Chantelle and I found ourselves enjoying a mini break away from the kids back in December last year, escaping to the tiny, historic and laden with wine and olive producers town of Tulbagh for the weekend.
Tulbagh is of course known having many wine estates and historic buildings, but given that the town essentially consists of only two streets of commerce, touristy things to do that are not wine tasting are relatively hard to come by.
Enter Moniki Chocolatier, brainchild of Niki de Wolf, who moved down to Tulbagh from the Netherlands with partner Rijk von Kooij, purchasing the historic Schoonderzicht Farm (dating back to 1795) in the process.
Seeing as starting a guest house wasn’t really an option given their small children, Niki, a journalist and food writer, decided to try her hand at luxury chocolate making – one of the things that she missed from back home in Europe.
Thus Tulbagh’s very own chocolatier was born.
Having moved shop few times already, Moniki now finds itself sharing an old restored house on the historic Church Street with the handcrafted curio and clothes shop Het Land van Waveren.
Obviously, Chantelle and I simply had to drop in and taste their fine chocolates, and while slightly disappointed with the size of the operation, we were thrilled with the absolutely decadent array of chocolates on offer – it is not often that you come across someone who incorporates things like wine and amarula in their chocolate making!
They offer a chocolate tasting experience which allows you to select a single type of drink and four different chocolates to go with it – which of course means that between the two of us we tasted 8 very good chocolates!
So although not really a serious travel attraction in itself, if you do however find yourself in Tulbagh and happen to enjoy good chocolate, then it certainly is worth popping in to Moniki Chocolatier while you are there.
Also, a handy map:
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