Seongsu café Valrhona Guanaja 40 collab cake and free latte: Notldun

I heard there was a place in Seoul Forest selling a cake collaboration with Valrhona, so I went to check out Notldun!

📍11 Seoulsup 2-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 1st floor ⏰Mon-Thu 11:00-22:00, last order 21:30 Fri-Sun 11:00-22:30, last order 22:00 🅿️No parking, use nearby public parking lots

Where is Notldun, and is there a wait? Seoul Forest Station exit 5, Ttukseom Station exit 8

Notldun sits on Seoul Forest's main street (kind of?), and it's not far from either Seoul Forest Station exit 5 or Ttukseom Station exit 8, so I found it quickly!! The address says 1st floor, but you actually go up half a flight, so don't get confused like I almost did,,,🤍

I went on a weekday afternoon and got in with no wait at all, and apparently takeout orders skip the line entirely, so keep that in mind!!

Inside there were about 5 tables, and some seats face the wall, so it looked like a good spot for a solo café visit too.

What's in Notldun's showcase: hotel-style cakes and a madeleine set

The cakes 🍰 you see right when you walk in are on a whole other level…!! It's basically hotel-cake visuals?! They looked so upscale that they'd make a great gift too.

The Notldun Signature Blanc isn't in the photo since they were making it in the back…! But it seemed like they'd bring it out if you asked, even without it on display.

The one I most wanted to try — Valrhona!! The visuals are just, wow,,,, it genuinely looks exactly like a real Valrhona chocolate, so any Valrhona addict is going down here,,

Besides the cakes, there was also a generous selection of madeleines.

They also had a financier and madeleine collection set packed in a box, which looked perfect for gifting!

They sell drinks too, so having a cake with a drink in-store seemed like it would be ideal…!

Notldun's Valrhona Guanaja collab and how the review event works

The current Notldun x Valrhona collab is a dessert made with Valrhona's 70% dark chocolate Guanaja, and I love Guanaja a lot haha (I've bought and eaten it a few times before,,,)

Right now they're running an event where if you buy from the Valrhona line and write a review, you get a free Valrhona Guanaja dark chocolate latte, so if you've bought Valrhona items, definitely take part,,,🤎 They said the end date for this event isn't confirmed yet…! But it's expected to run through the end of this year.

• Notldun Signature Noir (14.0)
• Guanaja 40 (18.0)
• Valrhona Guanaja dark chocolate latte (review event)

They packed everything in a cooler bag with an ice pack, so even in warm weather like these days, it held up totally fine!! (No extra charge for the cooler bag…!)

Valrhona Guanaja dark chocolate latte, free with a review

I bought the Guanaja 40 and got the dark chocolate latte with it, and it's so good!! It's a dark chocolate latte with cream on top, basically a creamy chocolate latte. First off, it's not sweet — the key is that Guanaja's signature bitterness is fully alive! It genuinely tastes like melted Valrhona chocolate, so good it makes me sad,,,🤎 I mean, can I even get this for free?? But it's not just harsh bitterness — the cream on top adds softness, so I ended up just gulping the whole thing down haha,,, I could go there just for this drink alone‼️

The cake's visuals alone are amazing!!! It genuinely has that whole hotel-dessert vibe, so it was a treat for the eyes first haha

Guanaja 40 (18,000 won): how bitter is it?

It looks exactly like an actual Valrhona chocolate, so the moment I opened it, an actual 'wow' came out of me haha. As for taste — it's a fully rich chocolate mousse cake, and the cake itself carries Guanaja's signature flavor, so it's heavy and bitter!! I'm not big on sweets, so that dark-chocolate bitterness is the best part 👍

There's a very thin cracker(?) layer at the bottom, and it's not crumbly-mushy but genuinely crisp. Adding that crisp texture to the soft mousse kept it interesting bite after bite. The syrup(?) on top turned out to be coffee caramel!! So on top of the chocolate-chocolate cake, that coffee aroma got added and I demolished it in no time haha

Notldun Signature Noir (14,000 won): the milder choice

The description said this one's a milk chocolate mousse with almond praline, whiskey cream, and crispy croustillant added…! Taking a bite, it's sweeter than the Guanaja 40, so it's plenty enjoyable even for people who can't handle dark chocolate‼️ Maybe because of the almond praline, there's a hazelnut-like nutty note that comes up, plus a whiskey aroma that adds a touch of sophistication. Just like the Guanaja, the base layer is crispy croustillant, so the texture was excellent too🤍