Chocolat de Kat trades in demure bonbons that belie the riot of flavours within. A female-founded artisan chocolate shop, it's a must-visit spot for chocoholics, and anyone keen to be gobsmacked by a single bite.

Established in 2018, by Kata Ambrus, Chocolat de Kat is a business fueled by a "lifelong love affair with chocolate." It's also, as Ambrus explains, an outlet for her artistry that allows the type of personal and professional harmony we all crave.

A graduate of New York City's French Culinary Institute, Ambrus worked in bakeries and restaurant kitchens before deciding that a traditional life in hospitality just wasn't for her. "My goal," she says, "wasn't to become executive pastry chef. … I wanted balance. A life."

That balance, of course, didn't come straightaway. In Chocolat de Kat's early years, Ambrus was the business' sole employee, working as chocolatier and order taker, packager, delivery driver, and more.

"The pandemic actually helped make me busier," she says. "People wanted a sweet indulgence. Something beautiful and tasty."

As orders piled in, so did Ambrus' need for more people who shared her passion. Busting out of its original St. Clair location, the burgeoning business also demanded more space.

Chocolat de Kat's second location, in the Junction Triangle, is buried inside the historical clock factory building.

Three times the size of the original shop, it houses a retail space along with a full production facility, where a 15-member team, led by head chocolatier, Hannah Tubbs, is kept busy with chocolate-making, packing, fulfilling orders, and storage.

Designed by Futurestudio, the tiny shop is crisp and modern, its finishes as shiny as the glossy cocoa-butter-coated shell on one of the team's irresistible offerings.

Here, à la Willy Wonka's world, everything is inspired by sweets, from the light fixtures, which resemble bonbons, to the Echo Electra counter designed to look like the cross section of a Crème Brûlée chocolate.

Producing up to 5000 bonbons every two days, the team shifts between a production schedule of decorating and lining, making and piping innumerable creamy, zingy, luscious fillings, capping, unmolding and packaging chocolates.

Inside, the facility is a bustling, buzzy space where there are no idle hands, and there's a palpably upbeat mood.

Piled up on baking racks and in boxes, a kaleidoscopic array of bonbons ($3.50 for one, $14.50 for four, $31 for nine) await their final destinations. Original flavours that Ambrus can't take off the menu, Salted Caramel and Milk Chocolate Galaxy, Raspberry Dark and Crème Brûlée are bestsellers.

Every season, a giddy array of wild new flavours rival their dominance. Taking suggestions from the entire team, the crew workshops and experiments with the weird, the wacky and the wonderful. "Sometimes, they take 20 tries. Sometimes you get it right on the first try," says Tubbs.  

The best part, she adds, is that there's no limit to the inspiration. From cookies and cupcakes to pies, macarons and more, "you can do that in a chocolate. You can recreate a teeny, tiny dessert in a bonbon."

This year, the team took inspiration from holiday cookies for a collection that's spiced and surprising and infinitely nice. It includes a Raspberry Linzer with almond frangipane ganache and a perky pop of raspberry gel.

Alternatively, there's a vegan Lump of Coal made of black sesame caramel atop a tiny round of green tea cake. Warming spices and citrus brighten a whiskey-spiked caramel in the team's Yuzu Hot Toddy.

Bonbons feel too chichi? There are also snack-sized bars ($8) made with Dear Grain sourdough toast or golden Oreo praline, Detour Coffee couverture, house-made shortbread or zippy raspberry jam.

In each, "the inclusions are blended throughout," says Ambrus, to ensure maximum flavour in every tiny crumb.  

And it's that passion for flavour, for trying new combinations, tempting new customers and wowing longtime fans that continues to motivate the team.

"We're doing literally the thing that we love the most," says Ambrus. "It's about the obsession with this perfect little vessel that has infinite potential for creativity, both on the outside and on the inside."

Plus, offers Tubbs, "Who doesn't like chocolate?"

Chocolat de Kat is located at 300 Campbell Avenue, Unit #105.