Indulge Your Sweet Tooth: 6 Ontario Chocolate Shops Worth Visiting
Photo c/o CocoaBistro in Kingston.
Whether you’re on the hunt for craft beer tastings or farm-to-table restaurants, Ontario’s culinary scene is always worth a road trip. For me, one of the best indulgences is quality chocolate made by local artisans and I wanted to share with you six incredible chocolatiers worth designing a road trip around.
Our chocolate-inspired Ontario road trip takes you from Sudbury all the way to Windsor, hitting South Eastern Ontario along the way — a long trip to be sure. But if you find yourself in any of these great towns and cities, I highly recommend checking out these local makers.
Raven Rising Global Indigenous Chocolates
Where: 66 Cedar Street, Sudbury, Ontario
We start our Ontario chocolate odyssey in the northern Ontario town of Sudbury where Chef Tammy Maki is infusing her beautiful handcrafted chocolate creations with the flavours of her Indigenous heritage.
Ingredients range from the familiar to the more distinct: birch syrup, wild leek and black trumpet mushrooms have all found their way into Chef Maki’s award-winning creations.
Raven Rising began as an e-commerce shop (and continues to ship nationwide) but demand has been high and Chef Maki recently opened her Sudbury storefront.
Read more about Chef Tammy Maki here.
Hummingbird Chocolate
Where: 476 Ottawa Street, Unit 2, Almonte, Ontario
From Sudbury, we head southeast towards the pretty town of Almonte, about 40 minutes outside of Ottawa, where we find Hummingbird Chocolate. Erica and Drew, the chocolate makers behind the name, have won an astounding amount of awards for their bean-to-bar creations.
Hummingbird Chocolate starts with high-quality cacao beans sourced from the best cacao farms in the world that are slowly turned into chocolate in small batches. In addition to their single-source chocolates, you’ll also find products such as chocolate-covered orange slices, chocolate-covered salted caramels and drinking chocolate. Hummingbird Chocolate ships throughout Canada and the US.
CocoaBistro
Where:Â 840 Development Drive in Kingston, ON
Heading south, our next stop is in the dynamic city of Kingston where you’ll find Chef Audrey Brown experimenting with amazing flavour combinations at CocoaBistro.
Her truffle boxes are works of art and the chocolates themselves include innovative flavour combinations: think limoncello basil, luscious lavender, Vietnamese coffee and mango chilli lime.
Read more about Chef Audrey Brown here.Â
Centre & Main Chocolate Co.
Where: 50 Centre Street, Warkworth, Ontario
Warkworth, Ontario is located just over an hour west of Kingston and has a welcoming artisan vibe. You can’t miss the beautiful building that holds Centre & Main Chocolate — placed at, you guessed it, the intersection of Main Street and Centre Street right in the middle of town.
Chocolatier Angela Roest has won multiple awards for her indulgent creations, which are a celebration of local food. She works with local suppliers to source her flavours: her gold-medal-award-winning Gin & Tonic bar, for example, was inspired by flavours of gin from Kinship House of Fine Spirits in nearby Prince Edward County; her Affogato bar (also a gold-medal winner) uses freeze-dried ice cream from Reid’s Dairy in Belleville and locally roasted beans from Our Lucky Stars Café in Warkworth.
Read more about Chocolatier Angela Roest here.
Habitual Chocolate
Where:Â 389 Dundas St, Woodstock, Ontario
From Ontario’s southeast, we next travel to Oxford County in the province’s southwest. Habitual Chocolate is located in charming Woodstock, Ontario and features an incredible collection of bean-to-bar chocolate.
Once you enter through the door and get a whiff of that incredible chocolate aroma, there’s no way you’re leaving empty handed. Habitual Chocolate entered the scene in 2010 when Swiss Chocolatier Philippe Lehner decided to open a shop in Oxford County dedicated to small-batch, bean-to-bar chocolate. The shop has now grown to offer the largest selection of bean-to-bar chocolate in Canada.
Read more about Foodie Experiences in Oxford County here.
Sweetness Chocolate
Where: 2120 Gladstone Ave, Windsor, Ontario
Our last stop on our Ontario chocolate road trip is in Windsor, Ontario where chocolatier Michèle Bowman makes incredible bean-to-bar creations at Sweetness Chocolate.
Michèle grew up baking and always loved to experiment with flavour combinations. She ran a successful from-scratch bakery for two years before dipping her toe into the chocolate world. Her Windsor-based business grew from pop-up to a small manufactory to now a bigger workshop from which she creates and ships her delightful confections. You will find flavours such as Créme Brûlée, Coffee Cardamom and a vegan Oat Milk Cookies & Cream.
Read more about chocolatier Michèle Bowman here.
Did we miss your favourite chocolate shop? Let us know so we can add it to our next chocolate adventure!
