2022-07 || hot chocolate festival 2022

Ended up going to three places this year for Vancouver's Hot Chocolate Festival 2022:  

1. BETA5 -

This was their second hot chocolate flavour for the festival, and it was inspired by their green curry chocolate. They tried too hard with this one - the green curry was innovative, and as I waited in line for my drink, I was extremely curious to see how they could make this taste good. When I finally took a sip, I realized they really couldn't pull this one off. I really did not like it. We devoured our cream puffs (passionfruit mango, I believe?), which lived up fully to BETA5's reputation, and dumped half of the drink. Perhaps I should've had it for dinner with a side of rice? 

Moral of the story is stick to the basics, keep it simple, and don't try too hard. 

2. Fife Bakery 

Not in the photograph is the teeny tiny chewy hojicha cookie that is paired with this jasmine infused hot chocolate. When we ordered, the barista didn't seem to know that it was jasmine flavoured, and was confused when we asked... Communication is hard. The glob of salted cream topping off the drink was a nice touch, the tea flavour was strong, but I still thought this was over priced for the quantity. 

3. Kafka's Coffee

We tried to visit Coho Coffee for hot chocolate, but the timing wasn't going to work out, so we ended up going somewhere more conveniently located - the new Kafka's Coffee on Great Northern Way.

The pistachio shortbread was very fluffy, melt in your mouth, and it went very well, dipped into the ruby hot chocolate. 

This was my favourite stop, look how happy I look as I dip. 

Maybe it was the sunshine this weekend, or perhaps a change in the chemical composition of my pregnancy hormones, but I am feeling more energetic this week! Capitalizing on this surge of energy to push harder at work last week, and get more things done:  

1. Finish Tales from the Cafe, Before the Coffee Gets Cold   
2. Fix the broken drawer on baby S's changing table
3. Go for hot chocolate at Coho Coffee (this might still be possible! One last day for hot chocolate festival tomorrow!!!!)

Did everything on the list get checked off?!?! Wow, pat on the back, L. For the upcoming week:                                                      

1. Figure out how much RRSP I should purchase to avoid being taxed 
2. Don't eat out on weekdays, so that I can accumulate more funds to buy RRSP's
3. Make gochujang soup 
4. Reorganize the dining area so that my chair isn't always backing into the IKEA LACK shelf that's behind my usual seat at the tables
5. Wake up at 6AM every day