Jean Paul Hévin (II) - Hong Kong

Name: Jean Paul Hévin
Address: 尖沙咀廣東道17號海港城212號舖 (Shop 212, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Can’t help but to make another return to Jean-Paul Hévin, it’s all too tempting! I know to some people, macaroon can be sickeningly sweet. Even for me, eating a box of 6 macaroons or downing three cakes can be a bit much sometimes. (It’s all for the work of this blog, you know!?) That’s exactly why at a time like this; I’d start the kettle and prepare good pot of brew, which really does make all the different. I usually like a mix of scented tea of rose, jasmine and osmanthus, which gives a wonderful perfumery aroma and takes away all the sluggish feeling from overdosing on sugary food. For less work, I’d just take out a Lipton white tea bag (FYI White tea is low on caffeine but filled with of antioxidants) and pour in the water!!

I got a box of 6 macaroons (Green Apple, Pistachio, Dark Chocolate (x2), Milk Chocolate and Coffee) and one chocolate lolly – caramel flavoured from Jean Paul Hévin. As mentioned before, I am not keen on fruity macaroon but I’m always willing to give new stuff a try. The result is…

Green Apple: I think I tasted a faint hint of artificial apply flavour, but it was too brief to be confirmed. I guess I imagined a light tangy, fresh, refreshing apple flavour which the reality just did not come close to my imagination. Oh, why bother using so many words, frankly, I hate it and I’ll try Raspberry flavour instead next time!

Pistachio: This one was also a disappointment. The nutty flavour just simply wasn’t strong enough to make a mark. The sugary, honey flavour was more overwhelming then the actual nut. Hazelnut is definitely better! The thing is there’s a really yummy Pistachio Gelato in HK so I kinda expected the macaroon to taste like the gelato, silly me!

Dark Chocolate: which was featured in the previous entry – I like it because it’s simple, genuine, straightforward intense chocolate flavour.

Milk chocolate: Not as remarkable as Dark Choc but still good, just can’t beat the Dark Choc for my record.

Coffee: mmm…my advice is make it either less sweet or more bitter (or both!), and add a bit of crushed coffee bean. Trust me, it’d taste better this way and more people will come back for it!

Isn't he a handsome lil' fellow?
Chocolate Lolly (caramel flavoured): There are 3 flavours (if I remembered correctly), Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and Caramel. I decided I’d go for caramel because it’s the more unusual choice of flavour from the existing three options. I also had my doubts at the point of purchase…because I was worried I’d hate it and that’d just be tragic. My worries were like what if the caramel taste is too overwhelming and takes over the taste of chocolate, what if its gonna be too sickeningly sweet and I have to throw it away (I really hate wasting food!), etc…
So I asked the shop assistant, would the caramel plus chocolate make this lolly sickeningly sweet? She assured me they have a good balance and some sea salt is added into it. With that reply (keyword: sea salt!!) I was like, “ok, I’d take one please!”
As soon as I’ve unwrapped the lolly, the lightly scent of caramel was already noticeable. The chocolate is velvety infused with caramel aroma, the balance of sweetness was good as promised. I’ve especially circled the sea salt in the picture because they are hard to see in a picture but you can just taste it! I think just for the lolly, Jean Paul is worth for a third visit!



Macaroon and Chocolate are at $15 each (approx. GBP 1) and chocolate lolly at $60 each (approx. GBP 4).

Agnés B. DÉLICES

Name: Agnés B. DÉLICES
Location: Shop B16, The Sun Arcade, 28 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Website: http://www.agnesb-delices.com/praline.html

Agnés B – Dare I say it is a brand that’s better known in Asia than in Europe. Crazed by many Chinese and Japanese girlies, though the hype never quite caught me! In recent years, they have started to diversify the business, e.g. opening floral shop, book shop (gallery), etc. In 2007, they caused a (slight) stir in the F & B world in HK, by opening a restaurant in Causeway Bay and their own chocolatiers. Apparently, at one point bookings have to be made 6-9 months in advance. I haven’t tried their restaurants for two reasons, I believer it is over hyped and I can find better French Cuisine else where, period. Besides…I’d rather spend the money on a DKNY or Anterprima (plastiq collection) Bag than eating there! (Mind you the bill for two should be equivalent of a handbag from those two brands) =P

Ok back to food…seeing that they have now opened 4-5 shops around HK, I felt it was safe enough for me to go try it out. Maybe I’d like it…plus I bough myself more Jean-Paul Hevin’s macaroons, nothing can faze me now! (yeah…haahaa, so I thought!)

When I enter the shop, a massive glass counter filled with truffles and chocolates greeted me. With some pre-packed boxes of chocolate which offer a tacky looking bracelet that might make a good birthday gift for some on the shelves.

In the end, I only managed to buy four chocolate and they looked adorable.



Fleur – Gianduja and Ganache Dark Chocolate

“A luxurious blend of the finest ganache with hazelnut and almond paste, this is your one-way ticket to chocolate paradise.”

Thin chocolate casing held the "finest ganache" which I found the almond taste was stronger than hazelnut. Not a particular fan of this one.



Aurore – Earl Grey Dark Chocolate


“The unique and sophisticated flavors of delicate, bergamot-infused tea make this a must-try praline for all chocolate connoisseurs.”

Let's just say the Earl Grey Flavored Truffle I bought from Hokkaido is the best ones I've tried. So if I'm trying to search that flavour again, it'd prob be either flying over there or make it myself. The distintive taste of the tea was not pleasing and I'd have preferred it if more chocolate was there.


Valerie – Vanilla Milk Chocolate


“A delectable twist on traditional milk chocolate this luxurious praline will delight your taste buds with its masterful blend of cocoa, cream and finest vanilla.”

I love vanilla, I love milk chocolate and cream...so I thought except for being overly sweet, this chocolate cannot go wrong right? I took half a bite of it than forced my mum to have another half. Her comment was, "Agnes B. is really over hyped isn't it!?" haahaa~

Isabelle – Rose Dark Chocolate


“A rich blend of rose with smooth dark chocolate, it is a perfect balance of two sophisticated flavors.”


Sorry, if I have ran out of words to describe food that are less pleasing for me. I took half a bite of this and threw the other half in the bin. I just can't take it anymore! I was expecting a more perfumed taste of it but instead, it tasted weird. Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to try their chocolate.


They cost $16 each (approx £1 each)

In general, I didn't enjoy the thin casing of chocolate, I felt the fillings were too overwhelming and none of the aromas was pleasing to me. I'm not sure if I'm affected with my prejudice so I've decided I'll buy tons of chocolate for Banya to try next time I visit her in Korea! She would be a much fairer judge than me, I'm sure.

Jean-Paul Hévin (Hong Kong)

Name: Jean Paul Hévin
Address: 尖沙咀廣東道17號海港城212號舖 (Shop 212, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong)


An infamous French Chocolatier is now in HK~~ hip hip - hurray!! (www.jphevin.com/)

Admiring my bag of treasure, skipping happily into Lane Crawford at Harbour City!

Maca Maca Maca...rooon

(1) Hazelnut Macaroon: The intense hazelnut flavour is trapped inside its crispy case. Once you bite it open you can immediately smell and taste the distinctive nutty taste of hazelnut.

Sexy hazelnut~

(2) Dark Chocolate Macaroon: Haven’t got much to complain about this one. I can’t say I have tasted better macaroon~ I’d definitely come back for the Maca!! This is hot~(In Paris Hilton's Voice!)
Dark choc Macaroon, beauty!
Scrumptious Dark Choc filling!!

(3) Plain Truffle: Dusted with cocoa powder…it is such a light, delicate little thing that melts on your tongue ever so easily (or in the heat of HK summer!) hence there's no pic.

(4) Milk Chocolate Wafer: Ok, you may imagine this to be Kit-Kat like but surprisingly it’s not that sweet at all. Plus the creamy milk chocolate melts in your mouth immediately and the wafer is crushed into small pieces which gave it an extra crunch and contrast to the smooth chocolate.

(5) Dark chocolate: Apparently this little goody used a high percentage cocoa (think the girl from the shop said 75%). Creamy dark chocolate ganache is filled inside a thin dark chocolate shell. The chocolate flavour was powerful and honest. However, to me, it came across as a little dull and it’s not a taste that I’d miss.

(6) Dark Chocolate filled with praline paste: The nutty creamy paste was slightly too sweet for my liking. If I were to buy similar flavour chocolate, I’d recommend Leonidas (Belgium).

(7) Smoked Chinese Tea: I’ve always loved Earl Grey flavoured chocolate so I really looked forward to this one and saved it till last!! As I took my first bite, I could immediately taste the smoky flavour…then it started tasting like smoked haddock! I couldn’t help but to spit it out (in the most lady-like way I could possibly pull). It tasted bit like the sweets you could get in Harry Potter really, I mean…I should really taste the whole thing thoroughly in order to write it out properly but I just couldn’t do it. I’m sorry!

The heat was melting my goodies...T^T

For Macaroon lovers, you’d already know this little sugary goody is on the sweet side. I’m not usually a sucker for overly sweet dessert or food but I just love Macaroon. As for chocolate, I prefer l’Etoile d’Or, however, there isn’t one in HK, not to my knowledge anyways. Therefore, I tend to settle with Leonidas which is a lot cheaper as well (equivalent of Godiva). But I was once told that “No one in Belgium really go to Godiva because all the locals know Leonidas is better!” So when my friend went a business trip in Belgium, I told her to go to Leonidas, she came back telling me there was a long queue and by the time she got to the front, all the fresh chocolate sold out. But she said she still bought some other chocolate (apparently they refill their stock few days and made a small number of fresh chocolate on site each day).

Out of all the loveliness I’ve bought. I think I’ll go back for more Macaroons and the chocolate wafer! When it comes to macaroon, I’ve never been keen on flavour like rose or fruit, so next time I’d like to try other flavour such as pistachio. ALSO, I’ve spotted this chocolate lollipop…it’s quite big and I think it’d make a great gift, I think it cost $60 (£4).

Each chocolate, macaroon and truffle were HK$15 (£1), it is not the most expensive chocolate I've tried before, but it is definitely one of the more expensive ones in HK!

I'm really stretching out my limits for this blog...I'm really putting my weight and health on the line to do this!! Anyway, I'm hoping to do a review on other cake shop / chocolatiers soon like Anitque Patisserie and Crunch cake at Cafe one, but maybe after 200 more situps 1st for the next 7 days @.@"