I spent a part of my weekend exploring what tasty, eccentric treats Columbus has to offer, embarking on a dessert tour with Columbus Food Adventures.
The sole food tour company in Columbus, according to the company’s website, Columbus Food Adventures hosted one of its dessert tours 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
The van tour stopped first at Pistacia Vera, located at 541 S. Third St. in German Village. The quaint pastry and dessert boutique specializes in making delectable macarons. I had the pleasure of indulging in a chocolate cherry cordial macaron, a bite-sized sandwich cookie with a chocolate cherry ganache filling. I’ve had macarons before, but this one took the cake.
I also sampled the pistachio honey nougat, which was filled with tiny chunks of pistachio, as well as the pistachio cherry fig dacquoise, a scrumptious cake with pistachio meringue layers topped with a cherry glaze. Due to its airy, moist taste, this cake instantly became my all-time favorite.
We then made a stop to Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties, located at 11 E. Gay St., a trendy pastry shop that serves an assortment of brownies and blondies, of which I sampled six different types. My favorite was the triple chocolate brownie.
Our third stop was a little café called Café Brioso, located at 14 E. Gay St. Brioso has probably the purest black coffee I’ve ever tasted. I sampled the Bali coffee and the Guatemala Vienna coffee. Each had a sweet, floral aroma to them, but my favorite was the Guatemalan with its sweet, yet bitter vanilla taste.
After meeting with one of the coffee roasters and seeing a short presentation on the process of coffee roasting, we made our next stop at a Clintonville bakery called the Pattycake Bakery, located at 3009 N. High St.
At the bakery, I was able to taste four desserts: the Buckeye Bar, the Marry Me Blueberry Muffin, an apple butter sticky bun and a pumpkin-flavored cupcake. The blueberry muffin is definitely a must-try, as it is chock-full of blueberries and topped off with a layer of crumbs. After tasting the amazing desserts, I was surprised to find out all of Pattycake’s treats were vegan.
The tour also stopped at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, located at 4247 N. High St. Jeni’s has an assortment of frozen treats from its more than 30 flavors of ice cream to its selection of frozen yogurt and sorbet, and uses a variety of non-traditional ingredients such as sweet potatoes, cinnamon, walnuts and whiskey.
The parlor was delightful with its earthy colored walls and chalk-drawn menus. I ordered a scoop of the Cherry Lambic Sorbet and the Lemon and Blueberries Frozen Yogurt. The cherry had a sweet and tangy taste while the lemon and blueberries yogurt had a creamy vanilla taste.
Our final stop of the day was the M at Miranova, located at 2 Miranova Place, where I was served a non-alcoholic mint chocolate chip cocktail drink. It tasted like chocolate milk but, thankfully, it wasn’t too sweet. The drink was also garnished with a fresh mint leaf.
As if visiting six Columbus dessert havens for about three hours didn’t please my sweet tooth enough, the Columbus Food Adventures only gave me more of a yearning to seek out other dessert shops Columbus has to offer.
Operated by U.K. native and avid food blogger Bethia Woolf, the company offers several specialty food tours – such as a coffee tour, taco truck tour and meat lover’s tour – which visit locally owned Columbus eateries. The dessert tour is $55 per person.
For more information on Columbus Food Adventures, including tour schedules and prices, visit its website.
