International Chocolate Day is the perfect time to indulge in everyone’s favourite sweet treat, chocolate.
Here are five incredible chocolate shops in Alberta that will have you screaming “CHOCOLATE” at the top of your lungs. Just don’t go buying their entire stock!
Cocoa Community Confections Inc.
Location(s):
- Chocolate Factory Outlet/Head Office
2320 2 Avenue SE, Calgary AB - Dalhousie
#143 – 5005 Dalhousie Drive NW, Calgary AB - Signal Hill (West Hills)
5771 Signal Hill Centre SW, Calgary AB - Southcentre
100 Anderson Road SE, Calgary AB
Cocoa Community Confections Inc., better known as Cococo, is a chocolate factory based in Calgary. Relax, you don’t need to worry about golden tickets or little orange men singing.
Cococo has storefronts across Calgary, all selling award-winning chocolate-related products like bonbons, baking chocolate, cocoa powder, chocolate bars, and more.
The company has earned many awards at the International Chocolate Awards, including three gold medals in 2014 for its apricot lavender, sea salt caramel milk, and nutmeg orange chocolates.
Cococo is environmentally friendly and manufactures its chocolate with Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa and cocoa butter.
Rainforest Alliance Certified products help farming communities in West Africa produce better crops, adapt to a warming global climate, increase productivity, and reduce production costs.
Did you know West Africa is responsible for over 50 percent of the world’s cocoa production?
Cococo is also a member of the World Cocoa Foundation and a signatory of the Cocoa & Forest Initiative to help prevent deforestation in cacao-growing regions.
It should be noted that cocoa and cacao are two different things! Cacao refers to the raw material, specifically the cacao beans that are harvested from the cacao tree.
Cocoa is made by finely grinding the beans into a powder and roasting them. It can be enjoyed as a drink or mixed with sugar, milk, cocoa butter, and cacao to create chocolate.
Cococo has a variety of unique products, but one of the company’s most popular products is its western chocolate featuring tiny chocolate cowboy hats and boots to celebrate Calgary’s “Stampede Spirit.”
Summary:
- environmentally friendly, ethically sourced, award-winning, and sustainable chocolate
- several locations across Calgary
- Western-themed chocolate!
Le Chocolatier
Location(s):
- Canmore Storefront
#121 – 701 Benchlands Trail, Canmore AB
Based in Canmore, Le Chocolatier is a chocolate shop with a simple mission: craft chocolate with love and a keen eye for detail using the freshest ingredients and the finest Belgian chocolate.
The shop is equipped with a retail storefront and a glass wall where visitors can watch the chocolate being made. Speaking of making chocolate, Anna-Engel is the shop’s head chocolatier.
She is also a pastry chef and the businesswoman behind Le Chocolatier. With a background in fine dining, Anna-Engel’s attention to detail is unrivalled, which is reflected in her work.
The shop’s Tool Set is a great example of how much effort and detail are put into its products. According to Le Chocolatier, the Tool Set is great for snacking, but its practical applications are limited. No surprise there!
The set features a highly detailed assortment of tools including a hammer, wrench, chisel, saw, and pliers. If shoving chocolate pliers in your mouth is unsettling, Le Chocolatier offers normal chocolates, too.
The shop’s chocolates and truffles come in many classic flavours like milk, dark, white, caramel, hazelnut, peanut butter, and marshmallow.
You can also buy chocolate bars that include more unique flavours like coffee, orange, ginger, almond, and maple.
Similar to Cococo, the shop sells baking products such as cocoa powder and chocolate callets made from Le Chocolatier-quality Belgian chocolate.
Visiting Le Chocolatier is a great opportunity to support a local business while celebrating International Chocolate Day with high-quality hand-crafted chocolates.
Summary:
- high-quality Belgian chocolate
- incredibly detailed and unique chocolates
- a local business
Compass Chocolates
Location(s):
- Compass Chocolates Storefront
200 Carnegie Dr. Suite 200b, St. Albert AB
Compass Chocolates is a chocolate shop based in St. Albert with retail locations in Edmonton, Stony Plain, Fort Saskatchewan, and Saint Paul.
Although the store is locally born, Compass Chocolate takes inspiration from “food stories and traditions from every corner of the globe.”
The result is a diverse selection of products ranging from delectable chocolate to unique green coffee beans sourced from the Malabar Coast in India.
The store’s chocolates are made with direct-trade cocoa that is grown, farmed, harvested, and produced sustainably.
Direct trade chocolate makers like Compass Chocolates choose which cacao farms they work with and buy their cocoa directly, which cuts out the middlemen and means farmers go home with more money.
Compass Chocolates is a woman-owned and operated store founded by Priya Winsor, a certified chocolatier and a pastry chef with a diploma.
When Winsor isn’t painting, hiking, gardening, or travelling with her family, she is creating delicious and detailed chocolate for people to enjoy.
The store’s international influence is seen in its chocolates. Some of Compass Chocolates’ more adventurous flavours include its Aloha chocolate made with passion fruit and macadamia nut toffee.
Compass Chocolates also sells chocolate bars made using chocolate sourced from India, the Dominican Republic, and Belize.
Two of the store’s most unique and featured products are its Ice Cream Truck and Mixtape chocolate bars.
We recommend the Ice Cream Truck chocolate bar, which is made with milk chocolate, freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream, and crunchy sugar/waffle cone pieces.
Summary:
- woman-owned and run business
- chocolate and coffee made with ingredients from around the world
- unique flavours
JACEK Chocolate Couture
Location(s):
- JACEK Chocolate Couture – Sherwood Park
406 Kaska Road, Sherwood Park AB - JACEK Chocolate Couture – Edmonton (Crestwood Centre)
9674 142 St, Edmonton AB - JACEK Chocolate Couture Partner Location – St. Albert (Simone and Ivy)
20, 580 St. Albert AB - JACEK Chocolate Couture Partner Location – Stonewaters
638 8 St, Canmore AB
Some people can only dream of becoming chocolatiers, but for Jacqueline Jacek, that dream came true. Jacek’s business started in the basement of her Sherwood Park home.
Now, her business, JACEK Chocolate Couture, operates a licensed production facility with storefront locations in Edmonton, St. Albert, and Stonewaters. The business also has retailers across the country.
“A lifelong dream of mine has been to use creativity as a vehicle to create more joy in the world by combining two things that bring me happiness; chocolate and fashion. I believe that chocolate purchased sustainably has the power to transform the world, from improving the livelihoods of the cacao farmers to the joy experienced by the end consumer,” said Jacek.
JACEK doesn’t use any gluten in any of its products, ensuring that as many people as possible can enjoy the business’s chocolates.
In 2019, JACEK won a gold medal at the International Chocolate Awards for its Colombia 70% chocolate. However, the business doesn’t receive awards for just chocolate.
This year, JACEK received the Junior Achievement Impact Award for Northern Alberta, which honours the region’s “most esteemed business visionaries for their life achievements and service.”
JACEK’s 1% Program gives one percent of the business’s total sales to community-based initiatives and organizations.
JACEK has a long list of chocolate products. The business’s most popular product is its Jackie Bar, a simple chocolate bar made with caramelized milk chocolate and sea salt.
If you are looking for a unique chocolate experience, JACEK is hosting its “Ultimate Trio” tasting event in Hinton on October 6. The experience serves chocolate with a selection of meat, cheese, and beer.
Summary:
- a community-driven chocolate shop
- hosts frequent events
- products are not made with gluten
The Chocolate Lab
Location(s):
- The Chocolate Lab – Stephen Ave.
203 8 Ave SW Calgary AB - The Chocolate Lab – Factory
4-21 Highfield Circle SE Calgary AB
As its name hints, The Chocolate Lab offers a unique chocolate experience in the form of wild chocolate flavours you’d think came from a mad scientist’s lab…a chocolate lab.
The Chocolate Lab carries over 30 flavours of chocolate using whole ingredients and quality chocolate.
Some flavours you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else include Lemon Yuzu Passion, Snack Attack, The King and I, Lychee Rose, and Lemon Rosemary.
In addition to tasting great, The Chocolate Lab’s chocolate also looks incredible. Each chocolate comes with a unique design.
For example, the shop’s starry night will convince you that you’re staring at the night sky, not a piece of chocolate.
The Chocolate Lab also makes chocolate bars. Many of the flavours are the same as its bonbons, but there are unique flavours like Poppin’ Pretzel and Salted Caramel Crackle.
If you are looking for a step up from just chocolate, the shop also sells dragees, which are chocolate-covered nuts, fruits, and other types of chocolate centres.
Some of The Chocolate Lab’s weirder products are milk chocolate robots, milk chocolate gummies, hot chocolate bombs, chocolate golf balls, milk chocolate dino-pops, and other oddities.
Right now, The Chocolate Lab has a limited-time drink called The Dubai Bar, in a Cup. The drink “combines the irresistible elements of the viral Dubai Chocolate Bar into the ultimate drinking chocolate experience.”
Reaching over five million views on one TikTok video, the Dubai Chocolate Bar is filled with unusual fillings like filo pastry, tea biscuits, and vanilla custard.
Similar to the Dubai Chocolate Bar, The Chocolate Lab’s The Dubai Bar, in a Cup is made with a blend of liquid milk and dark chocolate, fused with pistachio and tahini, and topped with pistachio whipped cream. The drink is then garnished with toasted Knafeh, a traditional Arabic dessert.
Summary:
- over 30 flavours of chocolate
- beautiful and unique bonbon designs
- a variety of products
Go Sweeten Someone’s Day!
International Chocolate Day is the perfect chance to indulge in some of the incredible chocolate found in our province with friends, family, and loved ones.
Visiting some of your local chocolate shops won’t just satisfy your sweet tooth, it will also support these businesses and ensure that they can stick around to keep crafting high-quality chocolate.
So what are you waiting for? Visit your favourite chocolate shop or maybe try something new! This sweet opportunity doesn’t come around often.
