(Yes, this counts as business development.)

Yesterday my wife and I attended a chocolate and coffee tasting at Chocolate and Love Cafe in Mississauga, and I’m happy to report that after extensive testing, research, and sampling, I can confirm that chocolate and coffee are both excellent.

We were invited by Oakville News, which caught my attention recently when I learned Oakville Maids was voted Best House Cleaning in the Oakville News Reader Favourite Awards for 2025. So when Charlene from Oakville News sent an email about a chocolate tasting event, I figured this sounded like a very important business networking opportunity that absolutely required chocolate and coffee.

For business purposes, of course.

The Event

The event was an interactive tasting where we paired different chocolates with different drinks. We were given tasting sheets and told to evaluate things like sweetness, bitterness, texture, and flavour notes. At one point I felt like a professional chocolate sommelier. Or at least someone pretending to be one. Anyway, we learned that sweetness softens bitterness, freshness lifts richness, and texture shapes perception.

The Pairings

Some of the pairings included Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate + Maple Latte, 70% Dark Chocolate + Caffè Latte, and Citrus Dark Chocolate + Hibiscus Iced Tea. I can confirm that all of these pairings were excellent and that I would happily continue testing them for research purposes if necessary.

Meeting Other Oakville Business Owners

One of the best parts of the event was meeting other local business owners from Oakville and the surrounding area. We had some great conversations, shared business stories, and made a few new contacts.

I also had the chance to share a bit about the Oakville Maids story, how we started, how we’ve grown, and how proud we are to serve Oakville and the surrounding communities.

It’s always nice meeting other business owners because everyone has similar stories such as hiring challenges, customer stories, marketing experiments, and the occasional “you won’t believe what happened this week” story. If you own a business, you know exactly what I mean.

Thank You Oakville News

We really appreciate Oakville News for hosting events like this and for supporting local businesses. Being voted Best House Cleaning in Oakville by readers meant a lot to us, and it’s great to be part of a community that supports local companies. We’re looking forward to future networking events.

Final Thoughts

So overall, it was a great afternoon: Good chocolate. Good coffee. Good conversations. Met some great local business owners. And I got to call eating chocolate “networking”. So, not a bad day. And if you ever need house cleaning in Oakville or Burlington… we promise we won’t judge your chocolate stash.