What: Baroness Chocolate Bars, which come in seven flavours.
Why: Ottawa’s Bill Macy, who grew up in the restaurant business (his dad owned The Mill and The Mayflower), gave up his job with a security company after his wife’s daughter died. The couple started a chocolate company, designed to bring joy. “It’s hard to cry when you’ve got chocolate in your mouth,” he says.
They came up with a line of fun chocolate bars and went out of their way to make sure everything about them was good: they’re Fairtrade certified (“I found out that 70 per cent of all chocolate involves child labour,” Macy says), use sustainable chocolate and organic sugar. They also didn’t make much money.
Two years later, Macy has relaunched the bars with a lower price (and smaller size), brown cardboard wrappers and a higher percentage of dark chocolate. But he still features flavours that remind him of childhood favourites, with sponge toffee in one and crispy cookies in another. “The concept is to bridge the gap between European chocolate, which is good but doesn’t have any fun, and the stuff I grew up with.”
Where: More than 200 stores across Canada. In Ottawa find them at such spots as Ottawa Bagelshop, Whole Foods, Nicastro’s on Merivale and The Butchery in Bells Corners.
How much: About $5 for a 42-gram bar.
More: baronesschocolates.com
