Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate | MarieBelle, Soho, New York

Cacao Bar, the tearoom | Photo © GAYOT.com

By Sophie Gayot

Chocolate Coma at MarieBelle Soho New York

New York, Visited in September 2022, Reviewed December 2022

Open: Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Fri.-Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Cacao Bar: walk-ins only.

Heading to the tearoom at MarieBelle is just a cover-up for our chocolate cravings. Since it is almost all things chocolate here, it is called Cacao Bar. It is tucked away in the back of the very femininely decorated store. After all, MarieBelle is Maribel Lieberman, a lady’s love affair with chocolate. A native of Honduras, she grew up in the cacao fields, and started playing with sugar at eight years old. Then later, after Parsons School of Design, she ended up running her own catering company that morphed slowly to exclusively chocolate making.

Lieberman uses only the finest selection of Criollo cacao beans from all over the world to locally produce in her own Brooklyn factory her distinguished bite-sized pieces. They are filled with ganache and painted with original drawings created by artisanal, culinary artists according to the season or the holidays. Did you know that Criollo cacao makes up less than 10% of worldwide chocolate production? The greatest care is taken in selecting the ingredients to be used in the process, from the butter and vanilla to the lavender, fresh fruits and matcha tea, to name just a few.

There is a life beyond the painted squares in the forms and tastes of chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, chocolate bites, chocolate caramels, signature hot chocolate and teas, ice cream and confections.

While on your chocoholic shopping spree, take time to sit at the chocolate-box Cacao Bar for traditional scones, finger sandwiches, chocolate fondue, molten lava cake, cookies, pastries, macarons or iced chocolate. If you like it hot, you are presented with nine different options, including two whites.

Sorry, but I now have to leave to plunge into my safely guarded chocolate reserve.

> All MarieBelle chocolates are available online, with free ground shipping for orders over $130 (US shipping only).