Why chocoholics flock to the Rockies
by Shari Bishop Bowes
There are two excellent reasons to enjoy some fine chocolate on a vacation in the Canadian Rockies:
1. You’ve just spent a full, adventurous day of calorie-exhausting exertion in the great outdoors, leaving you with an immediate and persistent need to refuel the tank with something utterly decadent.
2. You want some, you just have to have some.
Both are equally good reasons to explore the chocoholic offerings of the Canadian Rockies, with a particular focus on the centre of the area’s chocolate universe: Banff.
Before they arrive, visitors to Banff National Park dream about the scenery, the wildlife, the spectacular heights of the mountains, and the handsome red serge-wearing Mounties. As they pack their bags, the last thing on their minds is chocolate.
Little do they know they could spend an entire day exploring the sweet chocolate offerings of Banff’s chocolate shops, fine restaurants and candy stores, sampling and tasting their way to sugar heights at least equal to the area’s highest peaks.
Bernard Callebaut
111 Banff Avenue, Banff
My own chocoholic experiences with Banff always start with the very finest treats available to humankind: Bernard Callebaut chocolates. Tucked away in the Harmon Mall off Banff Avenue, this beautiful little shop has a loyal following of both locals and visitors who return again and again for sweet indulgence.
Once I had introduced my Mom — a kindred spirit in her chocolate-cravings — to Bernard Callebaut chocolates, I could never visit her again without at least a small, perfectly wrapped box in hand. “Perhaps you should bring one for yourself, too,” she always says with a grin as she spirits away her stash for private enjoyment at a later date.
Jack Miller, who has owned the Bernard Callebaut shop in Banff since 1986, is always friendly and almost conspiratorial with his regular customers as they come in for a treat. He knows they are seduced by the quality, the luxury and the decadence that can be summed up in a perfect bite of just one chocolate treat. He also knows they will find no fresher, more pure and decadent a chocolate in the town, and arguably the country, should they hunt for a week.
The freshest cream, the purest cane sugars and, of course, the very finest in Belgian chocolate conspire together in recipes that add butter cream, whipped ganache, caramels, praline, fruits, marzipan and fine liqueurs for utter chocoholic perfection.
So popular are some seasonal holiday creations that bookings come weeks in advance of their readiness.
Miller seems amazed himself as he recounts the popularity of Bernard Callebaut’s Christmas recipe for brandied cherry chocolates.
The Calgary-based company purchases an entire orchard of the finest summer cherries from the sun-drenched B.C. Okanagan. The cherries arrive after harvest to be soaked in brandy and cured to perfection before their pre-Christmas dipping in fine chocolate. The result apparently weakens the knees of even the most experienced chocoholics.
“Those ones are almost by appointment only,” Miller says.
I think my Mom would like some of Christmas, so I am going to get my order in soon.
Window shoppers along Banff Avenue are often surprised to come upon employees at The Fudgery, as they work at creating another batch of delicious fudge.
The Fudgery
215 Banff Avenue
The Fudgery is one of those chocolate shops that makes the eyes of small children bulge out in delight. A huge long display case placed perfectly at eye height for children contains every imaginable type of fudge, chocolate candy and chocolate-dipped treat. There are chocolate-dipped apples alongside the more traditional caramel and red candy varieties; there are huge chunks of toffee and caramel coated in chocolate; there are pretzels and nuts and cookie chunks dipped in chocolate. The list is as long as the counter, with something to please a two-year-old and his 89-year-old grandmamma.
The Fudgery is the kind of place you stop by for a bag of treats to take the edge off your hunger during an afternoon of shopping, or to take along to a show at the Banff Centre or at the nearby Lux Cinema.
A hugely popular treat to take home for friends and family is the chocolate-covered bear paw. A delicious, sizeable treat, these chocolate paw shapes have cashews as claws, and tasty caramel and more nuts inside. They come in dark, milk and white chocolate.
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Bernard Callebaut shop owner Jack Miller fills boxes with assorted chocolates, bound for some lucky sweet tooth.
They’re a perfect reminder of your Rockies vacation, though it’s a sure thing they won’t last long.
My husband and I offered chocolate bear paws as small gifts to guests at our wedding a few years back — everyone loved them and many ate them up before they left at the end of that perfect day.
Rogers’ Chocolates
133 Banff Avenue
If you love those rich, cream-filled chocolates that ooze sweetness in a variety of flavours, then Rogers’ Chocolates has a Victoria Cream for you.
Tucked in beside the fabulous Spirit of Christmas store on Banff Avenue, this small Rogers’ Chocolates shop is chock full of delicious choices to treat yourself or take home as a gifts.
Rogers’ Chocolates began in Victoria, B.C. in 1885 in the back corner of a grocery store owned by Charles W. “Candy” Rogers. Today the company maintains a landmark store in Victoria and has gone high tech, selling their sweets on-line.
I personally am not partial to Rogers’ Chocolates, finding them all too sweet and the Victoria Creams garishly large. A strong following for almost 120 years in Canada, however, would put those feelings in a minority. After a brief look about the Banff shop, and seeing non-cream-filled offerings that span chocolate nut bark and some very tasty looking chocolate covered caramels, it was soon clear there is something for every chocolate lover.
Those aforementioned Victoria Creams come in 19 different flavours, with each one available in a beautiful 2 lb. box.
Godiva Chocolatier
Inside Cascade Gifts, 131 Banff Avenue
Lady Godiva rode the streets of Coventry in 1057 to protest heavy taxes levied to cover the cost of war, her long hair barely covering her nakedness.
You can walk the streets of Banff feasting on Godiva chocolates, your chocolate-covered fingers barely covering your mouth as you disguise the ecstasy of indulging in Belgian chocolate on a Canadian Rockies holiday.
Godiva Chocolatier offers its beautifully gold packaged sweets over a special counter in Cascade Gifts. You might walk right by this souvenir shop, if you hadn’t spied the world famous brand front and centre in the window.
Godiva Chocolatier got its start in 1926 when Joseph Dreps founded his chocolate company in Brussels, Belgium.
If you have a style-conscious friend at home, or someone who truly appreciates the beauty of handmade chocolates in gold embossed packaging, then Godiva should be on your take-home list. But always have a chocolate or two for yourself, to enjoy as you continue your Banff stroll, or later, as you slip into a bubble bath with a good book.
Welch’s Chocolate Shop
126 Banff Avenue
Welch’s Chocolate Shop has been a favourite stop on Banff’s main shopping strip, Banff Avenue, for more than 30 years. It’s the kind of place that lures you in with a window display that is chock-a-bloc with every imaginable kind of hard (unmeltable) candy. It’s the kind of place for which children have some kind of inexplicable radar, leading them to its narrow doorway with parents in tow. It’s the kind of place where your 87-year-old auntie will find a candy treat she thought they stopped making just after the Depression.
Inside, Welch’s is more aptly described as a candy store, rather than a chocolate shop. An entire wall features a huge array of licorice candy, bins behind the counter hold a crazy assortment of goodies to tempt the sweet tooth.
Chocolate is, however, is great supply at Welch’s. There is an excellent selection of bar chocolate sporting such well known names as Cadbury, Droste, Lindt, Frys, Nestle, Verkade and Terry’s. There is chocolate fudge to take away in any amount you’d like. There are chocolates by the pound at a reasonable price, and there are the humourous bags of “moose”, “elk” and “bear” droppings, which are in fact not the real thing but chocolate-covered whole almonds.
If chocolate is on your mind, you won’t leave unsatisfied. But try to open your mind and your taste buds to sweets you might not have had for years. Take away some Welch’s sponge toffee or a couple candy necklaces for some young nieces. Or enjoy one of Canada’s favourites, a bar of Mackintosh Toffee.
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