Hot Chocolate Festival 2013 : Bella Gelateria & "To Die For"

Bella Gelateria
1001 W Cordova Street
M-Th 8a - 10p | F 8a - 11p | St 11a - 11p | Sn 11a - 10p

#08 - "THE GOLD MEDAL"
Salted pecan & maple syrup (gold medal winner from 2012 Gelato Competition in Italy) served w Erin Ireland's "To Die For" banana bread.

#09 -"THE ITALIAN HONEY MOON"
Honey nouget and hazelnut made with avalon organic milk and Michel Cluizel chocolate, served with Erin Ireland's "To Die For" banana bread.

#10 - "MONKEY'S CHOICE"
Caramelized banana & honey served with Erin Ireland's  "To Die For" banana bread.

(Festival bonus! "DEVILISH DARK" - a 99% dark chocolate drink.)

*all drinks available during all days of the festival.

A week or two ago, Jerkface and I hopped over to Bella Gelateria to try their hot chocolate called Monkey`s Choice which being born in the year of the monkey *wink*, we had to try. Bella Gelateria is best known for their gelato! This is one of the first places that I`ve tried that doesn`t specialize in chocolates or pastries. There is a wall of articles about their award winning pecan and maple syrup gelato, but we didn`t try their gelato that day because it was quite cold out. Come summer, we will have to revisit and try the gelato that won the title of Best Gelato in the World! Just another reason to add to the long list of reasons why I can hardly wait for summer.

The Monkey's Choice came with these adorable little spoons, at $5.25.

As in any blended drink, certain flavours come through more than others and the Monkey`s Choice definitely tasted more of banana than cocoa. The drink is perfect for any banana lover, which includes monkeys of course. (I`m kidding because I really have no idea whether or not monkeys can even have chocolate!) You can still taste chunks of banana in the drink: it is anything but artificially flavoured. It`s neither too sweet nor too rich, and I quite enjoyed this one after having had so many other extremely rich hot chocolates!

Jerkface using the tiny spoon, and avoiding the banana bread (contains nuts!).

The drink came with a slice of "To Die For" banana bread, which I took to-go instead of eating on spot because Jerkface has a nut allergy. Shortly after I took this photo (and he took a small sip of the hot chocolate), he pushed the plate of banana bread to the other side of the table :) I meant to eat the banana bread when I got home, but I forgot about it until it was much too late to try it so I had to save it for the next morning. It was a nice treat before class, but I failed to taste anything particularly amazing about it... Perhaps because banana bread is not regularly in my diet, and because I did not have the banana bread the day of.. But I feel like the banana bread along with the Monkey`s Choice may have been banana overload for me, so I am glad I had it the next day instead of with my hot chocolate :)

I like Bella Gelateria: there is plenty of natural light flowing into the shop and you can see their 'kitchen' through glass windows outside as you walk by. In fact, I saw a big bowl of bananas as I walked past with B a week before this that encouraged me to return to try this drink. And now seeing the gelato and news articles along their wall is encouraging me to return for their gelato. I definitely will!

*Bella Gelateria's main website: click.
*To Die For food's main website: click.