England: Unwrapping History at York’s Chocolate Story

York located in North Yorkshire is an extremely popular city to visit in England. This is because of many reasons. A few include fantastic restaurants, bars and pubs, unique shops, beautiful architecture and world-famous attractions. We are lucky enough to live only 40 minutes away in the East Yorkshire market town of Beverley. Therefore, we visit York on a regular basis. On our most recent trip to the city, we had the pleasure of visiting the multi-award winning York’s Chocolate Story. It’s located on the edge of the cobbled stoned streets of The Shambles (which you should also visit while in the city) making it very easy to find. It’s a must for every history buff and of course chocolate lover visiting the city.

York – The UK’s Home of Chocolate

Did you know that York has a rich history when it comes to chocolate production? Some of the world’s largest and most well-known companies originated in or had/have ties to York. In fact, York produces 80,000 tonnes of chocolate each year. York’s Chocolate Story gives you the chance to learn about that history, sample a lot of chocolate and also make your own. Tours are run throughout the day and as we always advise, booking tickets in advance is recommended to avoid disappointment. This is a popular attraction, therefore, we imagine that during school holidays especially, it gets fully booked quickly. The 60-90 minute tour is entertaining, informative and even interactive meaning it’s great fun for all the family.

On our tour, there were 8 of us. We thought this was a great and manageable number for our tour guide. Our tour guide was very knowledgable, friendly and enthusiastic which made the experience great fun as well as interesting. Throughout the tour, they gave us the full back story of chocolate. From how it was initially discovered in the rainforests of Central America. Through to how York became the UK’s home of chocolate because of the three founding families – Rowntree’s, Craven’s and Terry’s. They were also very free and easy with the chocolate samples throughout. Which gets a massive thumbs up from us.

All The Kit Kats!

The founding families have from when they first set up their factories in and around York right up to modern day produced some of the most famous chocolate bars in England, if not the world. From Mr ESLT’s favourite, Terry’s Chocolate Orange to Christmas family favourites Quality Street and not forgetting Smarties, Aero and Yorkie bars. However possibly the most famous chocolate bar produced by Rowntree is the Kit Kat. Until the end of December 2019, York’s Chocolate Story has a temporary exhibition – Breaking The Mould: The Story of Kit Kat. It gave us the opportunity to learn more about the various Kit Kats on offer, especially the whacky flavours (purple sweet potato flavour, anyone?) that can be found in Japan where Kit Kat is one of the top selling chocolate bars in the country.

Make Your Own Chocolate

After sampling a lot of chocolate from the original coco drink (which is an acquired taste) through to bitter dark chocolate and a range of others in between it was time to make our own chocolate lollies. As fully grown adults this filled us with so much joy. Therefore, we can only imagine how much younger visitors to York’s Chocolate Story love this part of the tour. We had the opportunity to decorate them with whatever we fancied – chocolate sprinkles, crunchy bits, strawberry balls etc. Once set they were then bagged up for us to take home. Although I’ll be honest ours didn’t last the car journey.

See How Chocolate is Made

The last part of the tour involved watching one of the one site chocolatiers make passion fruit ganache filled chocolates from scratch. From the initial making of the chocolate through to filling the mould with the mixture and watching ‘chocolate rain’. It’s a thing and if you want to see it up close you must visit. We then got to sample the finished product, naturally, and they were delicious.

We had a great time at York’s Chocolate Story and walked away both agreeing what a great attraction it is. It also has a cafe if you want to grab a drink (maybe a hot chocolate?), snack or even a chocolate afternoon tea for 2 from. This is also a shop where you can buy some of the chocolate bars which are produced locally from as a reminder of your visit.