Confectionary NYC

I fell hard for Lagusta's Luscious long before I ever tried their chocolates thanks to word of mouth and the power of the internet. That may sound strange but chocolate is one of my favourite things and when you do as much vegan foodie research as I do you know where to find the good stuff. After years of gazing at the Lagusta's Luscious website and following their beautiful Instagram feed I tried their chocolate for the first time in June 2014 after winning a voucher at Vida Vegan Con, waiting patiently for my chosen chocolates to ship, and sitting on the doorstep on my Austin Air B&B on delivery day because I knew that everything would melt in the hot Texas sun. 

As soon as I bit into my first caramel I knew was in love, I'd never be satisfied with mediocre vegan chocolates again! 

Lagusta's Luscious have two spots in upstate New York, New Paltz to be precise, their original chocolate shop and a new cafe where they offer rad things like palm oil free croissants and sliding scale soup. Lagusta's newest location, and the spot I visited, is called Confectionary. It's located in the East Village and is a joint venture with Maresa of Sweet Maresa's Macarons. What a dreamy duo! 

If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that I pretty much popped into Confectionary to get something sweet every time I was in the area. I tried apple pie macarons, yuzu creams, peanut butter cups, and multiple chocolate bars laced with caramel and nuts, plums and anise. Everything here is seriously gorgeous and with Lagusta's you know that you're getting a quality chocolate product and supporting an awesome female owned business. Fuck yeah! As well as being a committed vegan Lagusta herself is an environmentalist and a die hard feminist with a commitment to running her business ethically. Everything is totes fair-trade and Food Empowerment Project certified which is super important to me, I don't know about you but I don't want to support child slavery and I wish every vegan business could get their shit together and stop using chocolate sourced from places where child labour and slavery are rife. Click here to learn more about this important issue. 

I wish that I could have stuffed every space in my suitcase full of these delicious treats but my travel budget said a big hell no to that idea and I chose a couple of fave's and a couple of new treats to bring back to Europe with me.

On the left is a box of rosemary sea salt caramels, these are a bestseller and have been my favourite since I tried them in Austin a couple of years ago. I adore the rich and satisfying combo of salt caramel, rosemary, and chocolate and the little pinch of rosemary infused sea salt atop the bar really takes these from delightful to perfect. I couldn't have left New York without them! On the top right is a box of thyme caramels with sea salt and preserved lemon because I knew that I couldn't go wrong with another type of salt caramel, there are no chocolatiers in the UK making chocolates as inventive as these and I will be making them last as long as I possibly can. My third choice was a maple white chocolate bar which I'm sad to say is not to my taste. I'll try any and all ethically produced vegan white chocolate bars at least once but this is just a little too sweet for my tastes. Thankfully Nick loves it so I'm using it to keep him away from my caramels! Last but by no means least I picked up a turtle bar which is still my very favourite of their bars even after trying Lagusta's favourite the peanut butter caramel bar. This chocolate bar is stuffed full of pecans, nutty nougat, caramel, and sea salt (Anyone else seeing a pattern emerging here?!) and I'm saving it for a super special occasion. The chocolates that I desperately wanted to try but had to leave behind were the croissant infused chocolate caramels, the toasted mallow s'mores bar, and the vegan bacon infused pig out bar. I'm sure there are more (cardamom caramels anyone?) but that's my current wish list!

Food and ethics aside the other great thing about Confectionary is that it's in an amazing location right in the heart of the East Village. It's only a couple of doors down from Superiority Burger, one of my new fave' NYC spots (get the New Creation, you won't regret it!), and there are a bunch of other cool things within walking distance including the Tenement Museum, radical feminist bookstore Bluestockings, and Vaute Couture's flagship store. I'm sure I'll be back in the US one day and I'll be making Lagusta's Luscious (in real life or online) my very first stop.