There is a giant bunny rabbit waving to passers by on Mont-Royal and an enclosure full of goats and chickens in Complexe Desjardins. Could it be… is it… Easter weekend?

It’s tough to pick up on the subtle signs, but there’s one way that I know for sure that the time of Peeps and pastels has arrived: my urge to buy enormous chocolate animals is even stronger than usual. And today, I gave in.

When I was walking around the Plateau this afternoon, dodging giant rabbits right and left, I passed Sucrerie du Soleil and wandered in to see if they could meet my chocolate-animal needs.

Jackpot. The candy shop has a veritable menagerie of chocolate animals. Sure, they’ve got the usual bunnies and chickens (adult and baby versions). But they’ve also got fish, frogs, horses, cows, and at least one lion. They don’t even stick to animals; I noticed a delicious looking dark chocolate motorcyclist and a milk chocolate soccer player.

All of the chocolates are made by a company called Les Chocolats Giacomo et Frère, which is located in Laval. According to their website, the company has been around since 1965, which makes me wonder if one day they just got tired of the same old chocolate bunnies, chickens, and Spongebob every Easter.

The store itself has a lot more to offer than the chocolate animals. Besides the usual candy store merchandise of jelly beans and cyclone pops, they also have some homemade sweets like peanut brittle (very yummy), an array of cookies, and some nicely decorated chocolates.

But I must say, it was hard to concentrate on the goodies in the middle of the store with hundreds of round, sugary eyes staring at me from the walls. I found the dark chocolate cat particularly distracting; he looks like he's strung out on catnip. And I’m sure he would have been delicious, but I decided to give him to my friend who has a thing for goofy looking cats, opting instead to keep the horse for myself.

I guess there was a bit of a mix-up at the cash register and I was already half way home before I realized that I’d gotten someone else’s chocolates (my horse turned into a soccer player). Oh well. The soccer player tasted rich and velvety, without any of that yucky tangy aftertaste you get with cheap chocolate. I’m sure my chocoholic friends will appreciate the other two animals a lot more than the same old Uniprix chocolate bunnies I usually get them around this time of year.

Sucrerie du Soleil
1951 Mont-Royal East
(514)529-8688