Sweet New Year Chocolates

Dark chocolate orange with fortune cookie bits

Lunar New Year is around the corner and social media has sucked me into buying some chocolate, though for a good cause.

It's a collaboration between local chocolatier Hype Chocolate and Foo Hung Curios, the gift shop in the Chinatown Storytelling Centre in Vancouver.

Interesting flavours with a Chinese twist

There are three flavours out: Milk chocolate with freeze-dried White Rabbit candy; Dark chocolate orange with fortune cookies; and White chocolate with Gold Mountain tea infused.

I bought the first two flavours at C$18 each and they are creative.

The milk chocolate complements the creaminess of the White Rabbit candy. It doesn't get stuck in your teeth either which is a good thing.

But we are loving the dark chocolate with a hint of orange and then the hard crunchiness of the fortune cookie bits. 

The latter even comes with two fortune slips, probably signifying that they used two fortune cookies per bar and didn't want to throw the pieces of paper in the garbage, but packaging-wise it's a bit weird.

My fortunes say: "Be yourself and you will always be in fashion", with the lucky numbers 2, 20, 32, 36, 37 and 44.

The other says: "You are thorough and very organised", and lucky numbers 19, 24, 26, 33, 40 and 41.

Nevertheless the chocolates are fun and different, and the bonus is that part of the proceeds goes to the Chinatown Storytelling Centre.

Milk chocolate, White Rabbit candy

The centre is the brainchild of Carol Lee, who has done a lot to promote the Chinatown neighbourhood by setting up businesses and landmarks, while networking with politicians to bring more attention to the area. She was awarded the Order of Canada in December.