January – March 2013
There’s a chocolate shop and “factory” just outside Kerikeri called Makana Confections. In the shop, you can observe the confections being made through the large glass windows. Most visitors seem to have far less interest in the confection-making process than in the confection-sampling process at the counter.
This place seemed like touristy thing and wasn’t on the must-do list for Kerikeri, but we thought it might be nice to try the free samples and pulled in. One taste of the macadamia butter toffee and the pinot noir truffles and we realized this chocolate is special. I would compare it to See’s back in the US, but with a much smaller selection and higher prices. Still, after sampling it we had to buy some. We got the lecture about making sure to finish it by the expiration date. This was not a problem.
We’ve returned a few more times and tasted a few other things, but we always came back to our favorites: the butter toffee and the densely chocolate pinot-noir truffles. If you’re in the area, definitely stop in to try a sample but be warned: if you try, you will want to buy. -Cyndi
