Looking to discover new plant-based eats using our 2022 Plants Curious Deals Book, brought us to Say Hello and a chance to catch the last of the Greater Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival! Located on the edge of Chinatown at the corner of Quebec and Keefer, Say Hello has been serving plant-based ice cream and treats since 2016. Check their website for the interesting story of how they got started!
Of course, we were drawn by our coupon book but stayed for the hot chocolate! Needless to say, hot chocolate is typically a beverage with milk and maybe even milk chocolate but at Say Hello, the featured hot chocolate is made with oat milk.
It was a wonderful rich beverage using 70% dark chocolate offset by a cold and creamy topping. It came with a chocolate covered fig which was also very tasty. At $12 this was not the cheapest hot chocolate we have ever had but in all fairness, the ingredients are premium and the fig is probably $3 or $4 as a hand-crafted side treat.
The ice cream sandwiches here are pretty special. The shell (cookie?) of the Raspberry -Lemon Ice Cream Sandwich was almost like a slab of icing while the cookie (shell?) of the Coffee Ice Cream Sandwich was a little more cake-like and easier to handle. Both were rich and tasty with the ice cream obviously coconut-based. I hope you like coconut as the same was true of their ice cream cubes. 
We got a couple of these to go and they made it home OK as we had an insulated grocery bag with us.
As someone who switched from ice cream to sorbet at the beginning of my vegan adventure, for my weekend treat, I can tell you that this is delicious. The texture of their ice cream is as rich and creamy as you might expect from a dairy product. To be fair, my wife holds an opposing view (she is not a huge fan) but she has not weaned herself off of the non-vegan stuff. No, it is not inexpensive at $12 for a half litre but again, very good quality ingredients and I am saving a lot of money not buying beef these days! The Lemon Squeezy was tart and refreshing while the Monkey's Uncle was rich with banana and walnut. Very good! We found the staff to be very friendly and accomodating.
Food 4 out of 5
Comfort 4 out of 5
Service 4 out of 5
Value 3 1/2 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment