Table of Contents
Whether you like it milky or bitter, in small or large quantities, dark or white, here are some of the best chocolate attractions in Europe to visit this year to learn more about the process (and art!) of being a chocolatier.
Cocoa, like gold, has its own stock market price, and chocolate producing countries prepare incomparably colourful beans to be shipped to the world’s most prestigious nations to be made into bars, eggs and intoxicating sweet bites! Do you know where the cocoa beans that make up this chocolate come from? Did you know that the average Canadian eats 6.4 kilograms of chocolate a year?
Belgium
In addition to famous Leonidas and Godiva houses, Belgium has a dozen factories, fifteen museums and over 2,000 chocolate shops in Brussels and throughout the entire country.
With the highest density of chocolate shops in Europe, Bruges is often nicknamed the capital of chocolate. Every year, Bruges in Choc, a colourful festival, is held here and fans will not want to miss the Choco-Story Chocolate Museum!
Switzerland
It’s a safe bet that if someone mentions “chocolate”, you will automatically think of the makers of Switzerland, whose people are among the largest consumers of truffles, bars and sweet delights transformed on the planet.
Lindt & Sprungli and Maison Cailler are just some of the places where you can visit a chocolate factory in Switzerland.
Not to mention the Chocolate Train, chugging through the Swiss highlands, click-clacking through green meadows near picture-perfect snow-capped peaks between Montreux and the Cailler-Nestlé chocolate factory in Broc. This alpine adventure runs in classic belle époque 1915 Pullman coaches straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. Minus the murder mystery.
Spain
Few visitors think of Spain when planning a trip around chocolate, but we must not forget the origins of cacao bean transformation.
The Spaniards were the first importers to the Old Continent and the first chocolate machine was manufactured there in the 18th century. For cacao fanatics, head for Villajoyosa, the Spanish city of chocolate, where three chocolate factories are still operating, including the free-to-visit Valor Chocolate Museum.
There are two other, slightly smaller chocolate factories nearby: Chocolates Pérez and Chocolates Clavileño.
France
The French capital certainly hosts some of the most acclaimed chocolate attractions in Europe, with just over 300 chocolate shops in Paris.
The Cité du Chocolat Valrhona in Tain-L’Hermitage, in the heart of the Rhône Valley, is a chocolate school which welcome tens of thousands of travellers every year who come to indulge in their dose of all things sweet. You can book a pâtisserie workshop and learn more about the entire process from the cocoa farms to artisans’ kitchen labs.
