Choices Markets

Bakery: Choices Markets 
Address: 1937 Harvey Ave, Kelowna BC
Website: https://www.choicesmarkets.com/
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$ 

Choices Markets is could probably be most likened to the BC Whole Foods, a supermarket specializing in organic and health foods (though they have a fair share of "standard" groceries) with several locations throughout parts of the province, with most in Metro Vancouver. I visited their Kelowna location to check out their bakery section and found it considerably larger than the one at the other health food grocery store in town, though I prefer the latter for shopping purposes. Nevertheless, most items in the bakery section are either pre-packed in little plastic boxes (including cake slices, squares, cupcakes and cookies) or baked goods are sold individually on a small set of shelves; that is, the "in-house" sweets, since they also have a few things from other bakeries or sources. There are some gluten-free and vegan treats, but nothing is really organic. Still, providing a list of ingredients on each boxed item is a nice touch, though I was a little disappointed, given the nature of the store, that some items didn't have the greatest list.

 My first pick was their cinnamon buns, but I thought the amount of icing on top was a little excessive and went instead for two treats from the pre-packed zone in the fridge. The first was the chocolate ganache cake ($3.69), a rich chocolate sponge cake, nice and moist, but not too sweet, with a decadent, buttery chocolate ganache on top and a little in the middle. Simple ingredients, good taste.

I also decided to try the date and oat square ($2.99). This was a pretty good one with perfectly proportioned dough, date and crumble. I liked the texture of the crumble on top and it was just the right amount of date filling. It wasn't my favourite date square, to be sure; both items did feel a bit more commercial, more "supermarket" than something from a smaller bakery.

Rating: **1/2