Chocolate Boutique review & Velvety Vanilla Almond Lindt Creation

Last night I finally got to meet up with some friends I haven't seen in forever! I think it's become a cycle of just meeting up every couple months or so when we all miraculously have one evening free together lol QAQ

Even this time, all of us almost forgot we set the date ==;

I remembered about 3hrs before we were supposed to meet because I set a reminder on my phone calendar. I make up for my cruddy memory by being prepared, yeah~✌️ (Can iPhone emoji show up in blogger posts? We shall see when I publish this...)

Anyway, since I finally got to go to the Chocolate Boutique that I swear every single girl in Auckland that's not legit broke has probably been to, I thought it'd be good to share my first impression of the store.

Unfortunately I was there with not only my friends but also a few of their friends and I didn't want to be the weird girl that takes photos of absolutely everything, so no photos of the store :(

The shop is quite cosy, most of the tables are for around 4 people, our table could fit about 8 (we took the largest table out the back on the porch). If you stay in the store for ages, it feels a little cramped. There's a million and one items on display and it's super adorable, like a Christmas candy store, but I wonder how they keep inventory and make sure every item is within expiry date. Every flat surface is actually packed high like a treasure trove O.O;;

The store is in Parnell, so it kept with the cosy Parnell "cobblestones, wooden bridges, and pretty vines" theme from the outside. The shop is a cottage painted white (cute!) with a red standalone public telephone hut thing right out the front! Watch out for that telephone booth when you drive by and you definitely won't miss the shop like I did ><

The drink I ordered was a butterscotch hot chocolate. Silly me was overwhelmed by the variety of drinks they had and just randomly picked one in the end. orz

Butterscotch in hot chocolate is just wayyy too sweet, I couldn't even taste the tiramisu after. Yeah. Like, waaaat.

The hot chocolate itself is pretty average too. I'd recommend getting their melted chocolate drinks, at least that's difficult to find elsewhere (forgot what they're called).

At least it looks really nice with the cream on top!

Between myself, EW, and S_, we also ordered a chocolate fondue and a (slice of) tiramisu. For chocolate fondue, you can choose between melted white, milk, dark, or bitter chocolate. Bitter chocolate is probably 80% cocoa. We went with dark chocolate and it was pretty sweet ><

Even though it was freakin cold outside, our fondue didn't freeze up at all! How do they do it!?!?

For dipping, we got pretzels, banana, marshmallows (my fave of the lot), dried kiwifruit, apricots, the kind of cherries you would see on a cake, lady fingers, and wafers. The irony here is that we got lady fingers for our fondue but not in our tiramisu .-.

The tiramisu was nothing like any other tiramisu I've tried. The texture of the cheesy layers was much like that of a cheesecake, and the thin thin layers between were probably chocolate sponge, soaked in perhaps a little coffee. No mascarpone flavour at all, and the texture was quite thick. It was an interesting experience...
 

All in all, my split of the bill was about $11 which is alright for what we got I think? I'm not thaaaat keen to revisit though.

Also i saw people on the tables close to us look at us multiple times cause we were 1. Being stereotypical loud asians 2. There was much dissing. In English. Sometimes fail English. 3. WL accidentally called out to a customer on TWO separate occasions thinking they were staff. Can I just never go to Parnell again plz? (Jks WL, I just wanted to note this on my blog forever so I can bring this up at your wedding kay)

All in all, I think the Chocolate Boutique is worth visiting if you haven't been before. There are few establishments around Auckland that have such a nice ambience, but don't go expecting high tea quality desserts.

Now tonight *drumroll* I finally discovered a pack of Lindt's new Creations flavour on my coffee table!!! LOVE YOU MOM! *Q*

It's probably been out and advertised for over a month now, but they weren't stocked at Pak'n Save (Albany) so I never got my hands on it till now. I am SO excited over this because it is EVERY BIT as delicious as I imagined.

My thigh is so unflattering I'm sorry. But who can resist this delicious Creation! ( am I punny yet?)

Crisp almond pieces in vanilla flavoured truffle, a layer of caramel, all encased in Lindt milk chocolate. DOES IT NOT SOUND ABSOLUTELY TANTALIZING!?

I managed to stop myself at 1/5 of the block, but I will definitely finish it by the end of the week. It's so flippin good, I'm not even exaggerating.

Go and try it if you can. It's worth every cent! <3

=^.^=