Address : Carrer de Flassaders, 44. Junto a Pg. del Born. Area : Born-La Ribera.MAP IT Tel. : 93 268 82 21 Open : De lunes a miércoles de 9-14h y de 15:30-20h. De jueves a sábado de 9-14h y de 15:30-20:30h. Domingo de 9-14:30h. Closed : Domingo tarde. Web site TripAdvisor 4.5/5 30 reviews Yelp 4.5/5 9 reviews
Secrets of Barcelona Strolling through the area of Born is something we recommend to all who enjoy discovering new places. That's how we discovered Pasteleria Hofmann- a magic corner with gorgeous cakes and colourful pastries inviting you to come in, try and return. If you get lost in the narrow streets of Born, just follow the smell of chocolate, cinnamon and caramel and you'll get to the right place: the Hofmann bake shop. Original cakes, pastries and chocolates are just some among all the delicacies you'll find in the shop. You can taste them in situ and wash them down with coffee, tea, cava or wine, or you can take them home. The decoration is stunning: old-style furniture, colonial influences and pistachio and purple walls.
Cocoon Barcelona The famous chef Mey Hofmann, who runs the restaurant Hofmann (one Michelin star) and the Hotel and Cooking school, opened this adorable pastery shop. Everything is created to perfection and of the highest quality. If you are staying in an apartment in the Born area, you should get your croissants for breakfast here - PASTELERIA HOFMANN won 2010 the award for the “best butter croissant in Spain”.
Moonraker Morsels Hofmann is a key player on the Barcelona culinary scene with a prestigious restaurant, cookery school and patisserie in the city and their croissants not only get the thumbs up from my pal Sarah, but also won the award for the ‘Best hand made butter croissant in Spain 2010′. So, are these croissants worthy of such an esteemed prize? In all honesty, yes. They are beautifully light, buttery yet not greasy and they go without that unnecessary sticky glaze which crowns so many of Barcelona’s croissant offerings. At 1.10€ they are also a snip and don’t come with an award winning price tag.
Fodors Mey Hofmann, a constellation in Barcelona's gourmet galaxy for the last three decades, moved into this Born address in 2009 with her first shop dedicated exclusively to pastry. Everything from the lightest, flakiest croissants to the cakes, tarts, and ice creams are about as good they get in this sweets emporium just off the Passeig del Born.
Time Out There are lots of temptations here, but the butter croissants stuffed with raspberry or marzipan are absolutely unmissable.
You Stylish Barcelona It almost pains me to share this little secret with the cyber folks but then I wouldn’t be doing my job in sharing all the wonderful places that make Barcelona special and so close to my heart. So here it goes… This little café is unique because it is the only authentically Japanese pastry shop that exists in Barcelona. It’s master pastry king is Takashi who came to Catalunya in 1980 after studying in both Belgium and London as a pastry chef. Here, in his own little café he offers traditional Japanese sweets and chocolates along with some modern twists that better suit the Spanish palatte (like green tea magdalenas…mmm…). Ochiai is also the only place that I have successfully encountered green tea ice cream that you can buy in pints and take home. Their café offers many different types of pastries and some American coffee favorites like cappuchino with whipped cream that generally in Barcelona, is very hard to find outside of Starbucks. The last time that I went to Ochiai, there weren’t that many people either so the atmosphere was really tranquil and clean. Check it out if you happen to be in the Eixample area. It is hands down one of my favorite places in Barcelona.
Bcn Gourmet Fundada hace unos veinte años por el famoso repostero japonés Takashi Ochiai, en esta pastelería encontraremos los más variados postres tradicionales japoneses. Cabe destacar también su carta de bombones artesanos de diferentes tipos de chocolate y con gustos orientales.
Eat That Yellow Snow Long before we heard of Sadaharu Aoki ( best Japanese pastry and chocolate shop in Paris - Michel ), there was a Japanese Pastry Chef in Barcelona, doing his thing and establishing himself as one of the best pastry destinations in the city. Takashi WHO? Takashi Ochiai and his Patisseria Ochiai. He was a pastry chef in Japan, but left for Europe to seek knowledge and experience, as is always the case. His travels brought him to Belgium and London, where he worked for a few years and picked up French and English. Chatting with him was great as we could communicate freely! Eventually, he ended up in Spain, learning their traditional pastries and decided to set up shop in Barcelona in 1983. Besides specializing in Japanese pastry, he is also an astute businessman and imports Japanese products for distribution (Yann Duytsche is one of his customers) as well as produces ice creams and chocolates for wholesale. This place may not be as vogue and fashionable as Sadaharu Aoki, but I thoroughly enjoyed every morsel and second I was there. Besides making my top 3 list of best pastry in Barcelona (There is no personal order of preference in that list!), Chef Ochiai is one of the nicest chefs I have ever met and he was so open with his knowledge and warm hearted that I might want to do a stage there if I can afford living expenses in Barcelona. Thank you Chef Ochiai, for one of the more memorable pastry experiences in my life. I will visit you again one day soon!
Food From Spain Oriol Balaguer's bakeries are the best place to discover the work of one of the most internationally famous Spanish masters of the art of chocolate-making, with his signature chocolates and innovative cake designs. He trained with the elBulli team with Ferran Adrià, and today customers can sample his creations in his bakeries in Barcelona, Madrid and Tokyo, and in countries like Germany, Austria, Australia, Canada, China, United Arab Emirates, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan and Sweden, through the official distributors.
Time Out Ferran Adrià’s confectionery disciple has shops in Madrid and Japan, as well as distributors in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Easter is on its way and Barcelona’s chocolatiers are beginning their annual scramble to make the most lavish, gravity-defying mones (Catalan chocolate Easter figures traditionally bought by godparents for their godchildren). Someone who never disappoints is Oriol Balaguer—although being fearsomely hip, he tends to go for clean sculptural lines rather than Hansel and Gretel houses or giant models of Tweetie Pie.
Balaguer grew up with sugar in his veins, thanks to his father, who was a traditional baker in Calafell, and, after the obligatory stint in the kitchens at Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, he has gone on to win numerous prizes, even being named the Best Confectioner in Catalunya (2003) and the world (2001). He now has three shops, sorry, boutiques, in Barcelona, Madrid and Tokyo—all miracles of steely modernist minimalism. Of course, no avant-garde xocolateria in Barcelona is without its boundary-pushing flavours and Balaguer is no exception: expect anything from hot toddy to wasabi, saffron, olive oil, yuzu (an Asian hybrid of sour mandarin and ichang papeda) and crunchy toasted corn hiding inside his signature cocoa-bean-shaped bonbons. Like high fashion, the chocs, cakes and confectionery are arranged in collections, such as 'Japan', 'Chocotube', planetary globes, 'I Love You' or 'The Chocolate Game' and everything is overhauled twice a year for the new Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter collections. And just when you think it can’t get any more trendoid, there’s the collection named 'Comme des Garçons meets Oriol Balaguer': inspired by the perfumes cdg 2 and cdg 2 man by Comme des Garçons, Balaguer has created a crunchy chocolate in the shape of the iconic perfume bottles. Seasonal items include amazing truffled Christmas logs or gourmet tortells for Reis on January 6th and there’s also a new line for diabetics, Bye Bye Sugar, that substitues maltitol for the evil white stuff. One of the star gift boxes is the High Techocolate, a €97 laptop-style silver box containing 36 bonbons in 12 flavours and textures including 'lioxocolates' (tiny chocs with freeze-dried spices and herbs) and an audiovisual documentary charting the history of chocolate, all the way from the discovery of cocoa to modern production techniques. Don’t even start to calculate how many Mars Bars you could buy for that amount of money.
Lonely Planet Catalan pastry chef Oriol Balaguer has a formidable CV – he worked in the kitchens of Ferran Adrià in Catalonia and won the prize for the World’s Best Dessert (the ‘Seven Textures of Chocolate’) in 2001. His chocolate boutique is presented like a small art gallery, except that it’s dedicated to exquisite finely crafted chocolate collections and cakes. You’ll never be able to buy ordinary chocolate again.
Retro Blog Barcelona Delicious aromas, contrasting textures, creative sophistication and an amazing visual impact best describe Barcelona based pastry chef and chocolatier Oriol Balaguer’s Easter egg creations. Throughout our history, at the time of Easter, eggs have served as a symbol of rebirth and renewal, as forerunners of Spring. When chocolate became more affordable at the end of the 19th century, bird eggs were replaced by chocolate eggs. In the Third Millennium Oriol Balaguer has taken the art of egg crafting one step further. Each year he surprises us with his new show-stopper Easter egg collection. All his Easter Eggs are artisan works of art; it will be hard to find two eggs that exactly look the same. Oriol’s chocolate compositions are inspired by contemporary design, art and architecture. Before committing himself totally to pâtisserie he briefly studied fine arts and that rubs off on his pâtisserie and chocolate crafting. His extraordinary command of raw materials, excellent design skills and technical precision allowed him to optimize the sophisticated form and design of his Easter Eggs. Oriol wants his chocolate eggs to tell a story, to be a sculpture of chocolate, to be more than a chocolate egg. Every year Oriol and his staff make 10 new designs. Highly researched and tested before coming into production they stand the test of time, Balaguer’s Easter Eggs became genuine classics over the years. Oriol Balaguer’s priority is deliciousness. His goal is to get the best flavour out of the product. Flavour goes before visual impact he said several times in interviews. “It all starts with flavours”, though he likes to experiment, to combine flavours that are usually not in the mix together, like mustard in a pastry with cheese, cherries and strawberries. He likes to work with chocolate because of its delicate flavour. “We also have an olive oil chocolate and we start to use white chocolate again. I’ll use it with yuzu. When people taste that, they go crazy”.
Oriol Balaguer’s (1971) pastry chef father inspired him at a young age to enter the world of chocolate and pastry. He attended the Confectionary Trade School and worked in the best patisseries in Spain and Belgium before world-renowned chef and culinary genius Ferran Adrià hired him to work in El Bulli, where he worked for seven years. In an interview he said about his time at El Bulli: “At El Bulli, I did a lot of research and investigation. Now, I have freedom. I have more time to create my own designs… and brand.” In 2002 he opened the Oriol Balaguer Chocolate & Confectionary Studio in Barcelona, his laboratory for thought, development and production, now extended with shops in Madrid and Japan, as well as distributors in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US. Similar to the fashion world he presents twice a year a new range of desserts and cakes for his Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter collections. In 2010 he opened a new project in Barcelona, a bakery at the Carrer Benet Mateu called Classic Line.
During my visit this weekend, it seemed like a popular gift choice, and it's not hard to see why. Aside from winning accolades like "Best Dessert in the World" in 2001, the man behind the magic was trained by none other than Ferran Adria during his seven-year residence at el Bulli. Though Balaguer's chocolates are certainly delicious, they're not the avant-garde or revolutionary treats you'd expect given the credentials and back story. In fact, I found that behind several of the pretty little pieces were pronounced hints of nostalgia—references to classics from supermarket shelves and checkout aisles.
The much talked-about corn and hazelnut pod (all pods $2.50) in a milk chocolate shell, for instance, reminded me of a Ferrero Rocher—the corn lent more crunch than flavor, and tasted almost like puffed rice. The women behind the counter insisted it was a salty-sweet combo, but I didn't get as much of a salty kick as I'd have expected. I certainly wouldn't argue if you made me eat another, though.
A dark chocolate and mint truffle reminded me of the flavors and textures of an Andes after-dinner mint—that perfectly creamy and not-too-pepperminty filling done in a far less artificial way, and wrapped in a more delicious shell.
Fans of Israeli Elite chocolate or Max Brenner will be excited about the pop rocks pod, which is just what it sounds like. The little candies are enveloped in a hazelnut crème that conceals the popping sensation until about thirty seconds after you put it in your mouth—the layers make it possibly to get some serious chocolate appreciation and childish fun one right after the other. Fun foodie trivia: like Balaguer, Pop Rocks are based in Barcelona.
Perhaps the most unusual flavor combo was the olive oil and white chocolate ganache, wrapped in dark chocolate. Here, the olive flavor was strong and present, but well balanced by the combination of chocolates. I'm not sure I'd buy it again, but it was the most surprising and unexpected of the pieces I tried.
I don't love white chocolate, but Balaguer works well with it: the yuzu white chocolate pod may have been my favorite of the bunch, with a brightly citrusy flavor that really popped vibrantly.
There's a whole line of liquor flavors, but be warned: they're quite strong. We did love the pear liqueur and dark chocolate ganache, though, and this may have been the prettiest truffle I've ever seen. Then again, at $2.50 a piece, they'd better be.
In addition to Balaguer's pods, Borne also carries a fine selection of Parisian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini's truffles ($2.75), and I was especially fond of the coconut (top center) and passion fruit (top left), which balanced often-strong tropical flavors in a more delicate way than I'm used to. The champagne truffles (top right) were lovely and subtle, while the caramels (salted, bottom right, and ganache, bottom left) had an awesome texture but not such a nuanced flavor. I'm eager to see what Balaguer does next with his chocolate work—and whether Borne will be carrying any of his more avant-garde creations.
Borne Confections 485 Park Avenue, New York NY 10022 (map) 212-755-5150
Eat That Yellow Snow Oriol Balaguer, Spain’s rising star pastry chef? I’m not sure about that, as Spain is one tough market to lead, but he sure does make good chocolates! One can only imagine the sleepless nights he and his team have trying to figure out how to decorate the damn mold for his many different flavours! You see, he only uses 1 mold, the cocoa bean shape, and trust me, trying to come up with different decorations to make each one unique is a pain in the butt. This was my first time tasting his stuff in Barcelona, having only had his chocolates in Japan. At Calle Morales in Barca lies his kitchen and though he was on holiday, his chef prepared the following for me:
Custom Selection of the most interesting chocolates
18 piece collection
Paradigma de Chocolate – 8 Textures of Chocolate Cake
Conclusion
I found most of the chocolates a tad on the sweet side, but that is personal preference over a country’s preference, just like sweets in India are really sweet to a foreign tongue. The flavours are interesting and some shine and some sputter, which is normal, seeing that he has so many flavours. No one can make 100 types and ensure all 100 are winners! Having had Cacao Sampaka, Paco Torreblanca and some Enric Rovira, I gotta say Oriol Balaguer is one of the best in Spain, with Paco taking top spot (Yes yes yes, I am biased again, but really, he’s got a secret 72% dark chocolate from Mexico that he uses!). Of course, I have yet to visit Yann Duytsche at Dolc outside of Barcelona who is doing some awesome stuff. His book, ‘Sweet Diversions’ is AWESOME. Is Spain leading the way? I sure hope so, and Oriol Balaguer is its upcoming superstar.
address :Calle de Roger de Llúria, 8 08010 Tel.933 04 03 00 MAP IT
address : Carrer Petritxol, 11, 08002 Area : Barri Gòtic MAP IT ( these are 2 of the dozen they have in town )
At Illa Diagonal mall. MAP IT Metro stop : Maria Cristina (L3) Tramway stop : Fransesc Macia (T1, T2, T3) Bus stop : L’Illa Diagonal (L6, L7, L33, L34, L63, L67, L518, N12) Web siteYelp 4.5/5 7 reviews Qype 5/5 6 reviews
In Praise Of Sardines The chocolates here have clever packaging, including a chocolate CD and Birracao, a chocolate beer (take a look at their great website to get an inkling of what they're about). Unfortunately, in my opinion, the quality of the product doesn't live up to the promise of its appearance. It's just OK, which when you're talking about chocolate, doesn't mean it's bad (and it's great compared to Hershey's).
You Stylish Barcelona Those that say they do not like Xocoa are lying through their teeth. Xocoa mixes amazing chocolates with amazing marketing strategy. Let’s face it, the chocolates down to their wrappers and names are just…cool. There is no other word that describes a Xocoa confection. It is cool and that makes it one of the greatest presents. They even have their own line of beer called Birracao, t-shirts, body products, games…
Barcelona.com ...orange, crispy rice, green tea, cinnamon, sugar free, pistachio, black 52%, 73%, 90%, ginger, vanilla, rosemary, milk, almonds, cocoa beans, raspberry, white, lemon verbain, coffee, Jamaican pepper, ...of course, talking' about Chocolate,... And what else? Cacao Bier, t-shirts with Xocoa slogans, chocolate cd bars with anti-copy, crackers, buscaps, trencadents, ventalls, músics, chocolate keys,... The family enterprise Xocoa, under the hedonist privilege knowledge coming from a pleasure as they trade with, further the business, have transcended it to a way of life. Internationally distributed, they already count with shops in many places around the country as in Granollers, Sant Cugat, Lleida, Madrid, Pontevedra, Pamplona, Valladolid, Cáceres, ... and many places in Barcelona.
Barcelona Point The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. The quote from Oscar Wilde, in The Picture of Dorian Gray has never been so true in Barcelona. We can thanks the boutiques “Xocoa” (which means “cocoa” of course! ) that say themselves : “Xocoa : side effects : needs to eat more and more and never share with others”.
But they are not just some normal chocolate sellers. Their chocolates are specials, innovatives and very originals. There are for every taste. You could enjoy a chocolate beer, pepper chocolate, green tea chocolate and even rosemary chocolate! (if you do not like trying new things, do not worry, they also have regular chocolate as with milk or crispy rice). If you are serious, you could have a tab of 85g just for you, or if you would want to try to share, you could get more. Chocolate is an amazing remedy when you have the blues and an excellent food to share with family or friends to celebrate. Other pleasant things that make this chocolate factory so famous are the different funny shapes of the chocolate as well as the packaging very design. Maybe as trendy as Gaudi’s works! Psychedelic motifs, old fashions ones or very stylish, even the packaging makes you want to eat!
Xocoa is like an alternate universe in which every constituent aspect is comprised of chocolate. The intoxicating property of cacao has been harnessed and realized in the form of chocolate keys, helmets, flip flops, and even chocolate beer for the hyperbolic chocolate freaks. Of course, the shop also offers the more traditional conduits for chocolate with an array of delectable brownies and candy bars. Respecting other tastes, the shop provides handcrafted pralines for the less adventurous as well. The perfect place to quiet your hunger and answer the excitement after a visit to the Chocolate Museum, or a simple solution for those looking for a tasteful Barcelona present for their chocolate enthused significant others.
In Praise Of Sardines They have two styles of hot chocolate, classic and dark, that they dispense from these brilliant machines (that are at the top of my wish list of most coveted kitchen objects). You can't go wrong, as both of them are unbelievably rich, thick and positively orgasmic (I know, because I had a cup of each!), like dipping a ladle into the chocolate river of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The hot chocolate is just one treat in a store full of goodies to satisfy the most discerning chocoholic (even pastry chef/author/blogger David Lebovitz thoroughly enjoyed one of Sampaka's many chocolate bars, or tabletas). I stocked up on tabletas and boxes of Sampaka's collections, including "grandes origenes" (chocolate bombones divided according to source of the cocoa beans), "frutos scecos y crujientes" (bombones with nuts), "cacaos y especias de América" (bombones with spices, including curry, saffron, and ginger).
You Stylish Barcelona Cacao Sampaka is a sleek and modern way to buy chocolate. They have things to cook chocolate with, chocolate spreads, fondues, sauces, tablets of chocolate and bon bons. They organize the types of chocolate into 8 categories: Single bean origins, Dried fruit and nuts, Cocoas and spices from the Americas, Herbs and Flowers, Liqueurs, Fruits and preserves, Truffles and lastly, Gastronomic innovations. The store is great because after you tantalize your taste buds staring at different types and different ways to consume chocolate, you can spend some time in their cafeteria where they offer many of the delights that are on sale in the store. They also have various liqueurs to pair with the type of chocolate that you are tasting. It makes chocolate shopping satisfactory in all the senses and I have never known myself to leave the store without a bit of a smile. Must be the liqueurs…
Frommer's If there were such a thing as haut chocolat, this establishment would be its Christian Dior. Using the finest cacao available, a mind-boggling selection of confectionery is categorized into exotic collections. The sleek packaging turns the chocolates into true objects of desire, and there is a bar-cafe where you can enjoy a cup of creamy hot chocolate, pastries, and high-cholesterol sandwiches, at prices not dissimilar to more pedestrian places.
address : Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 546 MAP IT
address : Antigua Casa Figueras, La Rambla, 83 MAP IT TripAdvisor : Gran Via 4.5/5 # 38 / 4338 104 reviews Rambla 4.5/5 # 62 / 4338 77 reviews Yelp 3.5/5 9 reviews Qype 5/5 4 reviews Web site
Secrets of Barcelona Escriba has been creating confections in chocolate, as well as baking bread and cakes, for around a century. The Gran Via branch is where they do the baking, and you can enjoy a coffee while deliberating over which cake to order, or visit the confectionery showroom upstairs and learn a bit more about the history and the process. But one of the main reasons why Escriba has become a Barcelona institution is the way in which chocolate is transformed into Art - for Valentine's day, for example, they displayed a spectacular exhibition of chocolate stiletto shoes in rainbow colours and an attention to detail that would make your Louboutins look decidedly "pasado de moda".
Nile Guide Located within Casa Figueras, decorated by the famous architect Antoni Ros i Güell in 1902, this original spot was opened as a confectioner's in 1986. Since then, the queue of customers at the entrance has been remarkable, especially on Sundays and public holidays. Their most important creation is an homage to their location, called the Ramblas Cake. The café and the terrace were added in 1994. The owner is known as the 'chocolate wizard' due to his magnificent creations, which are all worth a try.
Frommer's You may have already seen the glittering facade of this beautiful Art Nouveau shop on postcards. But far from a curious relic, it sells the products of one of the city's finest chocolate and cake makers. Pop in for a coffee and croissant (outside tables in the summer) or pick up a box of bonbons or a bottle of dessert wine to take home. At Easter, the windows display monas, elaborate chocolate sculptures decorated with jewels and feathers.
Eat That Yellow Snow Their cakes and tarts were extremely beautiful and heartened by the potential deliciousness of these goodies, I sat down to order a selection of their best selling chocolates and their best selling cake, which was a chocolate layer cake. Perhaps the staff thought I was a bit depressed and figured that chocolate therapy was my cure, so they proceeded to give me extremely sub-par service in a misguided attempt to make me order more.
Anyway, it only took one bite of the cake to turn 2 years of anticipation in one of bewilderment. No, I was not blown away and left speechless because it was THAT GOOD, I was shocked and bewildered that it was THAT BAD. This is the vanguard of Spanish Pastry, an institution that so many hold in such high esteem and yet, this did not stop them from making a chocolate cake that tasted like it came from a premix with a bit of real chocolate mixed in to mask the plastic taste. Why it was like this, I will never know. To drive me just a bit closer to depression, the chocolate pieces were not any better either. The round truffle you see in the picture was cracked at the bottom, and the ganache within had shrunken so much that it was naturally water stable……..as it had so little of it left for bacteriological activity! Everything was so disappointing that I did not even bother to take notes of it. In conclusion, the less said of this place, the better, as the only good thing I can say about them is that their packaging is cool. If you are a chef or foodie searching for a good pastry shop in Barcelona, go to Oriol Balaguer, Pasteleria Hoffmann (Go Cristina!), Natcha or Takashi Ochiai. Harsh words perhaps, but this is a lesson that goes to show that one should not believe all the hype and flash surrounding a place. At the end of the day, if it tastes crap, the taste and memory will linger on.
In Praise of Sardines Everything at Escribà is as delicious as it looks, which is impressive when you see how gorgeous the chocolates are. Besides the meltingly smooth chocolate creations and a fun collection of candy glam rings, come here for the lovely (and, again, absolutely stunning) pastries. Christian Escribà is famous for his wedding and birthday cake creations, made to the specifications of his discerning and creative customers.
