Boon, Darlinghurst

Now that I have finally been persuaded to eat the bunny, I figured it was a fitting time to  blog my entire Boon experience.  Cheesecake Boy and I first visited Boon a couple of anniversaries ago, and have been returning back for more ever since.  A few Tuesday's ago when Cheesecake Boy and I were still on leave, we ducked into Boon Chocolates for an indulgent afternoon tea. 

What I love about Boon is that the drinks come with a petite chocolate mousse and a praline, so you can really take your time and relax and appreciate their chocolates on many levels, without having to order a lot and induce yourself into a sugar coma.  Cheesecake Boy always orders a hot chocolate and it came with a Janne praline, that had a lovely subtle rose flavour against the white chocolate ganache.

Milk hot chocolate, $8.50

Boon is one of the few places in Sydney that serves Ronnefeldt tea from Germany, so it's always my beverage of choice here.  If you love a good cup of tea,  don't miss the chance to try a Ronnefeldt tea,  as they all seem to have a beautifully distinct flavour.  The rooibos vanilla tea that I tried that day had a lovely hint of vanilla, and the subtle sweetness that is innate to rooibos teas.  My tea went perfectly with my light and luscious chocolate mousse and my Emma praline.  

Rooibos vanilla Ronnefeldt tea, prices range from $9 - $9.50

I chose the Emma praline due to the beautiful leafy print that made it stand out from the rest of the chocolates on display.  However, Alex one of the founders of Boon told Cheesecake Boy and I the lovely story behind it's name, and it made Emma all the more appealing to me.  There was a lovely subtle hint of red wine.  However, the taste of Emma actually took me back to my childhood, where Dumpling Mummy would give me a chocolate liqueur cake as a sweet treat.

Emma

We started off with a plate of assorted chocolates.  The one with the cranberry on top was a champagne truffle, the round one was filled with a light vanilla marshmallow and the almond rocher had a generous crunch of almond slivers.  Lastly the macadamia brittle, the caramel was just set, so when you bit into the caramel it was still slightly soft and strings of caramel pulled through.

Plate of assorted chocolates

I always order the Boon specialty cake with its layers of chocolate mousse.  This  chocolate mousse cake is wonderfully light and melts in your mouth.  As the cake is light and not overly rich, it really accentuates the taste of the chocolate mousse without you needing to feel guilty when it's going down.  When it comes to ice cream my favourite flavour is vanilla, I'm pretty boring like that.  However, the vanilla bean ice cream has a beautiful depth and silkiness.

Boon specialty cake, $12.50



Cheesecake Boy always orders the Belgian waffles with the lot.  When it comes to sweets, we tend to always take the full plunge.  The Belgian waffles had a lovely sweet toffee crispness when you bit into them.  However, the icing on the cake for me was the sprinkling of almond slivers to finish the waffles off, it just gave it the extra oomph.

Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries, almonds, vanilla bean ice cream and Boon chocolate sauce, $14.95

Each of the chocolates in our box of chocolate pralines were all lovely.  I am not going to ramble on about each one, as my posts are unusually long as of late, and I apologise as it's definitely an occupational hazard of working in one of the most hated fields in the world.  I'll just give a quick mention of our favourites, and if you're intrigued, you can discover the pleasure of these chocolates yourself :)

We enjoyed the Janne and Emma so much that we wanted to savour the experience at home later.  Ones that stood out for us were the Balsamico as the balsamic vinegar really intensified the beautiful hit of strawberries, the Clara Maria was recommended to us by Alex and had a refreshing gel of Calamansi lime, the currently unnamed praline had a hint of pepper berries and the crunch of the rice crispies and subtle mix of roasted sesame of the Kurobiko was delightful.

From left to right: Balsamico, Clara Maria, ??? , Janne, unnamed, Sahra, Emma and Kurobiko, $17.50

As for my white chocolate Easter bunny, it was filled with a soft and delicious hazelnut praline filling.  The soft praline was enhanced by bits of hazelnuts with each bite.

Hazelnut praline bunny, $25

We really enjoyed our time at Boon, whether it was eating our way through our sweet treats or speaking to the friendly co-owner Alex about his love of chocolates and the stories behind them.  Boon really is a haven where you can hide away in its dark and intimate interior, and let the world pass you by with a cup of tea in one hand, and a chocolate in another.

Happy eating, Dumpling Girl.


Boon
251 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst  NSW  2010
Ph: (02) 9356 8876
http://www.boonchocolates.com.au/index.htm