Vegan weekend adventures in Ottawa fall 2023

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The fall season in Ottawa is a few weeks so you have to enjoy it. This summer was mostly rainy but it was heat wave weather at the end September straight to the colder windy days of October. If you are new to my blog I have lived most of my life in Vancouver and moved to Ottawa last year. I moved to Ottawa with my mom and last fall was dealing with her pancreatic cancer so I didn’t have time to enjoy Ottawa fall things. My mom passed away last October and this year I didn’t have many commitments which left me time to explore the Ottawa beauty and vegan food.  There really isn’t enough time to explore everything and work there is always something going on. I have also gone from not having much of a social life to having to vegan friends in the last couple of months. The beauty of Ottawa is it really is a big city small town at least in the vegan market community. Hotpotatoco one of the vendors at the market introduced me to one of my vegan friends that will be known as the other vegan g

Vegan holiday chocolate tasting



This is the first year I am vegan and there is a lot of vegan holiday chocolate available so I thought I will do a tasting. 

 

The dark Grand Ferrero Rocher is accidentally vegan. This is the only Ferrero product that does not have milk ingredients so read the ingredients before you buy things may change. I found this on sale for $5.99 at Save-On-Foods other stores like London drugs sell it for around $8. It’s so pretty would make a great gift. 


It was a little hard to open at first and it’s hollow in the middle. Once you get the first part open it’s easy to break into pieces but thick enough it doesn’t fall apart on its own. The taste has a more bitter dark chocolate taste than regular Ferrero. It reminds of the chocolate that’s in the chocolate bunny’s you get in the grocery store less sweet and with a lot of hazelnuts. It is a good dark hazelnut chocolate. 


Zazubean has a lot of festive flavours. I chose the Blitzen because it was on sale for $3.99 at London Drugs. The other flavours were $4.99 at Whole Foods. 


It tastes like a peppermint patty with crisps it. The peppermint isn’t overwhelming and the crispy bits are nice. Another good quality dark chocolate. 


Kokomonk is a local Vancouver chocolate store. They have a large selection of vegan chocolate. This isn’t a holiday chocolate but I was very excited about finding vegan white chocolate and it has strawberries. I can’t remember the exact price it was around $6 if I remember correctly. 


I like how from the back you can’t tell it’s pieces. It breaks apart easily. The white chocolate is very nice and creamy. The strawberries don’t have much flavour but they give a nice chew. 

Advent calendar 1- Purdy’s chocolate 


Many people don’t know Purdy’s is a Vancouver based company and they have a vegan advent calendar. I bought it October it sells out quickly. It costs $25. The package is pretty but the chocolate was the same dark chocolate piece each day. It is just regular dark chocolate so it is expensive for what it contains. This year Purdy’s introduced excellent vegan chocolate so I hope next year they will include those in the advent calendar. This is good for someone who doesn’t have access to a lot of vegan chocolate.

Advent calendar 2



I found the no whey foods advent calendar at on sale at whole foods for around $15. Out of all the dark chocolate I tried this is my favourite taste it really tastes like non vegan milk chocolate. The chocolate is the same throughout the calendar but each day is a different shape. I liked that it was different each day. My only complaint is the packaging on this. It is not wrapped and the boxes open too easily some of them looked open in the store. They need a better seal on the boxes. Other than the packaging the calendar is fantastic. 

Bonus 1

I don’t know if Nomo can be considered a holiday chocolate. I have never seen British vegan chocolate here in Canada so I had to include it. It was on sale at Save-On-Foods for $4.99. It tastes like a plain chocolate bar. It is good but doesn’t taste like British Cadbury which is what I was hoping for.  

Bonus 2


This is not a holiday chocolate but it is really good chocolate. It is from a local company aw organics. I won it in a giveaway and everyone I have shared with non vegans especially have all really liked it. It is surprising how good vegan healthy chocolate can be. It is available at some grocery stores if you see it highly recommend trying it and the chocolate hazelnut spread is so good. 



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