Indulge your sweet cravings at “Terra Bean to Bar,” Taipei’s awesome chocolate dessert haven! Nestled in the heart of the city right near Daan Park, this charming dessert shop offers an array of mouthwatering cocoa creations. Savour velvety-smooth chocolate pastries, cakes, delightful truffles, and artisanal hot chocolate with Terra Bean to Bar twists.
With its warm ambience and heavenly cocoa delights, Terra Bean to Bar promises a unique experience of chocolate desserts for Taipei choco enthusiasts. A must-visit destination for any Taipei chocolate lover exploring this city’s culinary sweet delights!
Table of Contents
It’s pretty clear that chocolate from Terra Bean to Bar should be enjoyed, slowly, in their relaxed atmosphere cafe. Even from the outside, we can see that they have a lot of bushes, some small trees, lots of dark exposed wood and glass. The whole thing looks like it could be a cafe somewhere in Europe.
Greeting you at the door is this nice metal sign showing us that they have drinks, desserts, and that they also do classes here.
Inside, the atmosphere is just as relaxed as the outside, but in a slightly different way. On the inside, expect a sweeping dappled concrete bar with some seating, as well as plenty of other more relaxed seating off to the sides.
There are lots of carefully positioned lights throughout the bar and seating area, without it being overwhelmingly bright.
Gifts
If you have to wait for your table, then there’s a nice area to the side of the bar and counter that has many gifts. Expect to find chocolate beer, gin, and plenty of carefully curated bars – win! They’re expensive, but it’s almost a given that you can trust this place for quality, as they are processing it all in small batches, allowing more love, care, and quality control to go into each bar.
The Counter
The counter is where you’ll likely sort out your reservation or ask for a table, whereupon you’ll probably proceed to drool all over the glass whilst staring at the plethora of gift boxes and other chocolate on offer for you when you’re given the menu on which to order.
The almonds and also the gin strikes me as a pretty good gift to take home to loved ones, too.
The Chocolate Menu at Terra Bean to Bar
Those regular readers of Eating in Taipei will know that I love a small menu. I have said it before, and I will say it again – A small menu means absolute clarity, quality, and attention to each detail of a dish. Honing your craft over those <10 items on a menu really ensures that those items will be well thought out, executed, and delivered to you (of course, that is assuming competence).
My eyes were gravitating towards that hot chocolate and nitro-iced chocolate.
Not only do you get a standard menu, but you also get a menu detailing the flavour profiles of the cocoa here, too.
On the day that we went, we could choose between cocoa from India, Madagascar, or Colombia. You can’t really look past Terra Bean to Bar if you are looking for chocolate in Taipei. This kind of selection and artisanal curation of ingredients is very difficult to beat.
What We Ordered
Hot Chocolate
I had to get the hot choc. It was almost a given, to be honest. But, I also had to go for a little truffle, too. For the cocoa, we chose to have the cocoa from India. This particular cocoa originated in the Anaimalia Hills of Southern India in between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The hot choc was wonderful. Served hot, I was told on the flavour profile card to expect guava, peanut, and caramel. I don’t know whether I could identify all 3 of those specific flavours in it, but peanut and caramel definitely came through. Maybe some element of guava came through as an aftertaste, but probably because I had already read the card and was expecting it…
What I can tell you is that it was up there with some of the nicest hot chocolate that I have had the pleasure of tasting. Light, flavourful, and effortlessly smooth.
Nitro Chocolate Drink
My experience of nitro drinks isn’t quite as broad as it is with other drinks. I feel like I have missed the nitro-ness of drinks by swearing off Starbucks. I have had some nitro coffee in other cafes around, but it’s not a regular order for me.
I have most certainly not had nitro-iced chocolate before, so this was a first for me. Poured straight out of the tap into a chocolate-rimmed champagne flute, the flowing chocolate here at Terra Bean to Bar had me simply wanting to open my mouth and stick it under the tap – a little bit like how I imagine Augustus Gloop would do…
I digress, nitro iced choc was here, and I was happy. The light aeration allows this iced choc to be incredibly light, coating your tongue delicately with all of those Madasgacarn flavour profiles detailed in the accompanying card.
For the cocoa here, we elected for the Madagascar – Akesson Bejofo. Flavour profiles of citrus and ripe fruit were expected, and they delivered. They didn’t deliver with deep, rich flavours, but more so light and airy flavours, yet they were noticeable. This is partly due to the nitro element in the iced drink, but also partly because this cocoa is just that little bit lighter when compared to the Indian cocoa that we went for in the hot chocolate above.
Chocolate Panna Cotta
When we see a pudding or panna cotta on a dessert menu, we tend to get it.
Served in a cute little dish and sitting in the chocolate caramel sauce topped with some cream and cocoa nibs, this was a beauty to behold. And it helped that it tasted delightful, too.
Thick, decadent, creamy, and packed full of choco flavour. This was really good. I’d say that it came in slightly heavier, rather than lighter. When it comes to this kind of dessert, though, that is definitely a tick in the positive box! You could easily have one of these, a cake, and probably a nitro, too. Why wouldn’t you??
Chocolate Parfait
When we stumbled across this little notice detailing a new and exciting chocolate parfait, it was only right that we give it a try! There were cacao nibs, brownies, caramelized pecans, choco crisps, candied pineapple chunks, meringue sticks, and of course the Italian-style parfait.
We also had a top-secret try of another incredible ice cream that they had on as a seasonal special. It was awesome, too!
This chocolate parfait is a beautiful bowl of everything that should be celebrated when coming to Terra. The dense and rich flavours sung through in beautiful harmony, but were contrasted with crunchy and cakey textures inter-spersed with candied fruit and crunchy pecans. The meringue sticks helped bring sweetness to the dish where everything complimented each other in perfect balance.
I would safely say that any time you come here, you should get this. If, for some terrible reason, the parfait isn’t available – you should get any of the seasonal ice cream flavours on offer. They are right on point, and you will not leave disappointed.
Whisky & Chocolate Pairing Set
Nothing makes me feel more like a weekend pairing up some delicious whisky with some beautiful snacks. Even more so when they are thoughtfully put together and flavour-profile matched such as these ones were.
As always, attention is put into the details here, with a Peruvian and a Taiwanese pairing for the whisky. This Kavalan Triple Sherry Cask single malt comes in a little more tart than I would usually drink my whisky, but it was very tasty when had in conjunction with both of the carefully curated chocolate pairings. The Taiwanese counterpart was woody and almost mushroomy, which was very unusual.
The Peruvian came in with deeper notes of honey and green olive that contrasted the sherry flavours that came through in that single malt whisky very nicely. This was my favourite pairing. The Taiwanese offering was good, but I was thrown a bit by the woody mushroomy flavours I was getting. I would have maybe liked this more if I had it by itself.
Take-out
Not wanting the intoxicating experience to end, we ended up taking out some things, too. We took out a bottle of the infused beer, and also 2 bars. The beer was fantastic, with deep, right notes of everything chocolate. Both bars were also great, with the Taiwanese bar (on the right) bringing in incredible, thought-provoking, complex flavours.
I love what they were doing here at Terra. Everything is here to focus on the amazing produce of Taiwan, and other choco-producing countries throughout the world. We are blessed to have such dedicated owners and spaces such as this in Taipei, and long may they continue!
The bottom line
Is it worth it? This place is right on the money for a deliciously decadent date. The atmosphere is chill, the menu is great, and it’s a genuinely lovely place to sit and talk.
Would I go again? Yes. I won’t rush back, but I will definitely go back.
What was the best thing we tried? The nitro was really good and pretty fun, but I would say that all the things that we ordered were about on par with each other. I’d order it all again.
They opened up another branch near the sea, you should check this beautiful place out.
Sanzhi District, New Taipei City – Terra by the Sea 土然巧克力淺水灣店- Chocolate at Its Glorious Best, by the Sea.