Entree Kibbles: Maison Marou Chocolate Flagship Cafe @ Da Nang in Vietnam

Aside from places of interest and popular eateries, the other thing I always research whenever I travel to a new country is the list of local food souvenirs frequently purchased by foreigners for their family and friends back home.

One of them was Marou Chocolate, Vietnam's first bean to bar chocolate maker! You would find them for sale in Vietnam's airports but they are more expensive there. Hence, when I noticed a Maison Marou Chocolate Flagship Cafe in Da Nang, we decided to pay it a visit.

First thing greeting us were the displays of chocolate bars for sale! A standard set of six 80g bars cost 660,000 dong, about S$34 or about S$6 each. In the airport, it would cost about S$9.30. In addition to cheaper pricing, you can also sample the chocolates!

There's also a patisserie section, where you can have your pick of pastries, artisanal chocolate desserts and beverages. Chocolate lovers would likely go crazy over the selection although I am quite neutral as I am not a huge fan, preferring dark / milk chocolate bars and maybe hot chocolate.

For your reference!

Since our vacation period was near Easter, Marou Chocolate also came out with chocolate Easter eggs! No idea if they were purely for decoration or for sale since I don't recall seeing a price tag.

Going up to the seating area on level two; and that pail we saw on level was like churner for chocolates! According to the step-by-step process in making chocolates, this is the grinding process, using a mélangeur grinder, where cocoa nibs would be "transformed into a thick paste, referred to as cocoa paste or cocoa liquor".

Empty seating area on level two. In the two or three times I was at Maison Marou Chocolate Flagship Cafe, the cafe was never 100% filled; maybe at most 40%?

In this trip I made to Hoi An and Da Nang, one thing that dawned on me was that the flowers used in hotels, restaurants etc, were all real! Aside from the flowers, each table also had a bottle of freshly roasted cocoa beans! Not sure if they were still placed there since the market rate for cocoa beans has shot up a lot this year, resulting in a shortage of chocolates.

Cheesecake - friends would know I am more into traditional cakes, instead of artisanal ones that pride more on being more visually appealing. And this cheesecake obviously captivated us for being unique in its own way.

Light and not heavy, I enjoyed the molded cheesecake on its own, and not with the marmalade jam which was a total mismatch. The accompanying chocolate items didn't result in any explosion of complementary satisfaction; meaning I could do without them.

Sometimes, simpler is better.

Just give me a darn cheesecake will do.

Opera Cake - the dough was too dry and why did this have traces of coffee?! For goodness sake, it's not a tiramisu! Just for the information for some of you, I don't enjoy coffee products unless they are in drinkable format, and unlike most people, I dislike tiramisu.

Mix Cone Ice Cream - those who love to complain the utter sweetness of chocolate and vanilla ice cream should give this a try; chocolate was bitter, the vanilla wasn't as sweet and the cone was just a thin crisp!

Latte - this was for Alex and he claimed this was very nice; exhibiting the smoothness he looked forward to having in every latte. Only problem, overly foamy.

Hot Chocolate & Iced Chocolate - the one thing I came back for three times in the four nights at Da Nang. Good quality chocolate that was so thick and luscious; it's a must order for anyone with a sick love for chocolate, regardless of whether it is hot / cold! And you saw that small glass of cream? I don't know what it was but it was lightly sweetened cream that I love to dip into the chocolate drink!

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