Small-batch confections, including hand-made chocolate bonbons and pâte de fruits (fruit jellies), with seasonally inspired flavours on rotation. Caramel-filled chocolates, available during this weekend’s grand opening, will come in such flavours as banana, passion fruit-lemongrass and pineapple-Thai basil.
Bonbons are available in boxes of nine ($20) and 18 ($40). Custom flavours and combinations — think popcorn-peach, burnt marshmallow and orange creamsicle (CXBO exclusives for The Drake General Store) — can be made by special request.
Anyone can see Olsen work in his “land of sugar.” Here, the chef-confectioner is tempering the chocolate used for shells on a marble slab. Olsen uses single-origin Cacao Barry couverture chocolate for his bonbons — 66 percent Mexican, 70 percent Dominican or 75 percent Venezuelan, depending on the flavour profile required for the ganache filling.
“This is my Willy Wonka. This is my world of imagination, but there are no more than three flavour profiles in each bonbon: It starts with a dominant flavour then progresses to a lingering aroma. Like a time release.”
From start to finish, the entire process takes three days to complete.
The Classic “OG” collection features nine flavours: yuzu-sake, sherry-milk chocolate, pistachio-bergamot, orange blossom-honey, cinnamon-brown butter, cherry-vanilla, raspberry-rose-fennel, lime-ginger-black pepper and salted caramel.
Each bonbon is either sprayed (stucco-textured), splattered or finger painted (i.e. the red, white and blue sherry bonbon) with edible coloured cocoa butter.
The space
Keenlyside, Olsen’s fiancée, is a filmmaker and artist. She’s responsible for much of the production kitchen and storefront’s clean retro design, explaining that the stunning “Supergraphic” by Odin Cappello (painted by muralist David Carter) was “inspired by artists like Sol Lewitt and Frank Stella from the ’70s … our [chocolate] mould shape is a tiny nod to the architect Buckminster Fuller, who did the biosphere in Montreal for Expo ’67.” The hand-painted, customizable CXBO branded boxes are produced in collaboration with Ryan Crouchman.
The indoor palm was Olsen’s addition to the space, “it looks like a banana tree.” He explains, “I really like bananas.”
, cxbo.ca, @king_of_ginger
Previously: Brockton Flower Shop
Owners: Brandon Olsen (Bar Isabel, The Black Hoof; Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry and Ad Hoc) and Sarah Keenlyside
Earlier: Ex–Bar Isabel chef Brandon Olsen is opening a chocolate shop in Brockton Village
The product
Small-batch confections, including hand-made chocolate bonbons and pâte de fruits (fruit jellies), with seasonally inspired flavours on rotation. Caramel-filled chocolates, available during this weekend's grand opening, will come in such flavours as banana, passion fruit-lemongrass and pineapple-Thai basil.
[caption id="attachment_389294" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Bonbons are available in boxes of nine ($20) and 18 ($40). Custom flavours and combinations -- think popcorn-peach, burnt marshmallow and orange creamsicle (CXBO exclusives for The Drake General Store) -- can be made by special request.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_389295" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Anyone can see Olsen work in his “land of sugar.” Here, the chef-confectioner is tempering the chocolate used for shells on a marble slab. Olsen uses single-origin Cacao Barry couverture chocolate for his bonbons -- 66 percent Mexican, 70 percent Dominican or 75 percent Venezuelan, depending on the flavour profile required for the ganache filling.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_389303" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] “This is my Willy Wonka. This is my world of imagination, but there are no more than three flavour profiles in each bonbon: It starts with a dominant flavour then progresses to a lingering aroma. Like a time release.”[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_389304" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] From start to finish, the entire process takes three days to complete.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_389305" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The Classic “OG” collection features nine flavours: yuzu-sake, sherry-milk chocolate, pistachio-bergamot, orange blossom-honey, cinnamon-brown butter, cherry-vanilla, raspberry-rose-fennel, lime-ginger-black pepper and salted caramel.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_389306" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Each bonbon is either sprayed (stucco-textured), splattered or finger painted (i.e. the red, white and blue sherry bonbon) with edible coloured cocoa butter.[/caption]
The space
Keenlyside, Olsen’s fiancée, is a filmmaker and artist. She's responsible for much of the production kitchen and storefront’s clean retro design, explaining that the stunning "Supergraphic" by Odin Cappello (painted by muralist David Carter) was “inspired by artists like Sol Lewitt and Frank Stella from the '70s … our [chocolate] mould shape is a tiny nod to the architect Buckminster Fuller, who did the biosphere in Montreal for Expo '67.” The hand-painted, customizable CXBO branded boxes are produced in collaboration with Ryan Crouchman.
[caption id="attachment_389310" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] The indoor palm was Olsen’s addition to the space, “it looks like a banana tree.” He explains, “I really like bananas.”[/caption]
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