Photo courtesy of Kevin Chiu, Choco-Story New York
Turns out Manhattan had everything but a chocolate museum–until now! World famous chocolatier Jacques Torres has the mouths of dessert lovers everywhere watering for Choco-Story New York: The Chocolate Museum and Experience with Jacques Torres. To bring the museum to life, Torres paired up with Eddy Van Belle, the founder of four other Choco-Story locations around the globe.
The 5,000-square-foot museum in Soho offers tours, education, chocolate-making classes and more. Your crew will learn the sweet stuff’s history, and how chocolate was created from cacao by the Mayan and Aztec peoples. Fast-forward through chocolate’s expansion through Spain, and 19th-century French chocolate boxes all the way to the present. Your kids will be fascinated by the bean-to-bar breakdown that starts with harvesting of cocoa in the Amazon Rainforest and ends with the sweet candy bars you drool over in stores. The museum has an app as well, which guests can use to see 3D animations by scanning posters along the tour with their phone.
Your visit to the museum wouldn’t be complete without a swoon-worthy tasting. Get a dose of nine premium chocolates, including white, milk and dark varieties in both blended and single-origin batches. Highlights of the sampler are hands down the authentic Mayan hot chocolate, fresh and hand-ground, and hand-made chocolate truffles.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Chiu, Choco-Story New York
If you want more behind-the-scenes information on your favorite sweet, take a chocolate making class led by a professional chocolatier to put your own confection skills to the test. There are kids-only sections of the museum, too. The kids’ corner is a space for learning where kids can dig in a sand pit and play a sweet shop owner with a toy kitchen and register. Don’t head home until you see the NYC skyline made of chocolate crafted by students at the International Culinary Center.
Choco-Story New York is located at 350 Hudson St., New York City Hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 10 am-5 pm. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for kids ages 4-12. The chocolate class is $40 a person, and just $5 more if you want to take the tour, too. Happy chocolate noshing!