Founded: | 2003 |
Headquarters: | Toronto, ONT (Canada) |
Style: | Neo-Modern |
Characteristics: | Craft at its truest / newest. Instead of any firmly set bar list it’s a process of ‘hey, what can we whip up today’ based upon shifts in origins, blends & cacáo-content percentages depending on the season, availability, & mood. Spells f-r-e-s-h; specializing in purposeful blends — both intra- & inter-source — constructed in a way that the layered origins remain transparent. |
Ferment: | broker dependent |
Roast: | medium-hi |
Conche: | variable (including some coarsely textured batches) though generally respectful of a given bean’s intrinsic values |
Impact: | Canada’s first in the new era chocolate movement & a prototype for 21st boutique shopping: the corner butcher, the baker & now the bar-smith chocolate maker. David Castellan runs an all-inclusive chocolate emporium in Toronto’s historic distillery district where he grinds the beans, fashions them into chocolate & serves the fruits of his labor – bars to truffles & cakes to pastries — to eager customers lining up right on the premises at Soma’s adjacent café. |
Crown Jewels