A Chocolate Dream

From New York to Arizona, Olive has delicately sipped frothy cappuccinos, foam tickling her nose, slurped up a white chocolate mocha that sent her spinning happily about her day and licked up thick, thick whipped cream. Squeezing into her favourite pair of leggings, Olive wonders if she has room for any more indulgences. She must! Her home town is last on her voyage and it's time to show it off. Mercifully, there is but one plane ride left. She buckles in, declines the peanuts and, surprisingly, drifts off into a gentle, dreamy slumber...

A chocolate maker appears before her eyes. A man from the Black Forest region of Germany (how Hansel and Gretel!), one who blessedly decided to immigrate to Vancouver and fill all its residents full of the most sublime and celebrated chocolates they had ever tasted...

He opened a shop with a crimsom ceiling, a little plant where one could watch the white-coated Willy Wonkas craft award-winning chocolates infused with cinnamon and Earl Grey tea, fresh oranges and chili

And the famous Sparkle cookies! Dubbed the "World's Best Cookie" by some, these are creations of deeply chocolate, truffle-like rapture...

Olive is swooning in her sleep, but there is more! Yes, it is chocolate, but too pure to be labelled mere "hot chocolate." This is a liquid sensory experience of the richest Aztec fantasy. Olive licks her lips just a little, the heat of primal cocoa rises up, a touch of chili...

Oh my! With a grunt and nary an apology, Olive's seat mate is making his way heavily across her toes. How cruel that such a dream should be interrupted just as she was taking her first sip. Nevertheless, she knows what her first stop will be once this wretched plane lands... To Thomas Haas Chocolates she will head!

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If you are feeling faint for a nibble of chocolate, Olive suggests ordering something from Mr. Haas himself (Sparkle cookies can now be ordered and baked at home!). For more visual satisfaction, click your way over to me Hungry! and read about this New Yorker's very welcoming trip to said chocolate shop and patisserie.

Images: Thomas Haas and me Hungry!