Chocolate!!! A TCHO chocolate tour has been on my list of local activities for a while now. What better time to go than for my birthday! I invited friends to play hooky with me (it was a work day, after all), and come celebrate at the chocolate factory.

Inside, the waiting area is so colorful and vibrant. Their eye for design extends from their chocolate packaging to their chocolate space!

We began our visit with a company history and chocolate making lesson. Chocolate rewards were given for all correct answers! Then it was off to tour the factory space.

No jewelry, no false eyelashes, and no sandals allowed. I even had to cover up my nail polish with gloves. Also, no pictures so you’re stuck here with this photo of me and Hubs in our factory suits.

Before stepping into the factory our shoes even got a quick cleanse. Once inside, we learned about each machine in the factory and our tour guide took us through each step in the TCHO chocolate making process.

After the tour, you guessed it, it was time for chocolate tasting! We started off with a chocolate in liquid form with sugar crystals – an intermediate step in the chocolate making process. I really liked the crunchiness in this unrefined product. Then, we sampled TCHO single-origin bars, and a select few flavored chocolate bars.

We experienced each piece using the “5 S’s”: smell, snap, sit, swirl, swallow. Fun fact: Dark chocolate, if tempered correctly, will have a distinct *snap* – listen for it when trying out a new bar.

My fave of the samples: the cinnamon spice bites, recently released. We also got to sample special edition “Maker’s Series Bar #5”: sesame crisp (sesame seeds, puffed rice, and sea salt) and our host pulled out the previous release (strawberry cream and nibs) because it was my birthday. The latter reminded me of strawberry Pocky.

And then we ran wild in the TCHO market where we sampled even more chocolate bars and stocked up on what seems like a lifetime supply of sweets.

Where my chocolate snobs at? 😉 Do you have a favorite chocolate? Do they have tours? I wanna go!