If you love chocolate, save the day. . . November 19th marks the return of The Ottawa Chocolate Show at the Nepean Sportsplex.
The celebration of all things chocolate is a passion project of Joanne Mutter of Jojo Coco in Kanata and Erik Hansen of DeBarres Chocolate in Uxbridge, Ontario.
Mutter is the owner and manager of one of the finest premium chocolate shops in Ottawa. JoJo CoCo specializes in quality-produced chocolate from across Canada, from Mexico to Madagascar, and everywhere in between.
Most chocolatiers, including mass-production chocolate makers, use pre-made chocolate and melt it down to produce their creations. Mutter describes the chocolate she sells as “bean-to-bar,” an approach first adopted by quality chocolate producers in North America. The method focuses on chocolate made with only the finest cacao in a craft style where the producer does all the work, from roasting the beans to producing the bars.
Mutter is joined in her passion for the merits of bean-to-bar chocolate by her Ottawa Chocolate Show co-host, Erik Hansen, who is a bean-to-bar producer with his own DeBarres Chocolate brand.
Several high-quality, small-batch chocolate producers are gaining popularity due to the bean-to-bar movement. Mutter and Hansen hope to spread the word through The Ottawa Chocolate Show. It will be a rare opportunity to meet craft chocolate makers from across Canada, sample their products and purchase directly from the artisans.
The Ottawa Chocolate Show will be hosted in salons A and B to allow for appropriate spacing between stalls and guests. There will be 25 vendors participating in the show, coming from as far away as Vancouver to the west and Montreal in the east.
Mutter says that the pandemic did not slowed the bean-to-bar movement in Canada. Canadian chocolate producers continue to win international awards, including from the prestigious Academy of Chocolate in the UK.
Ontario chocolate makers attending include Hummingbird Chocolate, who recently opened a café/factory in Almonte, and ChocoSol Traders from Toronto. Chocolate fans will have a chance to meet Mont-Tremblant, Quebec’s Pallette De Bine, who won the Best Chocolate Maker in the Americas Award at the 2016 International Chocolate Awards hosted in London, England.
Kasama Chocolate from Vancouver will also be in attendance. The small craft chocolate maker experienced incredible success at the International Chocolate Awards, taking home multiple gold medals in 2020.
In addition to well-established businesses, new companies will display their products, including Vaka, a brand Mutter recently began carrying in her store and says produces “really tasty bars.”
Mutter and Hansen have also invited talented chocolatiers who produce chocolate treats from pre-made premium quality chocolates. Anne Stubbe Chocolate of Kanata, owned and operated by the daughter of locally famous chocolatier Heinrich Stubbe, will also attend. The Stubbe family is chocolate royalty in Canada!
Mutter hopes the show raises awareness of just how delicious bean-to-bar chocolate is and how talented Canadian chocolate makers are. The day of all things chocolate will include seminars, meet-and-greets with the chocolate makers, chocolate tastings, a history of chocolate, and a chocolate and cheese pairing tasting.
If you’d like to savour some of the world’s best chocolate, made in Canada, or if you want to get a head start on quality Christmas presents for the chocoholic in your life, The Ottawa Chocolate Shows is an excellent opportunity to do both!
The Ottawa Chocolate Show runs from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm on Saturday, November 19, 2022.
Advanced tickets can be purchased online for $15 at theottawachocolateshow.ca or $20 at the door.
