A dream come true for chocolate lovers!

CHENNAI: The minute you take one look at their large, well-lit display menu, you are reminded of Johnny Depp dancing around the chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “It is the place to be for every chocolate lover, it is paradise for them,” says Rakesh Harnalka, one of the partners of the newly opened Café Chokolade on North Usman Road. Along with his friends from his MBA class, Amit Pihalani and Pavan Salunkhe, Rakesh wanted to do something different for a living, “something they understood and loved.” After quite a bit of research and numerous tasting sessions, the trio settled on the Pune-based, over 60-year-old chocolate outlet CadB, which has been renamed as Café Chokolade. All their products on the standard menu do not have milk. “We use malai (cream) instead of milk, which is mixed with a chocolate paste to form the base,” explains Rakesh. One bite into their thick Chokolade flavours, be it the roasted almond one, the mint Chokolade or the White Chokolade and you understand what he is talking about. The richness and the depth of the flavours speak for themselves, but Rakesh insists on adding, “The flavours do not mean that we add a bit of this or that on top as garnish. If you’ve ordered the roasted almond flavour, the entire core ingredient changes. The paste that we use to mix with the malai is infused with the flavours, which brings out the real taste in the final product.” And if you thought a tall glass full of sinfully delicious chocolate was too much, their chocolate shots are a must try. Served in dainty tequila shot glasses, they are warm, gooey chocolate, generously topped off with chocolate chunks. They suggest you eat it with a spoon, but if you’re feeling adventurous, we suggest you down the entire thing in one go and lick the remnants later. Café Chokolade also has rich chocolate sandwiches in various combinations and flavours, thick shakes and ice creams that are made with natural ingredients in an array of flavours that include kesar pista, anjeer, litchi, kaju badam, sitaphal, apart from the usual vanilla and butterscotch flavours. “We call it our scoop of nature, there are no preservatives added to the ice creams,” informs Rakesh. For so much chocolate goodness, the products are satisfying in quantiy and are also easy on the pockets.