Lip-Smackingly Tasty Chocolate Tours

Today is World Chocolate Day and as fully-fledged members of Chocoholics Anonymous, we aren’t ones to pass up an opportunity to talk about the sweet stuff. If your chocolate habit is as out of control as ours, you’ll appreciate these lip-smackingly good chocolate tours around the world. It’s a well-documented fact that chocolate is in fact a plant, which means it is good for you. You should probably book all of these actually, there’s no such thing as too much chocolate.

Chocolate tours around the world

In St Lucia…Hotel Chocolat’s Tree-to-Bar Experience ($88)

Rum is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Caribbean but St Lucia is more famous for its chocolate. The Rabot Estate was the island’s first cocoa plantation and since being acquired by Hotel Chocolat in 2003, it has become the hub of St Lucia’s cocoa industry.  The ‘Tree-to-Bar Experience’ is the best of a good bunch of chocolate-themed tours, seeing you all the way through from harvesting cocoa beans from the groves to making your own chocolate bar and the all-important tasting.

In San Francisco…The Ultra Chocolate Tour ($90)

As the home of Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, San Francisco has a long and delicious history when it comes to chocolate. Gourmet Walks has taken the great and the good of the city’s chocolate shops and compiled The Ultra Chocolate Tour, a three-hour walking tour of downtown San Francisco incorporating no fewer than seven tasting stops along the way, plus wine and craft cocktail pairings. From artisanal caramels created with ingredients fresh from the farmer’s market to blind chocolate tastings at a secret newsstand stocking 225 different bars from 15 countries, this tasty tour has it all.

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In Bruges…The ‘Mendiants’ Workshop at Choco-Story (€22)

Bruges is the chocolate capital of the world but that doesn’t mean you have to dedicate an entire day to its confectionary pleasures when there is so much more on offer aside. The cobblestones are lined with chocolate shops, almost 2,000 to be precise, but you can get closer to the sweet stuff at Choco-Story, the medieval city’s Chocolate Museum. The ‘Mendiants’ workshop is family friendly and short enough to leave plenty of time to see everything else gorgeous Bruges has to offer at just 30-minutes. Add on a museum tour too and nibble on your homemade choccy discs while you wander.

In Seattle…Chocolate Indulgence Tour ($51.99)

Starbucks had better watch its back because there is a new bean in town. Seattle has exploded onto the chocolate scene, with tens of chocolatiers now calling it home. This two-hour Chocolate Indulgence Tour won’t only delve deeper into the city’s chocolatey roots and the story of where chocolate began, it’ll also showcase the sweet side of the must-see Pike Place market. There’ll be 15 tastings, from cheesecake to cupcakes, gourmet popcorn and chef Tom Douglas’s coconut cream pie.

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Around the world…Princess Cruises Chocolate Journeys

Nobody at sea does chocolate quite like Princess Cruises and master chocolatier, Norman Love, has taken things up a notch or two with the ‘Chocolate Journeys’ collection. It isn’t a tour as such, though your ship will be touring the world as your sample the goods on-board. The collection brings a taste of chocolate to everything from spa treatments to exclusive chocolate desserts and cocktails like the intriguing chocolate bacon bourbon and chocolate chilli margaritas.