Ottawa Foodies

We went to the one in the Glebe today to sample a truffle. I'd heard good things about Belgian Callebaut chocolate (the 60% was rated best baking chocolate by Cook's Illustrated) they use and was pretty excited. I guess the strawberry champagne truffle wasn't the best way to experience the chocolate itself, especially since the filling was quite sweet and overpowered the chocolate. Next time I'll either buy a bar ($5, or a pound for $12- awesome prices) or try a more chocolatey truffle. The service was great, and the prices for plain chocolate was good, so I'll be going back!
This place is definitely an alternative to the pricey and slowly sinking quality of Godiva and the waxiness of Stubbe's chocolates.

i have eaten at truffe treasures tried several truffles staff are great truffles not so good

Yep, it's the same company as the one in Westboro: www.truffletreasures.com

There are reviews already of the chocolate they make here. Personally I enjoy it, although I agree it can be a tad too sweet. I tend to stick to the dark chocolate stuff, which cuts back on the sweetness.

A Truffle Treasures just opened in the Glebe. Anyone know if this one is the same, another location, and is it any good? I can walk up before Valentine's day--will save me from going to the Market if it is as good as Stubbe's.

i dont know if they were all out or not when u were there but truffle treasures does in fact have the peanut butter cups in dark chocolate and they are phenomenal, :D:D

I've always loved this store. I simply can't get enough of the peanut butter cups or the truffles and am always impressed by the owner's commitment to using quality ingredients and making everything by hand. My favorite are the milk chocolate peanut butter cups. I think they're superb because when you're eating them, it's obvious that she uses the finest ingredients. The peanut butter tastes like peanut butter, the caramel - like real caramel and same for the chocolate. perfectly sweet. She obviously has incredibly high standards - they even make their own waffle cones. Super cool store. I buy my 12 year old these peanut butter cups for any special occasion - valentines, etc.. and he always insists on buying some for his friends. he thinks they are the best of the best.

I'm a sucker for peanut butter cups. Wifey had read a glowing review of these so we tried them. They were pretty good although, like the truffles from the same store, they were just too sweet. The peanut butter was smooth and tasty but the layer of caramel above it ruined the experience. The sweet peanut butter and the even sweeter Rolo-like caramel was almost sickly and made a dark chocolate shell mandatory. Too bad it was made with milk chocolate!

Thanks for the support, Pete. I can take a bit of flack though -- especially when guilty of waxing melodramatic in a review.

Your points are all quite valid! Except maybe for the 99.9% statistic. ;-)

I can't comment with the same conviction as FreshFoodie, but I have tried truffles from this place. I agree with FreshFoodie that even when they 'should' be chocolatey, the flavour was very sweet, and not very chocolatey. Actually my favourite one was the Cranberry Cardamom, as it seemed to have the most punch. In my box, I'm sure that I had soem liqueur based ones, but I cannot remember a single one that had the zing of alcohol content. Perhaps I need to try more, but I would be very happy if Truffle Treasures offered some truffles that were more on the savoury, versus sweet side of the taste spectrum.

As for New User 907, in case you don't know, the person you are arguing with is the owner of this website, and beloved of 99.9% of the people here. You might be better off not arguing, or trying to cast aspersions, but rather offering to treat him to a tasting at Truffle Treasures where his observations can be measured, and if needed refuted in a civilized manner. Who knows... maybe, just maybe, his observations (whether factual regarding corn syrop, which can be called by the way a natural product) are shared by others. Fixing the problem in this case is not necessarily about the ingredients, it's about the experience, and the perception.

Also, it would be better if you gave yourself a name, because everyone here will just assume that an anonymous user complaining about a review is really just the owner of the establishment.

i would not say that you would have ahd a fluke batch, the only person who prepares the truffles, is lara herself, and they are all made with a ganache center, and yes the creme brulee does in fact have more to it that caramelized sugar, but the "syrupyness" you encountered would be cause by that caramelized sugar, all the truffles are made with a ganache in the center, all of which are made with all natural ingredients and NO corn/glucose syrup. i do not believe stating that they must be made with a corn syrup center, is strictly an opinion, it was stated as a fact which you did not truely know.

Thanks for the interesting information. I don't believe I've ever claimed to be a qualified food critic and of course like everyone else I am simply sharing my own impressions of the foods I encounter.

You mention traditional truffles but the ones I sampled were not traditional in the strict sense. To my knowledge, any filling other than a simple ganache is non-traditional. The ones I tried had more of a caramel filling and that is not to my taste. There's more to creme brulee than caramelized sugar. I guess it's possible that I just had a fluke bad batch, perhaps prepared by an inexperienced employee. This seems even more likely given your statement that Truffle Treasures fillings are more like traditional ganache and less like corn syrup.

Anyway, it's nice to know that the ingredients are usually good quality!

i happen to have worked at truffle treasures in the past, and i would just like to explain that there is NO corn syrup or glucose syrup in any of the truffles, they are made with the same respects as any traditional truffles, they do include fat, in the form of butter. so i would take another look into your own food critic ability, seeing as how you clearly do not know the difference between a traditional ganache, and somethig filled with corn syup. oh and the reason the creme brulee would have resembled syrupy sweetness, is because it containes caramelizes sugar(kinda like a real creme brulee)

Being a lover of fine chocolates I was excited to try these. I started with the hazelnut one but found it to be too sweet, not chocolately enough, and with an almost syrupy center. Disappointed, I bit into the creme brulee and was again overwhelmed by syrupy sweetness. I jammed the green tea truffle into my mouth and chewed it. More of the same! Then I picked up the last truffle in the box. Coconut, one of my favourite flavours -- maybe this one would redeem the whole batch! I bit down and found my tongue once more enveloped in cloying, syrupy sweetness. At two bucks a pop I expected these cute little morsels to appeal to my palate more than Pot of Gold.

Now, even though these weren't at all my style, I can tell they are well made. The chocolate layer is super thin and delicate, which makes them so tender (yet unfortunately means less chocolate). The filling was new to me, in that it seemed to contain no cocoa and little or no fat. In fact I'd guess it was made with a base of corn syrup. If you like those Cadbury Easter Creme Eggs (I can't stand them), you'd find these truffles amazing!

They were packaged up really beautifully. Very careful presentation!

I love Pure Gelato, but also recently discovered Truffle Treasures which just opened last year in the Glebe. Its gelato is also outstanding -- the best in the neighbourhood, in my opinion.