A Sweet Day Out at York's Chocolate Story ⋆ Yorkshire Wonders

Now, straight off, let’s just say, I love chocolate. So what better place to visit, umm, what better place to take the children than York’s Chocolate Story? It’s an attraction that is a clever mix of theatre, museum and audience participation.

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Guided Tour

The experience began in a darkened room (watch the chairs on the right hand side as you come out of the lift – comedy moment for everyone else when I fell over them). Our Guide introduced himself as Sam and chatted to each guest in turn before starting his talk on the very beginnings of chocolate making in York.

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History of Chocolate Making

From there we were taken through a series of rooms, chronicling the history of chocolate right from the Aztec civilisation up to the present day. It’s done with fab interactive technology throughout and very entertaining. My favourite room was the Harry Potter-esque talking portraits. Most importantly we were given chocolate of some description to sample in every room (some more to my taste than others!).

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Chocolate and the People of York

York’s Chocolate Story has a new exhibition currently – Chocolate and the People of York. It looks at the people who worked in the chocolate factories and how this shaped life in York. This particularly resonated with me as half my family seemed to work at Rowntree’s when I was growing up. This had a lot of benefits from misshapes sold from the factory shop to ‘accidental’ solid Easter eggs!

If your children like to be centre stage there is an opportunity to volunteer to help ‘make chocolate’ an area designed to show the processes of how chocolate is made from bean to bar. Miss H made her presence felt here!

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The Chocolate Kitchen

My children’s favourite part of the whole attraction is the chocolate kitchen. Metal trays are set around tables, in front of which are various bowls of exciting looking sprinkles. The kitchen guide then pipes gooey white chocolate into circles on your tray that you can then pop a stick in and then get creative.

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They loved this bit and Master T clearly took the ‘more is more’ approach!

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The Master Chocolatier

The final exhibit is a talk with a master chocolatier. He demonstrates making chocolate shells to add fillings to. At the end of the chat you are invited to eat the chocolates made. They were really delicious and burst with flavour into the mouth.

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You can also buy these in the shop afterwards. Oh yes please!

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York’s Chocolate Story Café and Shop

There is a lovely café and shop to browse before or after your tour. I can recommend the milkshakes (get one between two for little ones as they are huge!).

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Edited to add:

Emma, one of my lovely Facebook followers has mentioned that you can leave your buggy in the shop, which will make things easier with the stairs. There are lifts available for wheelchairs and buggies, but as she points out, a sling would be easier!