Fans can get their fill at Ten Degrees
Local shop creates and sells its own chocolate products
By the end of this weekend, most of us will have had our fill of trick or treat-sized candy bars. If that waxy, overly sweet, cheap chocolate leaves you wanting for a more refined experience, Calgary's newest chocolate-maker has the cure for the post-halloween substandard candy blues.
Ten Degrees opened its store and cafe in Mount Royal Village in early August, introducing Calgarians to the company's premium bean-to-bar chocolate. The company defines itself as a chocolate-maker rather than a chocolatier, which is an important distinction. There are plenty of very good chocolatiers (craftspeople who use chocolate to create their own bonbons, flavoured bars, and other confections) in town, but chocolate makers are a relatively rare breed in that they import raw cocoa beans that are roasted and processed in-house. Making chocolate from scratch allows the chocolate-maker to manipulate the variety of beans used to create flavour profiles with notes of fruit or nuts, much like a winemaker would use different grape varietals to make wine.
It's that aspect that interested Ten Degrees' Mark Roedel and Michelle Scott-roedel when they decided to shift away from their corporate careers toward something a little sweeter about five years ago. Both spent significant time apprenticing to learn the chocolate trade first-hand and travelling to cocoa bean-growing regions such as Ecuador to develop relationships with farmers to ensure their product could be ethically and sustainably sourced. From there, they started selling chocolate at local farmers' markets under the Ten Degrees banner, with dreams of opening an expansive bricks and mortar shop.
Their new location may seem large for a chocolate shop: the space used to house restaurants like Parc Bistro and Borgo Trattoria and it even seemed a little too big for those at the time. But Roedel and Scott-roedel aren't running a standard chocolate shop — they've set up as three sections: a cafe with seating for about 25 up front; a retail section in the middle; and an event space in the back. The glassed-in kitchen wraps around the back and side of the room, allowing customers to watch the chocolate factory in full action, from the roasting and churning of the chocolate to the careful painting of bonbons.
“We want people to have an experience through the medium of chocolate,” Roedel says. “That's been our mantra.”
The actual chocolate is Ten Degrees' biggest point of pride and customers can buy it by the bar, either as plain single-origin varieties or in flavours like espresso, cinnamon bun, raspberry, or white chocolate with matcha. The cafe isn't purely about chocolate bars, though — Ten Degrees' chef Steve Mawson makes sandwiches, flatbreads (including a pepperoni version with shaved chocolate), salads with cocoa nibs and other features, while pastry chef
Paige Flohr and chocolatier Jay Brooker create a host of desserts. Customers also can order Ten Degrees signature coffee, chocolate tea, or hot chocolate, including a “hot chocolate bomb” that turns into a drink when hot milk is poured over the top.
“When we put together our kitchen team, I really wanted to make sure that everyone had a really good palate so that they could pick out the subtleties in the chocolate,” Scott-roedel says. “We're all very creative and helping out each other to come up with new things.”
While the cafe is a lovely (and well-spaced) place to enjoy lunch or those hot drinks, the real magic happens in the events space, where Ten Degrees holds a series of events, ranging from chocolate making and chocolate pairing seminars to a Halloween Willy Wonka-themed cocktail party. Perhaps most intriguing, though, are Mawson and Flohr's weekly Chef's Table nights, which let the chefs run wild with both sweet and savoury chocolate creations. Each event involves a level of collaboration, with partners like Spolumbo's, Grizzly Paw Brewing and the SAIT Culinary Campus all slated to participate in upcoming events. Tickets to the four-course Chef's Table dinners are $70, excluding beverage pairings.
Ten Degrees Chocolate is located at 818 16th Ave. S.W. The store and cafe are open Tuesday through Sunday and can be reached at tendegreeschocolate.ca or 587-352-2626.
If you're out for a mountain escape over the next two weeks, Banff and Lake Louise's Taste For Adventure dining festival is now in full swing. On until Nov. 13, the festival features 27 local restau
rants, all serving exclusive fixed price menus to showcase their own style of mountain cuisine. The menus range from affordable multi-course gourmet meals to deals on pizza and burgers. Participating restaurants include new Bow Valley hot spots like Farm and Fire and The Radiant, as well as old favourites like the Grizzly House and Magpie and Stump. For more information and a full list of restaurants, visit banfflakelouise.com/tasteforad-venture.