cannot make me choose just one for the rest of my life!
Must get myself down to kakawa immediately so I can try and pick just one flavour then 
Sounds like a great place. I’m not a big fan of fruit + chocolated, can’t stand orange flavoured chocolates or raspberry, but I still want to try that lemon one..
That looks like true artisan chocolate, how amazing. I am quite partial to Godiva raspberry chocolates but I would be sad if I could only chose one type for the rest of my life.
Oh…my…goodness…CHOCOLATE!!!!! I would love to go to Kakawa – lemon chocolate sounds right up my alley!!
If I only had to eat one chocolate for the rest of my life…I would die!!
Sound tantalising! If the chocolates are that fresh, then I would love to go there and it is semm only around 15-20 minutes walk from my place. Hopefully these walks will make me sylphlike too..
What a fantastic insight into the process of making real chocolate! I love lemon chocolate but the best one I’ve ever tried was limoncello flavoured chocolate on the Isle of Capri in Italy. Perhaps I’ll have to take a shorter trip to Darlinghurst to get my fix from now on!
Girl, I am like Pavlov’s Dogs when it comes to chocolate.
My top is sopping wet from the drool every time you said ‘chocolate’.
LEMON CHOCOLATE? OH MY GOD! I am writing this down for Santa.
Oh I am sooo jealous!!
Lemon chocolate – beautiful! Thai basil truffle! wow. I love the short shelf life too – they must be amazing!!
If I could only eat one kind of chocolate for the rest of my life, it would probably be a dark one of sorts. But I think I need to do more research (tough gig!) before I make such an important call
Heidi xo
Heaven! You were in heaven! And I want that rocky road! But your question is totally unfair! Really! Milk choco covered caramel or marshmallow or fruit ganache or a mixture of the above?
I am a complete chocolate freak, and would absolutely love to visit this place! I love the rustic look of the caramels wrapped so simply in baking paper – I think it really adds to the whole handmade/personal feel!
I saw the chocolate CDs and thought “ooh wow, chocolate sanding discs!!”. Uh, yeah, I’m a dork.
Truffles are definitely my favourite type of chocolates. I find that nothing really compares to them. They just melt in your mouth!
reading this post PAINS me, because i know i can’t try any of those chocolates!!
if i had to choose one type of chocolate… maybe a chili chocolate?? i hope i never have to make such a choice.
Oh. my. goodness. I tell people I’m by no means a chocaholic, but it’s time like these I feel like a filthy liar. This looks like heaven.
Next time I’m in Sydney, I have to remember to trawl through your recent posts – it’s like a foodie’s guide to your city. Your sophomore release should be a travel guide, seriously.
some people have to limit the amount of money they bring into a casino. me? i have to limit the money i bring into a chocolate shop.
Post a Comment