Chocolate Bar Making Workshop - York Cocoa Works

Do this - you won't regret it :)

Brilliant day of chocolate making in York with my wife, with very tasty results. Great fun - we'll be coming back with the whole family in the future.

A Delightful Experience with Chocolate!

This is a wonderful place to visit. The chocolate making workshop that I did was lots of fun and the instructor was interesting, enthusiastic and patient with the participants. We were given a choice of molds for our creations. I decided on the York Rose. There were yummy toppings to decorate with. After it’s baked, you can take it home and it’s wrapped in clear plastic with a gift tag that has your name on it as the maker. Afterwards, I had a coffee in the stylish cafe. Very good coffee and friendly servers. Don’t miss going to this place, it’s well worth it.

An interesting change.

A very interesting and informative couple of hours. The kids really enjoyed making their own chocolate bars and said that they tasted very good.

A lovely way to spend the afternoon

We learned a lot about chocolate and a helpful technique for tempering. It was fun to be able to customize and create your own chocolate bar. The instructor was very helpful and walks you through each step. We also enjoyed the 10% discount in the cafe and sampled a variety of lovely chocolate drinks.

Family Fun

Great family experience. Easy to enjoy for all ages. Our group was from 40's to 80's and thoroughly enjoyed by all. Very informative and would definitely go back and take my young grandson.

Outrageously overpriced

My family of four were really looking forward to this chocolate experience where we thought we would learn about coco, tempering chocolate, the origins of chocolate and generally all that they promised on their website. We paid £90. To start we arrived on time and had to wait 15 minutes hanging around in the shop, uncomfortably hovering.When we finally entered the chocolate making room we immediately felt overcrowded and by their own admission the class was over-booked. The guide then gave us a *brief* (and by brief I mean very brief) overview of where coco comes from and talked about chocolate making (a bit). The guide kept pacing around the room and I could barely understand what she was saying partly because of how over booked the session was. We were able to try little squares of chocolate:dark,milk and white but were immediately told that white was unavailable to make on the basis of price.Given that one of my members wanted to make white chocolate and we paid 22.50 a head for this experience we were all astounded and disappointed by this. Coming to the actual making of the chocolate my family and I were given milk chocolate in a plastic bowl to melt with a hairdryer that was initially not even plugged in.So we melt the chocolate and are offered a type of mould to place our melted chocolate in, there are a few options of topping to put in the chocolate e.g marshmallows/sprinkles. We place it in a fridge that didn’t even have enough space to fit all of our chocolate moulds. We are then told to come back 45 minutes later. As instructed we return and pickup our chocolates. To my dismay, I find several white chocolate bars made by others and infer that they didn’t offer us it because they over booked the session and didn’t want to waste their resources on us even though we had paid full price ( 22.50 a head) for this experience. I am extremely disappointed by this experience and outraged at the extreme price they value it at. This is something you could do at home for £15 max for my whole family. The only reason I give this 2 stars is due to the bar of chocolate you got to take home. Don’t come here and waste your money.

Great fun making chocolate bars!

Great day making chocolate bars at York Cocoa Works. Luke, our host, was both knowledgeable and also very good fun. The experience was interesting and the results very tasty treats to take home. The Cafe does amazing hot drinks too. Definitely recommend for a fun activity in York centre

Over rated.

Being with friends! It was suitable for school children not adults. A family would probably appreciate it.

Not worth the time, let alone the money

Regrettably, we were so disappointed by this workshop. We were two adults and a 9 year old child. The class started late and in the meantime we were left to linger awkwardly in the corner of the cafe with barely an acknowledgement from the cafe barista. The class demonstrator was appropriately apologetic - but by this point we'd been stood in a corner waiting 10-15mins without acknowledgement (and without anything really to even look at!) The class itself was - essentially - tasting 3 small squares of chocolate and a cocoa nib, watching the man weigh some pieces of a chocolate bar (white, milk or dark, depending on which your preferred), and then melting the chocolate with a hairdryer. There was a brief educational talk at the start, but it was *very* brief: A picture of a cocoa plant and an explanation as to how the bean is extracted. No information as to how it's processed, or where it's processed. No explanation as to what cocoa butter is just that "that's white chocolate. Dark has nibs". No human story... no real origin story. We weren't even clear where their beans were from. My later question (in private, while hair-drying chocolate, as I hadn't wanted to slow down the class) was made to feel unwelcome. I just really wanted to feel that I was learning and taking home _something_ from this class. Once we'd melted our chocolate (using the hair drier to do this was the majority of the class - no over-exaggeration), we had 5minutes to make our "bar". The choice of moulds consisted of two easter options (bearing in mind Easter was weeks ago), one Yorkshire rose ("but we don't have enough of these to go round") or a square slab. The flavour-additives/options were run-through so quickly that we couldn't catch/remember half of them. There was no opportunity to taste them and we were told "pick carefully and don't put too much because if you ruin it, tough luck". Myself and my partner both chose ginger and within 1 drop of the flavour realised it was a bad choice. We wished we'd been given the opportunity to try - or at least smell - them first. It all felt so rushed. Ours did not taste good. In the meantime, my partner's 9 year old asked for extra marshmallow to add to his bar (we were sharing) and was told "this is plenty for 2 people". The person running the class just seemed a little rushed and harassed throughout. Sadly, of the 3 bars, only one tasted nice. We didn't feel that there had been any real educational value in the class, and even my partner's 9 year old said "I feel like we could have plugged in a hair dryer and melted some chocolate at home. Sorry dad". At over £60 it felt like an expensive lesson to learn, without any real educational value or welcome. I can't remember the last time I gave a bad review, but this was so overwhelmingly disappointing.

Nice Experience, Sweet Deal 🍫💞

This was a great adventure. The staff was funny and welcoming. They provided a funny class and nice chocolate making experience. I attended with my teenager. The other two pairs in our class where couples. It was an upbeat atmosphere. And the instructor was extremely knowledgeable. Would recommend.

Really Enjoyable Family Fun

We really enjoyed our workshop. We’re a family of four ,with a seven and two year old. We was abit worried it would be hard work with our littlest however the teacher made us feel very comfortable by seating us at the back . She was really lovely , full of information and generally very sweet. The class was just enough for families . We all really enjoyed our time at the work shop and would recommend to other families. The kiddos also really enjoyed trying all our chocolate bars when we got home 🍫👌💛

Really good day out,...

Really good day out, really enjoyed it. Also Knowledgable guide. Lovely look around York waiting for our chocolate👍

Worth a visit

Chocolate is lovely. They taught us how to make Chocolate is cool. Highly recommended. There is cafe too

Fun experience with chocolate

Me and my daughter absolutely loved the chocolate class, very informative and lots of fun and a chocolate bar to make and take home was amazing …. I channeled my inner child and made a chocolate bunny. Would highly recommend 👍🏻

Yummy

Informative introduction to the production of chocolate. Informative host was happy to answer all our questions and provided a good overview as well as allowing us to sample the various types of chocolate

Easy, quick chocolate making class. Lovely chocolate produced at the end.

Nice class to make your own chocolate bar, though not very hands on in terms of the process. The chocolate itself is lovely however and you get plenty of options for how you want yours to be.

Fun easy enjoyable

Hands on and walk away with a large chocolate bar to eat of your design and taste. Really enjoyable experience.

Yummy

Good fun and educational. And a tasty bat of chocolate to eat at the end. Fun for children and adults alike.

Yum Yum

The experience was fun and different for all our ages from 7yrs to 65yrs. Shown how to melt the chocolate easily, lots of options to put in and out on top of the chocolate.

A fun and workshop to create your own version of a chocolate bar.

We were exploring York for the week and went for a chocolate bar making workshop at York Cocoa works with my partner. A simple yet engaging process with some relevant information as well, so a really nice experience. We got to take back our chocolate creations as well so tap into your tooth and brain for this one.

Couples chocolate making.

What a great experience. It was something different for us to do during the day and I would recommend this to anyone visiting York.

Amazing Chocolate Workshop

Very information workshop. The tasting of different chocolates added to the charm. The whole process was very fun and they had a lot different oils and toppings to put into your chocolate that made it very nice. The chocolate you get to take home was also very large.

Ok for something to do

I wish there had been more technical information during the class. Our instructor was very professional but was quite distant and did little to make it “fun”. My partner and I did enjoy our company and it made a change for couples activities.

Fantastic workshop for adults and families with older kids

We loved this workshop but there were a lot of very young children with 2 adults and the kids struggled to keep their attention. It was distracting for the person leading the workshop and we struggled to hear. I think there should be an age limit of 5+ or maybe 8+ as it wasn’t ideal for the children either who were told to be quiet constantly

Chocolate Cottage making

Another Fabulous day with the children doing chocolate cottages. The masterclass was run by Ashley who was amazing. Nothing was too much trouble for him and his patience with the little ones was second to none. Perfect fun for all ages. Thank you York Cocoa Work's for another successful event. Merry Christmas to you and all the team 🎅🎄

Enjoyed it

We did the chocolate experience for my birthday Really enjoyed it it was abit expensive as only got 1 bar of chocolate and too many people on the room as struggled to get passed each other

Chocolate Making Experience

A lovely time spent with the team making delicious chocolate bars. Molly delivered a faultless and knowledgable lesson on the history of chocolate locally. The chocolate made was delicious! Highly recommended!

Make your own Chocolate bar

Lovely experience making your Chocolate bar, fun, really enjoyed it. Good value would do it again with kids too

Delicious and fun.

Very well put together, very thoughtfully instructed and a genuinely good time :-) I personally am not very good at it but that's not on them haha.

Great date afternoon

Our first weekend away in years. This was a fab way to start it! Great fun, interesting and delicious chocolate!

Fun With Chocolate

Lisa was really good at explaining what we had to do and it was great fun. My friend, for whom it was a surprise really enjoyed herself too and is still talking about it.

Excellent experience

Brilliant way to spend an hour. Would highly recommend to people of all ages. Chocolate making was great fun and the result was very tasty.

Great

Fantastic so informative and great fun,granddaughter loved it ,so easy to join in, chocolate tasted great Thanks

Fun hour of being willy wonker

Fun, relaxed and good value of money. The lady running the group was very friendly and happy to make any accommodations. The class size was larger than expected and this meant a little waiting or not having a great view at the start. But the chocolate bar size was bigger than expected.

A Creative Experience

I thought this might be for kids and my husband and I would be out of place BUT not so!! The room was filled with other chocolate lovers. We had so much fun in this gently led step by step creative process. We got to take home some delicious chocolate. It was inspiring for us to design and craft the bars, and we decided to look into making our own at home.

Excellent

Excellent. Very informative about the cocoa beans and how it becomes chocolate. It was great fun making our own chocolate bars.

A wonderful afternoon with a friend

My friend loves chocolate so I booked this experience for her and I and we had such a lovely afternoon making chocolate bars and learning more about chocolate. Emily was a very good host.

Lovely experience

The young lady that run the workshop on Thursday 31/08/23 at 4pm was absolutely wonderful, very informative and very friendly I think her name was Emily

Yummy good fun, a must do on your trip to York!!

It was fabulous, lovely coffee, great experience and tremendously tasty chocolate , staff were really happy and friendly, very clean and tidy, shop was modern and well presented, work shop was brilliant fun 👍

Fun workshop

Lovely workshop, fun and creative. Ideal for couples or friends. After the workshop you also get a discount on all the chocolate from the shop.

Brilliant

The workshop was a great experience Emily was patient and clear with explanation- we learnt a lot and had fun. Results are tasty too!

Enjoyable for all ages.

Enjoyable for all ages. Emily was a very good teacher/demonstrator. We love our big York rose chocolate bar. The waiting time for the completed chocolate bar should be better explained in the booking process. I was of the impression that we would be offered a choc drink after the workshop - as part of the deal. Not so.

Exactly as advertised

Really enjoyed the experience. Was exactly what was promised. Got to learn more about chocolate while also making a very tasty chocolate bar.

Great experience

The lady who ran the workshop was very informative from the start. We had fun making our own chocolate bar and we got a few little tasters along the way. The best part was at the end when we got to lick the bowl and the spoon! Can recommend to anyone of any age as it’s lots of fun, makes you feel like a kid again. The little chocolate cafe inside serves lots of lovely chocolaty treats which were delicious. Thank you for a great experience

Fun experience for all ages

Good fun experience with knowledgable instructor who was very patient and friendly. Great choice of flavourings and toppings to experiment with.

Enjoyable time making chocolate bar

Fun and enjoyable time spent making your own chocolate bar, with information about the history of chocolate while you did it.

Ok

The experience was good but sorry to say I did not think it was good value for money, it was expensive for what we got.

Good value

The chocolate-making experience was fantastic! Great value for money, kept our toddler engaged, and the host was informative and engaging. Loved it!

Amazing experience. It...

Amazing experience. It was really fun to make your own chocolate and find out how each part of the process is done. Tour guide was really friendly, couldn’t recommend enough.

Fun for everyone!

Small class size makes for an intimate experience. Our chocolatier was a lot of fun and very informative. My only regret is the chocolates we made were absolutely delicious but we picked out some chocolates in their shop to take home and they weren’t great.