Chicago Chocolate Tours

Thanks for sending the link to the photos!

And many thanks to all of you at Chicago Chocolate Tours, especially Kerry, our guide for the morning. My husband and I really enjoyed visiting each of the shops on our tour. I commend you for supporting local businesses. They were especially generous allowing us into their shops and letting us sample their products. Each place offered delicious treats!!

I will recommend to anyone I know living or vacationing in Chicago!! Thanks again!

The 6 of us had the most wonderful time. Our tour guide Leah was exceptional. We were not sure what to expect of the tour but were happy way beyond the initial expectation. The chocolate samples were delicious. When you are so used to grocery store chocolate you do not realize what you are missing. We went back to "teuscher" and bought a whole box of Champagne Truffles!! Thank you for the wonderful experience. We will be back.

Hi Valerie,

The tour was great and so was our tour guide. Thanks again and we will definitely be repeat customers!!

My friends and I recently went on the FRENCH MARKET TOUR. It was a scrumptious way to unwind. Our fantastic guide Heidi was quite informative. We were even told the correct way to enjoy chocolate. (I think that most of us tried the "correct" way once or twice and then succumbed to the luscious chocolaty treats and greedily gobbled them.)

This particular tour is completely indoors and requires minimum walking. However it provided a "powerhouse" of chocolate delicacies. We sampled a variety of candies and pastries. We also enjoyed samples of cheese and had an opportunity to purchase chocolate pasta.

My favorite shop was Canady Le Chocolatier. The owner, Mr. Canady, gave wonderful explanations of his business and told how certain of his chocolates are made. His caramels with sea salt are deliciously exquisite!

Another fabulous feature of our tour was when the owner of Chicago Chocolate Tours, Valerie Beck, joined us! She greeted each of us warmly and sincerely and even asked how we were enjoying our tour.

I can honestly give my Tour experience TWO THUMBS UP. In fact because of Chicago Chocolate Tours, I cannot eat "regular" chocolate ever again.

I love Chicago Chocolate Tours - fun day to spend with friends!

How anyone could take this tour and not come away loving it and smiling and full of chocolate and joy and interesting knowledge would be a mystery to me!

The chocolate was delicious and it was not just pieces of chocolate but high quality cupcakes, mousse, handmade truffles, and lots of other varieties of "nature's perfect food". Meeting some of the pastry chefs was really nice. the tourguide was as sweet as the chocolate!

The website explained what the tour was, and the tour was worth the price and well organized, with everyone greeting us so warmly, and it exceeded expectations!

I agree with another post on this page, while I felt the idea of the tour was unique and interesting, I would have liked to feel that way after the tour was over. The tour would have been more interesting to learn about the behind the scenes of the chocolate places visited during the tour. I also must have misinterpreted the tour guide, because she said that us chocoholics would basically be in a chocolate coma by the end of the tour. While we did sample chocolate, I wouldn't say we were in a chocolate coma, not even a chocolate semi-coma. A couple of places that did give more than one sample gave sample sizes equal to an after dinner Andes thin mint. At Argo Tea, the 9 of us on the tour shared one muffin and each person was given less than half a cup of chocolate tea, don't get excited, the cup was a Dixie cup (you know, the one you use to rinse at a dentist). I feel that I could have found the places Chicago Chocolate Tour goes to, gotten the samples myself and bought myself 40 chocolate bars from Jewel.

**Note from the Founder:**

Deena, wow, I'm really sorry you didn't like the tour and didn't have enough chocolate.

Many people find on our Magnificent Mile route for example that they are happy and satisfied after having:

~ a Champagne truffle,
~ mini chocolate cupcake,
~ chocolate nut cluster,
~ chocolate peanut butter crunch bar,
~ white chocolate bread sample,
~ chocolate muffin sample,
~ chocolate mint,
~ raspberry chocolate mint,
~ mini chocolate tea, and
~ chocolate brownie sample.

We try to pace it so that you aren't overloaded but really enjoy the chocolate, and we do find that many people can't finish all of the chocolate on the tour. The high quality chocolate that our participating stores provide is of course very satisfying. I don't necessarily have anything against the grocery store chocolate that you mention, but certainly it's not comparable to what you sample on a tour, and you don't need a tour if that's what you're looking to taste; we aim to show you other kinds of chocolate heaven. As for finding the places we visit on the tour, of course you can find them and we encourage you to fall in love with them as we have: one way we support our fabulous participating chocolatiers is by listing them on the Tours and Links pages of our website.

As for going behind the scenes, one reason we don't visit chocolate factories as legal and health issues generally close US factories to the public. Some of our participating shops do let us peek into the kitchen, such as Sarah's and Hendrickx, which is a true treat. Our tour is about tasting fine chocolate in a variety of forms, and learning about the history, facts, and myths of chocolate, in an entertaining way. (For instance: Is white chocolate really chocolate? Does chocolate contain caffeine? Where does chocolate originate? Is chocolate an aphrodisiac? After taking the tour, you can regale your friends with the answers to those questions and more!) We try to make it clear on our website what our tours entail, and I'm sorry if our tour somehow wasn't what you were expecting.

I don't know what else to say, except that with our mission of Uplift Through Chocolate, and all of our wonderful happy customers, maybe we can't please all of the people all of the time, and I am truly sorry that you were unhappy. If you'd like to come back and try your route again or another route, knowing what our mission and process is, I'd be absolutely delighted to welcome your party as my guests.

Take care, and keep eating chocolate,
Valerie

My mother and her friend had visited for the weekend primarily to attend the Sheffield Garden Walk, but the most talked about event was definitely your tour and the unique locations and perspectives on Chicago that we discovered through the fascinating commentary. Well done!

While the tour may be great for out of towners who want to learn something about Chicago history, much of the architectural information is known to Chicago residents. The chocolate tour itself was weak. While you do visit about 5 or 6 chocolate stores, you basically get one piece of candy at each (not your choice) and have to buy the rest. This was somewhat surprising given the price for the tour. I think more samples were in order and the tour company should pay something to the stores so they offer more food to people paying up to $40/person plus tip. Not just the free samples they likely would offer anyone purchasing stuff in their stores.

**Note from the founder:**

Dear Ira,

I'm sorry you didn't like the tour! I'm sorry you felt you didn't get enough chocolate. Most people find there is more chocolate than they can finish, and this is of course subjective to each person. I'll look into your particular tour to see if something somehow went wrong on that date.

The point of the tour is to sample fine chocolate in a variety of forms, learn about the history and health benefits of chocolate, and have an absolute chocolatey blast in the process. We're all very passionate about giving our customers the best tour, and I'm truly and deeply sorry you didn't enjoy it.

The stores we visit wouldn't have given you samples; please don't think you would have received all that scrumptious chocolate if you hadn't been on the tour. We make special arrangements with the stores - even if you think we don't, we do! For example, Teuscher has a no-sample policy. The only way you get a sample from them is if you're on our tour, and I hope you enjoyed their luscious Champagne Truffle. Sarah's doesn't generally sample either unless you're on a tour, and you should have received 2 samples there, such as the Chocolate Delight and the Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Bar. Leonidas wouldn't have given you a sample either, and again you should have received 2: 1 for in-store, and 1 in your goody bag. Same at Argo, and the others. I'll check to see which route you were on, as I say, and will see if somehow something went amiss.

Again, we work hard to make sure the tour is chocolatey and fun. Around half of our visitors are locals, and we pride ourselves on giving a great time to all.

We'll be happy to send you a couple of gift certificates so you can come back and try it again on your previous route or another route, because we stand by our tours and want you to have an amazing time.

Thanks for your comments, and keep eating chocolate!

Best regards,
Valerie

I took my boyfriends Mom (Linda) on the Loop Choclocate tour June 18th for her birthday, let me tell you how much we enjoyed the tour. It was fantastic!!!! We learned so much about choclate and the city of Chicago. Linda has been to the Walnut Room many years in a row and bought Frangos right there next to the old candy line and never even seen it before, so to see a piece of history that is hidden right in the open was great. Valerie was our tour guide and was absolutely great, we had fun and laughed all day long. It was such an open atmosphere, love love loved it and would go on another tour too. I have pics from that tour that I will forward as well.

We took the Gold Coast/Mag Mile tour at 12:45 on 7/10. Becky was our hostess and she was marvelous. Upbeat and full of great info. The tour took us to so many wonderful places that we cannot wait to hit Hendrick's, More, Teuscher, etc. again. What an absolute treat. Especially for hardened natives of Chicago. So much chocolate, sooooo much time to enjoy!
Valerie, wonderful job putting all of this together.
Best
Scott

What a way to learn about the history of Chicago and Chocolate while enjoying the evening with friends and sampling all sorts of chocolate, including our surprise visit with the Flirty Cupcakes, not to mention that you get to work off the eating by walking. I have not stopped talking about it with friends.

What a great concept!!!!

The tour was delicious! Three cheers for the More chocolate/chocolate cupcake.

We had a fabulous time on our North Michigan Avenue Chocolate Tour! We especially loved MORE Cupcakes & Hendriks Belgium Bakery.

My friends and I thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate tour. Carrie was an outstanding tour guide. Very enthusiastic and fun. We appreciated exploring new neighborhoods and learning about Chicago history and architecture along with all the chocolate facts. The samples were the best!

Dear Kelly,

Thanks for sharing the pics and for the wonderful job you did on our tour! It was an honor to meet Valerie...she is Fantastic and Very Interesting to talk to! Kristie and I had a Great Time and the chocolate was superb! I am looking forward to coming again and bringing some friends along!

Have a Wonderful Day,

Kathy

Thanks for the great tour we had on May 23, 2010. The cupcakes at More were fabulous as was the chocolate at Sarah's, Teuscher's, Frango and the tea at Argo. Basically every place we went had fabulous chocolate of some sort and the people couldn't have been nicer. I would highly recommend taking a chocolate tour.

Thank you so much for the Chocri bar you sent me for being a winner of the monthly drawing. The Chocri chocolate was my favorite on the tour, so I was absolutely elated to have received it. I will enjoy it slowly and intentionally, just as chocolate should be enjoyed.

Good luck with your future tours. I certainly will be looking for more occasions to bring my friends on a new tour!

I wanted to let you know that Heidi was a fantastic tour guide. She had such an upbeat, positive attidue and seemed genuinely passionate and extremely knowledgable about chocolate. I learned so much and had a great time on the walking tour. Even though it was a bit chilly that day, she had a smile on her face and kept us laughing and engaged.

Heidi is a great representative of your company and I would most definately consider joining her again for a tour.

Thanks so very much for organizing our Chocolate Tour on Friday! We all had a blast, and I, for one, will definitely make it back to the French Market.