Wednesday, April 27, 2011

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

Boon on Urbanspoon

11 comments:

joey@forkingaroundsydney said...

Such a cute albino bunny!

Two fit and fun gals said...

oh i have yet to come to boon! waffles look great :O)

ChocolateSuze said...

love boon! the waffle looks delish!

Cooking Gallery said...

I have never heard of Ronnefeldt tea even though I live in Germany, I need to check it out! The Emma praline looks so sweet!

Dumpling Girl said...

Hello Joey, it broke my heart to take the first bite, it's the cutest Easter bunny that I have seen in ages. Hopefully, they'll have more next year :)

Hi Two fit and fun gals, the waffles are great, they are some of the best around. Definitely worth a visit.

Hey chocolatesuze, I <3 Boon too.

Hi CC, funny that you mentioned that as when I was trying to find an online seller of Ronnefeldt tea and they all seem to be mainly found in the UK. Hopefully, you'll be able to source some in Germany :)

Mel said...

Yum. I used to live around the corner from Boon, but so far have resisted temptation. I do love the names of the chocolates however, it makes them sound so romantic.

Dumpling Girl and Cheesecake Boy said...

Hello MissPiggy, it is awfully romantic, was told that all fruity chooclates get dubbed with a female name, so there a logic to the naming :). If I lived around the corner, I would be there at least twice a week, lol.

jack said...

Hi Dumpling Girl - I have wanted to try Boon for so long, your post has made me adamant to go there asap. And you finally sunk your teeth into that cute little bunny! I will definitely check out the that Ronnefeldt tea. I love rooibos too as it reminds me of my travels in Africa which feel like a lifetime ago :)

Dumpling Girl said...

Hello Jack, lol yes I did, and the bunny was delicious, consoling myself that there will be more cute bunnies next year (so I'll get one to eat and one to keep) :)

With the rooibos, it's not on the menu, so you'll have to ask them.

Gianna@TheEmptyFridge said...

What a delicious treat! I've enjoyed boon's hot chocolate but have yet to come back to try the waffles - they are my weakness!

Dumpling Girl said...

You're so good to resist temptation, Gianna. The waffles are Cheesecake Boy's weakness too :)