Sherman's Food Adventures: Choco Coo Cafe

Choco Coo Cafe

Although I'm not a sweets guy by any stretch of the imagination, I was motivated to eat as much as I could at a recent tasting at Choco Coo Cafe (graciously organized and hosted by Sharon). You see, the tasting was smack dab in the middle of my 2 hockey games during a weekend tournament.  Hence, this was going to be my lunch and all the nutrition afforded to me prior to the 2nd game.  Let's just say that everyone on my team was confused as to where I went and what I ate before our game...

As everyone was being polite and didn't want to the first ones to dig in, I was able to convince Diana to join me in grabbing the first few items to try.  I was eyeing the Red Velvet Cake from the time I first walked in, so I started with that.  The best part of the cake was the cream cheese frosting as it was light and only purposefully sweet.  I liked that there was a pronounced tang which brightened up the flavours.  As for the cake itself, it was somewhat fluffy while being a bit light on cocoa and sugar.  Next I  actually tried the Matcha Mousse Cake (Matcha Chiffon Cake pictured) which was equally light in texture and sugar content.  I would've liked to see even richer green tea essence (more bitterness), but the crunchy bits of chocolate were nice texturally.

Sitting majestically in the middle were some large Macarons filled with raspberry jelly, whipped cream and fresh raspberries.  I found the macaron itself to be somewhat crispy on the outside and mostly chewy on the inside.  I liked the jelly as it as nicely tart and sweet while the whipped cream was light and not sweet at all. Of course the fresh raspberries added more tartness and brightness.  Sporting fresh strawberries, whipped cream and custard, the Napoleon was similar to the other items so far being lightly sweet.  The pastry itself was flaky and shattered on contact.  This was a good thing as it was crispy and a nice textural contrast to the custard and cream.

One item that was relatively on the sweeter side was the Oreo Cheesecake. For me, it didn't seem like there was any Oreo in the cheesecake itself.  Hence, it wasn't as sweet as expected.  With that being said, it wasn't bland either.  Texturally, it was firm, but not hard as it was still creamy.  I would've liked to see a touch more tang. The crust was pure Oreo minus the cream filling.  Moving on from one cheesecake to another in the Blueberry Cheesecake.  This was a little less dense than the Oreo cheesecake (and wetter) and of course had the taste of blueberries in a mild fashion.  This was bordering on bland though as there was hardly any impact from the blueberries.

Moving away from cake, I sampled the Tiramisu what was creamy with a touch of body due to the addition of cream cheese to the marscapone.  It was light on both sugar and flavour as the espresso was a bit weak.  On the other hand, it was a nice counterbalance to the heavier cheesecakes.  Served in a little plastic cup, the tasting portion of the Earl Grey Chocolate Mousse was deceiving.  It looked like pure chocolate, but in reality, there was more tea essence than chocolate.  Once again, they applied a minimal amount of sugar which made the dessert lighter than it appeared.  I loved the crunchy chocolate balls scattered on top.

Going back to heavy, I dug into a piece of the Chocolate CakeYah, this one was rich with an almost fudge-like quality to it.  The cake itself was dense, chocolatey and a bit sweeter than the rest of the items so far.  At this point, I could only down half of it partly because I was full and partly because it was so rich.  Ah not to worry because I finished off light with the airy Strawberry Cake.  In classic Asian fashion, the sponge cake was light and almost creamy.  It was finished off with marginally sweet fresh whipped cream and fresh-sliced strawberries.  I can see that some people would want to see more sugar used in this case, but for me, it was perfect.  In fact, I loved the desserts at Choco Coo because I have a personal bias against overly sweet desserts.

*All desserts were complimentary*

The Good:
- Light and not too heavy
- Easy on the sugar
- A decent selection

The Bad:
- Light desserts also run the risk of being underwhelming
- Some of the items could've used a bit more impact   

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