Hotel Chocolat Bean to Bar Experience

Go on a journey with Hotel Chocolat from bean to bar on these brilliant chocolate experiences! Spend a couple of hours at one of Hotel Chocolat's very own chocolate schools to learn how cocoa beans get transformed into the glossy bars of chocolate that Hotel Chocolat is renowned for.

It's going to be a taste and smell sensation on these workshops. We all know chocolate tastes so good, but what do cocoa beans actually smell like? You'll be immersed in the world of cocoa during these experiences, so you'll be tasting and smelling all the way through the chocolate-making process.

The chocolate laboratory is a special place. The vibe is very much one of a cocoa plantation, with the mix of metal and wood, with hurricane lamps and hessian sacks. In fact, Hotel Chocolat owns it's own plantation in Saint Lucia, so that's how they know they are getting the very best cocoa beans to create their renowned and much-loved chocolate range.

And it's this process you'll be learning about. The Hotel Chocolat conching machines whirr away, whilst your chocolatier host explains how their chocolate is made. But you're not just here to listen - you're here to make your very own chocolate bar from roasted cocoa beans! Time to roll your sleeves up and get stuck in.

As your expert chocolatier explains, the purest chocolate is just cocoa beans, some sugar and maybe a little milk. So you'll be given your own stash of freshly roasted Hotel Chocolat cocoa beans to grind by hand. The smell at this point is incredible - earthy and intense. As the cocoa powder separates from the cocoa butter, you start to get a paste and you're well on the way to making your bar!

Time for some tempering to bring the paste up to temperature to get that perfect crystal structure, giving it that smooth and glossy finish. Once poured into the moulds (with a little bash to get the air out) you're done. Time to reflect with a glass of bubbly on how you took cocoa beans and made them into an actual chocolate bar. Chocolate set and ready, you'll leave this Hotel Chocolat bean to bar experience with your very own hand-made slab of chocolate. Yum!