York's Chocolate Story

We did the Santa experience today and it was truly an awful experience.

The tour actually started ok with the guide giving a very informative history of chocolate in york and was very personable and engaging.

Then Santa appeared and it all went downhill. I know we live in Covid times but to turn up in mask AND wonderful blue gloves was a disappointment and instantly our daughter said ‘that’s not the real Santa’

We then made lollies which was ok followed by a half hearted demonstration of more chocolate making. The kids then met Santa in the same area with a pitiful small Xmas tree as a ‘grotto’ and said we could take photos which I did but deleted immediately as he didn’t even take the mask off for that (last year under same government guidelines we met a Santa who took his mask off for the photo)

All in all a complete waste of money and a very sad way to end Santa meetings as this is likely to be the last year where our daughter believes.

I really enjoyed our trip yesterday, I thought it was really well set up to deal with the circumstances.

The tour itself I found interesting, with the added bonus to make some chocolate lollies and who doesn’t love some free samples!

My only advice would be to bring a bag as the ones available are around £3 (no plastic bags available).

Would definitely recommend!

Very poor value for money and somewhat misleading advertising made for a disappointing experience. The young staff members/guides were charming and did their best but £15.00 per adult for an ‘experience’ lasting less than an hour left us feeling very short changed.
The blurb says that the story is told over 3 floors - yes, but one of these is the rather overpriced shop.
The so called ‘goodie bags’ contained 3/4 tiny bits of chocolate most of which was unsuitable for children. The ‘make your own chocolate’ session produced a couple of small lollies on sticks.

Very overpriced - it kept us out of the rain for an hour but nothing else to recommend it.

I’ve wanted to go here for ages but each time I visited York it was booked up on the day, this time I booked in advance, and it was expensive for what you got. Louis, our tour guide, was lovely but it did feel rushed, he was fluent and rehearsed but spoke very quickly so I always felt I was a few words behind his, the way the I teractive displays worked seemed to force him to rush, they could al do with being slowed down a little. He was very pleasant though, I wonder whether the company pushes through as many people as possible, forcing it to be rushed.

The value for money wasn’t there for me, for our family of 3 it cost me £57.50 and we actually spent about 20 minutes actually doing things with chocolate, the rest was about the story of chocolate. We were told at the start that they allow 1.5 hours per group but we’ll probably be done in an hour.

Finally they handed out the personalised chocolate bars to people who’s paid an extra £8, I hadn’t but when I saw them they weren’t value for money, looked like less that 100g of chocolate with indistinguishable writing on them.

York's Chocolate Story is located in the centre of the city. It is essential to pre-book a timed slot so that the current Covid regulations can be adhered to. Guided tours were limited to ten people to allow for social distancing. The guide was very informative, but tended to talk very quickly, his mask not aiding matters either. There was a very interesting section in which the guide interacted with pre-recorded video to provide a unique narrative of the history of chocolate making and the people who developed it. For the younger visitors, there is also an opportunity to produce your own lollipops.

Great place to visit in York!

Situated just off the Shambles it is an immersive experience from the very start with the shop selling a range of chocolates and smelling like chocolate too.

Tickets are easy to book both online and in store, with staff taking their time to minimise queues and speed up the process.

Short waiting time once you arrive for your prebooked slot and COVID safety measures are in place with staff wearing masks and the lift ride being limited to 2 families or 2 people at one time.

Free chocolate samples are provided ranging over the historical periods covered and have a go at creating your own chocolate lolly!

Immersive experience for all ages but kids of all ages are clearly especially welcome.

Plenty of information and fun activities and presentation of historical information creating a fun experience.

Around a 1.5 hour experience.

This is a fantastic little museum in the heart of York city centre to learn about the famous chocolate houses of the city. It is not the type of place to wander around alone but you need to book on the tour, we didn’t prebook for the particular day we went but in busy holiday periods I would imagine you need to. Our tour guide Jake was very entertaining and the tour was a great mix of story telling, video information and getting stuck in to decorate our own chocolate lollies. The price is very reasonable and you get some samples to take with you or eat there on the tour. Recommended for people of any age, a must see for York visitors!

This was a fantastic tour and well worth the price. My 7 year old really enjoyed it and was so interested in finding out about the history of chocolate and how it’s made.
Our guide Joe made it lots of fun and was so knowledgeable. He was really great at talking to the children on the tour and including them.
We got some brilliant free samples that were pre-packaged for safety and especially enjoyed the interactive segments of the tour.
We had a lot of fun making chocolate lollies at the end and seeing the Kit Kat exhibit too.
Everything felt very safe and Covid secure with the tour having to be pre booked and restricted to 20 people per tour.
Afterwards we went through to the shop and bought some interesting and fun sounding flavoured chocolate to try.

The visit did not start well; purchased tickets on the day but the wrong time was entered on the receipt. The error was corrected eventually but caused embarrassment.
There was little space to wait for the tour to start; a small space in the adjacent chocolate cafe and a few spaces after the ticket desk. As entry to the tour is via a lift there was a delay in getting all 27 people to the start point.
Our tour guide was very engaging, and the first stage ( a replica of a victorian street) looked promising, but the tour is really just two rooms, a few pre-recorded characters and a few chocolate samples (the guide suggested we took more than one or two to get our moneys worth!)
There was chance to decorate a white chocolate lolly, but even including this the entire tour was done and dusted in under 45 minutes. The ban on photography or filming during the tour also prevents the minimal content being shown. Massively over-hyped and horribly overpriced.

We visited on the first time slot and were lucky to be in a small group of 6, 2 of whom were children. perhaps larger group sizes would not get as much interaction with the guide and the enthusiasm and questions from the children made the activities particularly enjoyable. Our guide Jessica was very knowledgeable and engaging with a good sense of humour. Plentiful samples were given out at the end of the tour and we spent a bit of time at the official end of the tour to read the displays which we had missed earlier.