10 Sutherland St, Melbourne 3000
Date visited: 27th September 2014
I stumbled upon Raw Trader when I was looking for a dessert spot in Melbourne to try. Very interestingly, Raw Trader is a cafe specialising in hand made healthy treats that are organic, raw, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten free, dairy free and sugar free! Rightly so, they proclaim to be about the "decadence without the guilt."
MerlinFan and I wandered over to this little joint to get some sweet treats for dessert later in the day. They offered a range of tempting treats like breakfast chia, bliss balls, slices, cakes/ cheesecakes, mousses, deconstructed tarts, chocolate as well as ice cream and sorbet. Tea, coffee and smoothies are also available.
MerlinFan and I settled for the Mint chocolate chip cheesecake and Caramel slice. Now, we haven't heard of or tried 'raw' desserts before, so we were very curious.
The mint came through the cheesecake, with little speckles of chocolate, but overall lacked sweetness (may have been the sugar free part). The cheesecake was like a hybrid of mousse and a no-bake cheesecake that you refrigerate overnight. The base texturally was slightly coarse, similar to grounded nuts or coconut, not your standard cheesecake biscuit base.
The caramel slice also tasted quite different from your run of the mill caramel slice. This also had that fibre-y texture in the middle, and I'm not sure what they used instead of sugar, but it didn't quite taste like caramel either. To be honest, I can't say that raw desserts is really my thing. For me it was like a carnivore eating vegetarian food - reminded me of when a family friend had vego food at their wedding made to look like drumsticks/ fish ball but on eating it, you know it's not meat. Anyway, this felt teasingly like it.
Love it or hate it - it's great that Raw Trader caters for people with food intolerances and those seeking decadence without the guilt. Whilst the idea is unique and definitely interesting, it all comes down to personal tastes. I'm all for the decadence, only I am also more than happy to bear the guilt.
<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1868261/restaurant/CBD/Raw-Trader-Melbourne"><img alt="Raw Trader on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1868261/biglink.gif" style="border:none;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>
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