Kakawa Chocolates

Update Review, December 2023

When you stay at hotels as much as I do for work, and you stay loyal to one hotel chain, they often reward you for that loyalty with welcome gifts.  It is frequently a fruit bowl and bottle of sparkling wine, but long ago I let my preferred hotel chain (Marriott, previously Starwood) know that I'm a red wine and chocolates sort of girl, and thus, now I often receive chocolates instead, frequently from a local chocolatier, which I always appreciate.   Plus, great material for the blog!

Thus, I was excited when during my recent trip to Sydney, the Sheraton Grand provided me with a welcome gift from Kakawa Chocolates, as I'd enjoyed them before (see my original review below).

Welcome Gift: Assorted Chocolates.

The Sheraton Grand offered up a selection of chocolates from Kakawa Chocolates.  I've truly enjoyed them all, and look forward to this aspect of my Sheraton stays.

Australian Truffle. $2.50.

"Australian truffle is one of our popular single origin truffles. This truffle made with Australian origin 70% dark chocolate that have intense cacao with fruity undertone. Begins with mango and banana flavour and end with silky cacao."

This is a lovely piece of chocolate.  It has a snappy shell, and a smooth, creamy, intense ganache filling.  Clearly dark chocolate.  The cocoa powder on the exterior amps up the intense flavor even further.

This is a piece to savor, as you let the inside melt slowly on your tongue.  ****+.

Update: I've had several of these, and truly adore them every time.  My favorite of the pieces.

Espresso Wattleseed. $2.50.

"Wattle seed and espresso cup is espresso coffee infused ganache, balanced with Madagascar origin chocolate. Acidity and fruitiness of Madagascar origin chocolate highlight the coffee aromas and wattle seed give extra coffee flavors and texture."

This was a really lovely piece too, although I didn't actually taste much (any?) espresso or coffee element, and as I'm not particularly familiar with wattleseed, I didn't pinpoint that either.  But it was still a really nice piece of chocolate, with 64% milk chocolate ganache, which was remarkably smooth and creamy.  Such a smooth mouthfeel.

If you are looking for a chocolate that is strongly flavored with espresso, this may not be the best choice for you. However, if you are looking for a smooth, creamy chocolate with a hint of coffee flavor, then I would recommend giving it a try, and I'd gladly have more.

****.

Caramelized Macadamia.

"Caramelised macadamia rolled in dark chocolate 9 times, lightly roasted buttery macadamias with semi bitter dark chocolate and finished with powdered sugar."

The next one I tried was quite different from the truffle and the ganache.  This was a full, large roasted macadamia nut, with a slight candied coating, and then super thin layers of dark chocolate (9 of them!), and powdered sugar.  The chocolate only made up probably 15% of the piece, so it was a nut forward piece, with chocolate secondary.

The nut itself was good - great crunch, quite rich and buttery.  A quality macadamia.  The chocolate, nice dark chocolate, and a hard shell style, not smooth and creamy like the previous pieces.  Overall it ate fairly sweet, from both the caramelized interior and the powdered sugar coating.

I enjoyed this, and it was far more interesting than a more common chocolate covered peanut, but I preferred the other more chocolate based pieces. ***+.

Cherry Rocky Road. $13.50/slab.

"Handmade rocky road with egg free marshmallow rolled in chocolates, topped with almond, hazelnuts and cranberry. Really light and fluffy like cloud, melt away with smooth dark chocolate."

I'll admit that I don't have many fancy rocky road comparison points, but, this was certainly the best I've ever had.  The cherry flavored marshmallow inside was light, fluffy, and sweet, the dark chocolate coating had intense depth and nice shine with a bit of snap to it, and all the little goodies added either crunch or chew to make it a really enjoyable eating experience.  Delightful, and perfect alongside a cup of coffee for a not too sweet treat.  ****+.

Passionfruit Rocky Road. $13.50/slab.

"Handmade rocky road with egg free marshmallow rolled in chocolates, topped with almond, hazelnuts and cranberry. Really light and fluffy like cloud, melt away with smooth dark chocolate."

Next up was the passionfruit version, the only difference here was the flavor of the marshmallow inside.  The toppings (hazelnuts, almonds, coconut, pumpkin seeds, coconut) remained the same.

This one had a more fruity nature to it, and was slightly tart.  I think I preferred the cherry, but only slightly, and again, I really enjoyed eating this.  ****.

Original Review, October 2021

I start every morning with a piece of chocolate, alongside my coffee.  It is a ritual I started ages ago, and I have no intention of stopping it.  The joy of a piece of chocolate, often a truffle or new brand to try, just really helps get me up and out of bed in the morning!  Thus, I've eaten, and reviewed, a lot of chocolate over the years.

Last week I reviewed Koko Black, an Australian chocolate brand.  This week, I bring you another chocolatier from the land down under: Kakawa.  I assumed the name, Kakawa, was just an Australian word, or had Australian ties, but it doesn't, at all.

"The word Kakawa originally comes from the South American Olmec civilization and dates back to roughly 1000 BC. well before the Aztecs and Mayans The Olmec were the first civilization to cultivate cocoa beans and called them Kakawa. They grew their cocoa plants on the luscious east coast of Mexico."

And now you at least understand the company name.  

Kakawa makes an impressive lineup, of slabs, bars, bonbons, and special holiday items.  They make more than 40 kinds of individual chocolates, ranging from fruity lychee, mango & coconut, yuzu, and wild lemon to boozy champagne, apple & calvados, caramelized fig & port, or orange & cointreau to caffeinated green tea or earl grey tea, with fun sounding items like caramelised banana, cashew & crunch coconut, and even caramelised olive (!).  If you really want Australian themed, they have a tonka and vanilla piece, or another with wattle seed and espresso.  So many great sounding pieces.

Boxes.

I did not pick my pieces however, so those exotic flavors I did not try.  Instead, I was given a gift box with just two kinds inside, the milk chocolate bonbon and strawberry cream.

I enjoyed the pieces I tried, far above average, and would love to try more.

Milk Chocolate Bonbon.

This was a pretty nice piece.

The shell was simple milk chocolate, smooth, creamy, nice snap to it.  The spiky edges were just for show, there was nothing in it besides milk chocolate.

Inside, super smooth and creamy chocolate ganache.

I liked this quite a bit.

****.

Strawberry Cream.

The strawberry cream pieces contained no chocolate, rather, a white chocolate shell, with a strawberry white chocolate ganache inside.  Smooth and creamy, fruity.

The red edge of one side of the heart was a nice touch.

I gave a second one to a friend who cannot have caffeine, so no real chocolate, and he evaluated it, "Thanks! That was nommy!"

Another nice piece.  ****.

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Panera: The Cookies

Update Review, August 2023

I no longer live near a Panera (pandemic casualty in SF), so I don't frequently encounter their goods.  However, I recently attended an event in New York with Panera catering, and got the opportunity to re-try a few cookies, even though I had never loved them before.  The verdict?  Yup, still don't love these.

Candy Cookie. $2.99.

"Freshly baked sugar cookie topped with semi-sweet chocolate candies."

Big meh to this cookie.  Not as soft as I'd like, not a great chew, pretty boring base (not really buttery as I'd like), and even the off brand M&Ms weren't particularly good.  Not my style of cookie at all. *+.

Oatmeal Raisin with Berries. $2.99.

"A chewy oatmeal raisin cookie with sweetened, dried cranberries and infused, dried strawberries and blueberries."

I've had this cookie before, and didn't find it all that compelling, but, my appreciation of cookies has grown in the past few years, so I gave it another try.  I again appreciated that it was nicely soft, and that it used more interesting dried fruit than just raisins (cranberries, strawberries, blueberries), but, it wasn't actually a particularly good cookie.  Sure, it had a nice chew to it, and was well baked, but, it wasn't as buttery nor sugary as I'd like, and although it had oats, it certainly isn't actually a healthy cookie.  Eh.  ***.  

Petite Chocolate Chipper. $6.69/12.

"12 mini versions of our Chocolate Chipper cookie, freshly baked and made with semi-sweet chocolate chunks & milk chocolate flakes."

Well, this is not a good cookie.  Yes, fairly soft, and yes, nice chunks in it, but, the base flavor wasn't particularly buttery or sweet, or notable in any way.  It tasted highly processed, and not particularly fresh.  Meh. **.

Update Review, January 2018

I've reviewed nearly all the Panera cookies before, but there was one more left to try.

Coconut Macaroon. $1.09.

"A coconut, chocolatey craving satisfied in two bites. A traditional small coconut macaroon with the bottom dipped in chocolate."

One day, I used Panera's Rapid Pickup option to make an order from my phone earlier in the day, with a pickup time set to when I'd be nearby and could just swing in to grab my bagel thin, intended to be used to make melts for dinner.  But when I arrived ... no bagel thins.  In fact, they were entirely sold out of bagels.  Doh.  It turns out that when you pre-order, it doesn't actually pull it from inventory.

To make up for this, Panera offered me any pastry item I wanted.  No pastry item was going to be a substitute for my dinner melts, so I used it as an opportunity to just try something new.  The one type of cookie we had never tried before: coconut macaroons.

The macaron was ... pretty much a standard macaroon.  Soft, shredded sweet coconut.  Nothing particularly notable about it.  The dark chocolate it was dipped in however was quite good, really dark, smooth, flavorful chocolate.  I was impressed with the chocolate.

The macaroons turn out to be one of the cheapest items sold at Panera ($1.09 at my store), and, one of the lowest calorie.  By a shocking amount.  A single macaroon is only 140 calories, compared to Panera standard fare of the 440 calorie lemon drop cookie (or even worse, the 800 calorie Kitchen Sink cookie!), the 720 calorie pecan rolls, 550 calorie cinnamon crunch scones, 580 calorie pumpkin muffins, 540 calorie bear claws, etc.

So, if you like coconut, and want a little sweet treat, this one is not a bad idea.

Original Review, March 2017

As I've said many times, I don't really like cookies.  But, Panera often adds freebies to my account in the form of pastries, and I've never liked most of the baked goods there (aka, the muffins, the coffee cake and danishes, and most of the scones), so, I finally ventured out to try most of their cookies over the past year or so.

The cookie lineup changes every so often, but always features their signature Chocolate Chipper (available in a petite size as well), a classic shortbread, and some seasonal version of an iced and decorated shortbread.  Other than those, they seem to introduce new cookies a few times a year, trying to find some crowd pleasers.  I'd like to note, they don't ever have peanut butter cookies, which would be my top choices!

Anyway, for the most part, I expected to try the cookies, take some notes, and hand over to a cookie-loving friend.  I was pleasantly surprised that I genuinely liked a couple of them.

Oatmeal Raisin with Berries Cookie. $2.39.

"A chewy oatmeal raisin cookie with sweetened, dried cranberries and infused, dried strawberries and blueberries."

Every once in a while, I actually like oatmeal cookies, particularly soft ones, and particularly when they miraculously aren't oatmeal raisin.  I hate raisins, and I'm so grumpy they have taken over the oatmeal cookie market!  Why!

Anyway, this looked like a big, soft, butter cookie, with oatmeal, and NOT raisins!  Score.

The verdict?  It was ... fine.  It was actually quite soft, which I appreciated.  And it did have a decent distribution of bits of dried cranberries, strawberries, and blueberries, decidedly NOT raisins.  But it wasn't particularly buttery or interesting in any way.  I gladly handed it off, and wouldn't want another.

Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookie. $2.19.

"Almonds and a fruity hint of raspberry jam and powdered sugar. A perfect little treat. An almond butter cookie with a thumbprint of raspberry jam and dusted with powdered sugar."

I really liked this.  It was buttery and crumbly, with little bits of almond inside.  The powdered sugar added a nice touch of sweetness, and the raspberry jam in the center tasted fresh and wasn't too gooey or sweet.

A shockingly good cookie, and I'd gladly eat another.

Giant Cookie Box.

On one visit, there was a huge, I mean, huge, cookie on the shelf, unlabelled.  I asked what it was, and the worker told me it is the "kitchen sink" cookie.  It seemed to have everything in it, and sounded interesting, but it wasn't eligible for my freebie.  I didn't get it then, but I couldn't help but notice it every time I visited.  I had to finally get it, as ridiculous as it was.

It was too big for any of the normal pastry bags, so, he put it into a giant box.

Kitchen Sink Cookie. $4.39.

"A salty, chocolatey, caramel confection big enough to share. A large cookie with semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel pieces, pretzels & finished with flake salt."

They aren't kidding when they say this is "big enough to share".

I looked it up later online, and, I kid you not, it has 800 calories (and 43 grams of fat!).  In a cookie.  Yes, compare that to their "petite chocolate chippers" with 100 calories, or even the regular chocolate chipper with 380 calories, and you'll realize the scale I'm talking about here.  This is a monster.

And he wasn't kidding when he said it had everything in it.  While chocolate (both semi-sweet and milk) flakes were certainly the dominant visual item, the caramel actually dominated the flavor, super sweet, and plentiful, infused into nearly every bite.  The chocolate helped balance the sweet though, and the large flakes of salt on top complimented it nicely.

It was a crispy cookie, but mostly in a caramelized way from the toffee bits, rather than a cooked too long way.  I don't normally like crispy cookies, but it worked here, since it was so caramelized.

I didn't find any bits of pretzel in mine, which was a bit disappointing.  Perhaps they were chopped finely and I just didn't notice?  Another ingredient would be nice, but, I don't think was actually necessary given everything else in it, so I didn't mind too much.

The cost of $4.39 sounds a bit insane, for a cookie, at a place like Panera.  This isn't a fancy bakery, this is Panera, selling a nearly $5 cookie.  It is twice the price of any other cookie they sell, because, well, it is more than twice the size.  There is a reason it isn't eligible for the free pastry award!

I'm glad I tried it, but I probably wouldn't get another, just because, well, still a cookie.

Jack-O-Lantern Cookie.  $2.49.

"Freshly baked, pumpkin-shaped shortbread cookie decorated with icing to look like a jack-o-lantern."

I have a memory of really liking Panera shortbreads years ago.  And what is better than a shortbread?  A decorated shortbread!  Panera seems to always have a seasonal shortbread, I recall seeing Easter Eggs around Easter, tulips and daises in the Spring, flip flops in the summer, mittens in the winter, etc.

The astute reader will realize that this is called a Jack-O-Lantern cookie, and the website shows a cookie with a face on it.  Mine had no such face.  I guess the decorators were lazy that day?  All cookies in the store were faceless.  Pumpkin, yes, Jack-O-Lantern, no.

I wasn't very good.  The icing layer was too thick and just sweet, the cookie itself was crumbly, too soft, sugary, and didn't really seem that buttery, the defining characteristic of a shortbread.  And ... this was the shocking part, it was 450 calories!  In a SINGLE COOKIE!  Besides their plain shortbread (only 380), all the other cookies are also over 400 calories.  I know Panera certainly isn't a healthy place, but it is a bit hard to believe that a cookie can rack up those stats.  Definitely not worth it.

$2.49 price for a large cookie I guess was fine, and they are only 99 cents if you get a meal.

Chocolate Chipper Cookie. $2.19.

"A traditional favorite, freshly baked and made with semisweet chocolate chips."

I got this for Ojan, who does actually like cookies.  It looked like exactly the sort of cookie I wouldn't like.  On the rare cases where I like a cookie, it is soft and gooey.  This looked hard and crispy.  Not my style.

Of course though, I tried a bite.  It was actually loaded up with tiny chocolate chips, far more than it looked like.  The bottom view would have revealed just how loaded it was.  The chips were tiny though, so, you didn't really get a deep chocolate flavor.

And it was indeed crispy, and quite thin.  Highly unremarkable.  It also tasted very unhealthy, but not in a good buttery way.  Believe me, I'm all for a decadent dessert, the more butter and cream the better, but this just tasted ... unhealthy.  Highly processed.  I don't know how else to better describe it.

I was curious, so I looked it up when I got home, and saw that this cookie, the single, thin, not actually large cookie, was 440 calories.  I don't really understand.  I wouldn't get this again, obviously.

Candy Cookie. $2.49.

"Freshly baked sugar cookie topped with colorful milk chocolate candies."

Another giant, hard, crispy cookie, another Ojan request.  And ... yup, a hard, crisp cookie, not particularly good, just a plain cookie.  He described it as "halfway between a shortbread and a sugar cookie".  The little tiny milk chocolate candies were basically just small M&Ms in spring colors, very milky milk chocolate.  Ojan liked the candy bits, but wasn't really into the cookie itself.  I didn't like anything about it.

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Gluten-Conscious Triple Chocolate Cookie with Walnuts. $2.69.

"A freshly baked flourless chocolate cookie with a soft, brownie-like texture, made with chocolate chunks, white chocolate chunks and walnuts."

This seems like a crazy choice for me.  I don't like cookies.  I'm not a chocolate lover.  And gluten-free baked goods are rarely impressive.  But, literally every time I visited Panera, I couldn't look past these.  They looked so good.

So finally, I got one.  And failed to photo.  Sigh.

It was a deep, dark chocolate cookie, with generous size chunks of both white and milk chocolate and walnuts.  The texture was soft, as they described, kinda brownie-like, except it was a cookie, and still had a crisp exterior.  A bit hard to explain really.  I liked that.

The flavor was also good, chocolately, fudgy.  I loved the sweetness from the big white chocolate chunks (I know, I know, but I like white chocolate!) and the crunch from the walnuts.

It is described as "gluten-conscious" which I think is because it is not baked in a gluten-free environment.  It does not contain wheat flour, nor, any flour.  I'm still a bit confused by that part honestly.  The first ingredient is ... powdered sugar?  I'm still not entirely sure how it holds together, but, it works out just fine.

For a cookie, this was really quite enjoyable and I'd get it again.

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