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Best Factory Tours / Best-Factory-Tours-Map / Chocolate / → All Tags

The UK's 'Fun Chocolate Day Trip'

Become an informed consumer while still on vacation! Check out Jaunted's newest series of the best factory tours the world over. This week, factory tours goes international.

Hershey Park is for amateurs. Going to Cadbury World doesn't make you a chocolate snob exactly, but it gives you bragging rights when you claim to have cultivated a taste for the across-the-pond fave with the purple wrappers. Actually, Hershey's makes all the Cadbury chocolate in the U.S., but the formula is different across the pond, and if that information doesn't boggle your mind, ever hear of Mexican Coke?

The Birmingham factory includes a man-made Aztec jungle representing the origins of chocolate, a "Willy Wonka"-style vat of melted chocolate (but no diving allowed, Gloop!) and a special exhibit of Cadbury advertising through the years, in case you think you can still remain immune to the charms of the choccie. There are plenty of samples, too, so make sure to pretend you don't understand what Fruit & Nut or Flake are.

Buy tickets online before your visit; they're £13.45 ($20) for adults, £10.10 ($15) for children. Follow the signs from Bournville Station if you're taking public transit to Birmingham.

Related Stories:
· Foodie Travel: Taste NYC With Sweet Walks' Chocolate Tours [Jaunted]
· Birmingham travel guide [HC]
· Chocolate Paris Bike Tour [Jaunted]

[Photo of a chocolate village: TDR1]

Apolitical DC / Dessert / Cupcakes / Chocolate / Columbia Heights / U Street / Jose Andres / → All Tags

Exploring DC's Sweet Side

In our continuing quest to find things to do in DC if the Obamas won't take your meeting, this week we're looking at the District's best desserts.

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Chocolate / Attractions / Secret Vegas / → All Tags

Vegas Machine Spouts Chocolate Jackpot

While a solitary truffle may not strike everyone as interchangeable with hitting the Triple 7s, there are enough fans of the hallowed cocoa bean who will take nearly as much delight in the payout of the Chocolate Clock at the Payard Patisserie inside Caesars Palace.

From the city that brought you…well, sin…comes not only a soon-to-debut resident production of “The Lion King”but also this mechanical novelty straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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Eating Quebec / Food Travel / Chocolate / Eating-in-Quebec / → All Tags

The Chocolate Museum

It may be a little chilly right now, but Quebec offers as much culture as Europe for way less cash. And thanks to the resurgence of the dollar, there's never been a better time to head to Canada. Dana McMahan just got back and is dishing on the province's eats all this week.

You know how you feel obligated to visit museums when you travel? Well, I do, especially when it’s a country that speaks another language. But somehow, by day three of my visit to Quebec City, I still hadn’t visited the first museum. Happily, I was able to remedy my philistine status pain-free. With hot chocolate.

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Calorie-Neutral Travel / Food Travel / Travel Media / Velib / Chocolate / Biking / → All Tags

Chocolate Paris Bike Tour

The poor New York Times travel section: In an age where practically every travel story is about how to save money and do things the cheapskate way, the paper has to struggle to find new ways to highlight its indulgent destinations of choice.

The Times sometimes catches heat for some of it's "budget" suggestions, but one recent idea was quite clever: A tour of Paris' high-end chocolatiers, via the just-about-free Velib bike sharing system.

While the Times reporter hits an impressive number of chocolate shops in a short period of time--and probably burns off a decent percentage of the calories gained--we're a little skeptical of any itinerary that involves chocolate, biking, chocolate, biking and more chocolate. While it's definitely a wallet-friendly take on high-end sweets, it also sounds like a recipe for a tres upset stomach.

Related Stories:
· Le Tour du Chocolat [NYT]
· Bon Anniversaire, Velib! [Jaunted]
· Refereeing the Travel Media: Arthur Frommer Escalating His Attacks on the NYT [Jaunted]

[Photo: Rui Ornelas]

Chocolate / Candy / Food Travel / → All Tags

Food Snob Alert: High-Tech Chocolate

Chocolate is next on the list of things for food snobs to start taking way too seriously, and San Francisco-based startup Tcho is leading the charge.

Tcho, which just opened it's first store in the Embarcadero, sources their cocoa beans as carefully as any specialty coffee shop, and their unique flavors (fruity, nutty, citrus and just chocolate-y) are constantly being redeveloped. The store specializes in nibs--roasted cocao beans broken into small bits--and also offers treats like mango bites drenched in dark chocolate.

Tcho, which was started by the founder of Wired magazine, is also billed as a sort of a Web 2.0 chocolate company: You can give the chocolate makers your feedback via their website, letting them know which flavors you like and how they should be perfected.

Related Stories:
· Tcho [Official Site]
· Chocolate coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Tcho]

Drug Travel / Drugs / Candy / Chocolate / → All Tags

German "Chocolate" Travel: What Exactly Is in These Sweets?

Is Berlin the new Amsterdam? Well, hipster enclave Prenzlauer Berg might be.

German cops have shut down a candy store in the notorious neighborhood in Berlin after discovering the 23-year-old owner was peddling chocolates and lollipops laced with magic mushrooms and marijuana.

"In the shop we found 120 pieces of magic mushroom chocolate and countless cannabis lollipops," said police, who confiscated around 70 sachets containing various drugs, about 20 marijuana joints, a range of pills and some jars of drug-laced honey

Sorry, we still haven't been able to dig up the address of the shuttered sweets shop!

Related Stories:
· Hallucinogenic Chocolates Doom Berlin Sweets Shop [Reuters]
· Drug Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: EuroMagic]

Australia Travel / Chocolate / Dessert / Food Travel / → All Tags

Melbourne Chocolate Heaven: Koko Black

Jaunted's Amanda Kendle just got back from Melbourne. This week: Read all about it.

Melbourne might have great cakes, but it's got even better chocolate. With half a dozen excellent chocolatiers across the city center, it's hard to choose but once you've tried the chocolate mousse at Koko Black you'll be completely converted.

Koko has several locations across Melbourne and a store in Canberra now, too, but the sweetest shop is in the Royal Arcade off Bourke Street.

Head upstairs and order a sit-down chocolate meal with a smooth and steamy hot chocolate, or just buy up a selection of incredible truffles and other assorted chocolates at the front counter on the ground floor. Or do both.

Related Stories:
· Koko Black [Official Site]
· When in Melbourne: Must Have Cakes at Brunetti [Jaunted]
· Polish Cuisine in Melbourne: Borsch, Vodka & Tears [Jaunted]

Seven Wonders of the World / Philippines / Chocolate / Asia Travel / → All Tags

Enticing-Sounding Destinations: The Chocolate Hills

We admit we don't know everything about every destination in the whole world, but we sure are surprised that we hadn't heard of the Chocolate Hills until now. They're found in Bohol in the Philippines and have hit the headlines because they're in the running to be one of the new Natural Wonders of the World.

But before you book your ticket, don't get too excited: They're not actually hills made of chocolate, as we'd hoped. Instead they are a weird set of over 1,200 cone-shaped hills, all of a similar size, and because the green grass that covers them turns brown during the dry season, they were named the Chocolate Hills.

Two of the chocolate hills have resorts on them, and at one there's a special viewing station which is part of the Chocolate Hills Complex. They've also got a hostel, swimming pool and a restaurant: Here's hoping their menu features lots of chocolate.

Related Stories:
· Chocolate Hills Back in Race [Cebu Daily News]
· Can You Afford A Natural Wonder? [Jaunted]

[Photo: crazyegg95]

Food Travel / Gourmet Travel / Chocolate / → All Tags

Foodie Travel: Taste NYC With Sweet Walks' Chocolate Tours

Don't count on Sweet Walks' Luxury Chocolate Tour to help you burn off those Valentine's Day-related calories. This isn't one of those walking tours that involves long, punishing distances, though you might break a sweat being chased by perfume hawkers at Saks Fifth Avenue on a Saturday. But if you like chocolate and want to know where to find the really fancy, top-of-the-line goods, the Luxury Chocolate Tour is a splendid method of whiling away a Friday or Saturday afternoon in NYC.

Our fun and knowledgeable guide took us to five different European chocolate shops on the Upper East Side in two and a half hours. At each place we sampled chocolates (included in the price!) and learned about the history of the store and the process of chocolate making. These stores are so exclusive and relatively unknown that, as our guide said, 80 percent of tour-goers are locals. (Can't say that about those double-decker buses.)

Our favorites? The buttery-caramel centers of the Rigoletto chocolate at La Maison du Chocolat (30 Rockefeller Center) and the spicy hot cocoa and adorable cocoa-butter-painted chocolates at MarieBelle (762 Madison Avenue).

Related Stories:
· Sweet Walks [Official Site]
· Chocolate coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: chrisglass]

Chocolate / Green Travel / Africa Travel / → All Tags

To Timbuktu With Chocolate Fuel

Our parents always threatened to send us away to Timbuktu when we were naughty as youngsters, so it took us a long time to accept this African town as a genuine tourism destination. But we're still not sure if we can believe that two British men recently drove from England to Timbuktu in a truck powered by chocolate.

Yet apparently it's true. Two Brits in their 30s recently drove the 2,600 mile trip to Mali in a Ford truck and a Land Cruiser, vehicles which they would then donate to a charity in Africa. They used a special form of biodiesel that was made from waste chocolate.

Waste chocolate? We thought all chocolate was good, but if it can be used to power cars, it's probably not what we want to eat. The two crazy Brits who made the chocolate-powered Timbuktu trip calculated they saved 15 tons of carbon emissions, and they've set themselves a new challenge: flying to China in an airplane fueled by garbage. When are these intrepid travelers going to get a real job?

Related Stories:
· Choc-Powered Trip to Timbuktu [Ananova]
· New 7 Wonders: Timbuktu Nominated [Jaunted]
· Africa Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: phxpma]

Chocolate / Festivals / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Get Your Chocolate Rush in Bendigo

Wow, we nearly missed this one, but just in time we can tell you about the Chocolate Rush in Bendigo, south-eastern Australia. The rush isn't meant to make it sound drug-related; it's a play on gold rush, since that's how the town of Bendigo came to be famous.

Anyways, the Chocolate Rush is on this weekend (August 4 and 5) and it sounds pretty high-brow: it aims to "educate, indulge and challenge your palate". There are workshops on making chocolatey desserts or handmade pralines, demonstrations by renowned chocolate masters and, of course, tons and tons of chocolate to try and buy. The grand finale is the Australian Chocolate Championships. We wanna marry the champion!

Related Stories:
· Rush to Bendigo's Choc Fest [Jaunted]
· Bendigo Hotels [HotelChatter]
· Venchi Chocolates Both Therapeutic and Delicious [Jaunted]

[Photo: Daniel Y. Go]