• Thomas Haas works alongside his talented team of 38, whose finesse and sensitivity is lovingly expressed in each and every hand-spun confection.

  • Stunning chocolate trees decorated in two ways with delicious handmade truffles at Thomas Haas.

  • The Thomas Haas team packaging traditional Christmas Stollen.

  • Thomas Haas’ famous German Christmas bread, filled with almonds, rum-soaked golden raisins, and freshly zested oranges.

  • Bûche de Noël. Thomas Haas’ festive Yule Log is the perfect finale to any holiday celebration. Available for pick up December 23rd or 24th only!

  • Beta5 Chocolates owner Adam Chandler hard at work showing the assembly process that goes into these little snowman sculptures.

  • Adam Chandler sprays the snowmen with cocoa butter to give them their snow-like coating.

  • These edible Beta5 works of art are made entirely of chocolate, and are filled with an assortment of sun-dried Okanagan cherries and milk chocolate-covered Marcona almonds.

  • Don’t let their good looks fool you, these Beta5 snowmen are meant to be cracked opened and shared among friends.

  • Chef Thierry Busset selects only the finest ingredients: fresh fruits and zests, Tahitian vanilla, Quebec maple syrup, and, of course, the very best chocolate.

  • Chef Thierry Busset’s candied orange peel coated in 70% dark chocolate.

  • Chef Thierry Busset’s seasonal macarons come in festive flavours including chestnut, gingerbread, cranberry, and apple spice.

Seasonal Sweets

Some assembly required.

Three of the city’s finest chocolatiers, Thomas Haas, Thierry Busset of Thierry, and Adam Chandler of Beta5 Chocolates invited me to their workshops for a taste of their holiday sweets.

Thomas Haas makes confections that truly are a work of art, each lovingly hand-spun to perfection by his dedicated team. Even his One! Chocolate Bars, made from wild-foraged cocoa from Grenada, have a limited release, each stamped with its own number. To this day, Haas, a fourth-generation pâtissier, still carefully selects and sources only the finest, high-quality raw ingredients for his decadent confections.

Adam Chandler’s star is clearly on the rise. Since opening in late 2011 at Main and Terminal, his Beta5 Chocolates has soaked up plenty of praise, and earned a silver medal at the 2012 Canadian National Competition of the International Chocolate Awards in London England for its Imperial Stout confection and a gold in 2013 for its Fisherman’s Friend truffle, along with two silver medals in the world final of the 2013 International Chocolate Awards. With his commitment to quality, flavour, and freshness, Chandler’s hand-crafted chocolates taste as good as they look.

Thierry Busset learned his craft at the hands of the masters, including notable chocolatier Bernard Sicard in Auvergne. He dedicates his efforts  to the creation of classics: palmiers, Viennoiseries,  and signature macarons. (He makes 1,500 a day!) His former colleague chef Gordon Ramsay called Busset “one of the finest pastry chefs in the world,” and for the holidays, Busset’s Alberni shop is full of festive cakes, chocolates, and confections.

Photos by Joshua McVeity.

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December 15, 2013