By Stephanie Corral |Staff writer|
If you love exotic chocolates and small batch of liquid nitrogen-made ice cream, Parliament Chocolate and A la Minute are the perfect stops for sweet, sweet dessert.
Parliament Chocolate and A la Minute ice cream shop are both located in downtown Redlands.
Parliament Chocolate is located on 16 E Redlands Blvd Redlands, CA 92373.
A la Minute is located just a couple blocks down on 19 East Citrus Ave #105 Redlands, CA 92373.
The owner, Ryan Berk, decided to open up this chocolate store because he wanted a good source of chocolate for his ice cream shop, A la Minute.
“We start from the beans and do the whole process until it becomes liquid,” said employee Liz Molina.
Their chocolate is freshly made at the location and comes from four different countries, which include Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Tanzania.
“It depends on the weather of the countries how often they send the beans over, but usually every month or two months,” said Molina.
Parliament Chocolate sells their own chocolate bars, which are their most popular.
“We sell them around the United States, but outside of the United States as well,” said Molina.
The package decoration of Parliament Chocolate consists of owls; they have a unique hand-drawn owl design for each country that they get their beans imported from.
One of the chocolates I tried was the Tanzania milk chocolate truffle and I loved it. It was one of the best chocolates I have ever tried; it was sweet and it just melted in my mouth.
I also tried the Bolivia chocolate and it was amazing as well.
The prices for the chocolates range from $1.50 for a truffle and $6 for a chocolate bar, unless you buy three or more, than they cost $5 each. At Parliament Chocolate, they also bake the cookies for the cookie sandwiches sold at A la Minute.
The ice cream shop menu consists of ice cream cookie sandwiches, waffle cones and a variety of sizes for the ice cream. The sizes are small for $5, medium for $6, large for $8 and a pint is $10.
The waffle cone is a dollar extra and cookie sandwiches are $6. A la Minute has been open for four years and the ice cream is all handmade and ready to order.
“We work with local farmers to get our fresh ingredients and we get most of them from Southern California,” said employee Mary Hernandez.
The menu has a variety of different ice cream selections and every month they have a unique flavor special.
“The owner is a chef so he pairs things up very well and creates flavors,” said Hernandez.
Some of the flavors they offer are orange honey, espresso chip, chocolate lavender, olive oil vanilla bean and a few others.
“The most popular flavors that people love are salted caramel and fresh mint chip,” said Hernandez.
I tried a sample of the Fresh Mint Chip first, because it usually isn’t a flavor I like, but I ended up loving it and getting the medium size.
“It is fresh mint with no artificial coloring, which is why it doesn’t look as green as other mint chip ice cream,” said Hernandez.
It definitely tasted very fresh and creamy; I can see why the fresh mint chip is one of their best sellers.
I also tried one of their fresh, handmade chocolate chip cookies with my ice cream and it was the perfect combination.
It was definitely one of the best ice cream places I’ve been too.
I recommend stopping by Parliament Chocolate for sweet, different tasting chocolate and A la Minute for great handmade ice cream.
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