Chicago Chocolate Tours

...please where can I buy a unicorn?

Thank you so much for the wonderful tour. I just finished the last of the chocolates that we bought. The Saturday weather couldn't have been more perfect. I really enjoyed the picutres you sent. I loved your teaching style of the tour and would gladly recommend you - and the tour- to my friends.

thank you very much we had a wonderful time and our tour guide was great

Just wanted to say thanks for a great evening on the Lincoln Park chocolate tour! My wife and I had so much fun learning, and of course eating, all about the chocolate in the area. It was a totally original evening thanks to you and next time we're in the area we will definitely be looking into some of your other tours!

Dear Kelly,

Thank you for a lovely morning. You are an amazing tour guide. We truly enjoyed every minute. Thank you for the extra treat...photos!

Sincerely,
Dan & Cathy

Hi - just wanted to say we had so much delicious cake and cupcakes and other chocolate goodys to eat on the Lincoln Park chocolate tour that we had to pack some up and take it home! We also very much enjoyed the information and learning about the story of chocolate and its development! I always knew it was health food!!

Hi! Thanks to Kelly for such an energetic, informative and overall fun tour on the Magnifcient Mile!
The only disappointment we had was the chocolate samples. I had heard the words "tons of chocolate " several times before the tour started, so I was surprised to receive such small samples on the tour (6 total pieces at 5 stops). I expected "so much chocolate you can't finish it all" instead of one small piece at each location ( except Sarah's where there were two). I also think each location should offer tour participants discounts on the chocolate purchased that day, since most of us purchased at each location and your tour obviously brings them ALOT of business!
The tour was pricey for the value received. Diana

Note from the Founder:

Hi, Diana -

Thanks for writing!

I'm really sorry you were disappointed with the amount of chocolate on the tour. We're actually revamping our Magnificent Mile route and were just talking about this today. Due to a store closing and a couple of other things, there isn't as much chocolate on this route anymore as there used to be, or as there is on our other routes. We're sending you gift certificates to come back and try another route while we're working on the Mag Mile route. No one finishes all of the chocolate on the other routes, that's for sure. The Downtown Loop, South Loop, and Lincoln Park routes of Chicago Chocolate Tours all involve people taking home the cupcakes or other chocolatey items they just couldn't finish.

Thanks too for the idea about having the stores offer discounts to tour participants. Teuscher on our Mag Mile route offers a 10% discount; I'm not sure if they mentioned it the day you were on the tour, or gave you their coupon?

Thanks again for your comments and ideas; I really appreciate your taking the time to share. And thanks for your kind words about Kelly!

All the best!
Valerie

I ran across this website recently and found that it is more intertwined with my life than I expected: I love Molly's Cupcakes on Clark, I work very closely to a chocolate factory downtown, I love chocolate... and this is featured in CRAVE Chicago, which I am a huge fan and supporter of.

Once we get a break from this dreadful early-winter weather, I am going to schedule a tour for myself a couple of other friends! I am looking forward to it!

Thank you, as it was great!!!! We enjoyed.
Sincerly..Carol

Thanks for the photo gallery link, Kelly -- and the wonderful experience last Friday. We loved it! (And we're continuing to love all the chocolate we bought. Mmmm.) :)

I blogged about the tour -- and your great communications skills -- in my blog, Beyond Talk. Check it out if you get the chance!
Best,
Kealah (& Christian)

We really enjoyed the tour. Krista (spelling?) was great, and the mix of chocolate candy and drinks was nice.
Thanks again,
Barbara

KELLY THANKS FOR THE PHOTOS. YOU DID A MARVELOUS JOB AND GAVE US AN EXPERIENCE THAT WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER. GOOD LUCK IN YOUR THEATER WORK. WE WILL BE WATCHING THE SCREENS FOR YOU ANY TIME NOW.

HAROLD AND LINDA

My boyfriend and I went on a private Magnificant Mile tour while we were visiting Chicago from Calgary, Canada. Our tour guide, Krista, was a lot of fun & full of neat facts about chocolate & Chicago. I loved that she was a native Chicagoian and with a love the city AND chocolate!

We thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate shops we visited. The locations showcased a nice variety of goods and we probably wouldn't have found them on our own. I told everyone at home about the savoury cupcakes at More and the imported chocolates from Teuscher!

My only complaint was that I wasn't impressed with Frango. I know they are very popular in Chicago so I understand why they were included in the tour but I felt they were unprepared for our visit. The girl took a while to find the sample box of chocolates and when she presented them, they seemed stale... the dark chocolate pieces were turning white. I sampled the milk chocolate ones instead! I'm also a little concerned about the content of the chocolates since they contained partially hydrogenated oils (ie: trans fats). This seems a little incongruous with a shop like Teuscher, which sells top-quality chocolate with as few ingredients as possible.

Overall, we were very impressed with the tour and would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Chicago! All the other stops were great (I wish there were more! haha). Thanks for a great experience.

Our tour on 8-8-09 at 3:45 was excellent ! Our guide (named Melissa, I believe) was friendly, fun and knowledgeable. We would gladly do it again.

Hi Kelly,


I took the tour last Saturday the 5th and had and enjoyable time. Your enthusiasm made the tour even more interesting and I got to see some of the streets of downtown Chicago as well since this was my very first visit. Keep up the good work and best wishes for a successful school year!


Regards,


Darlene ( a visitor from Boston )

I enjoyed the tour during my first visit to Chicago and wished there had been time to try maybe a couple more places. Yes, there were a lot of us in a couple of the smaller shops but I would think that might be good for business. A customer did stop me in Macy's wondering what all the people were doing in the candy department. When I told her it was a chocolate tour her eyes lit up. So these tours seem like a good way to generate buzz both for the tour and the establishments visited. Kelly was our tour guide and I really appreciated her enthusiasm. Will definitely recommend the tour.

While I enjoyed the tour with my frineds, I was disappointed by the size of the group. When my friend bought the tickets she was told the tours are no larger than 15. Well..our group had 24 which was too large for the size of the stores we entered. We were so cramed into More and then the customers were trying to make purchaes and you kept telling them to come in!! The first store was claustrophic with even just half of the group at a time.The Argo tea store at the end was a nice treat!

Barb

Note from the founder:
Hi, Barb! I'm glad you enjoyed the tour! And I'm sorry that you were disappointed with the size of the group. We should have had 2 Tourguides that day, running parallel tours spaced 15 minutes or so apart, and then there would have been just 12 people in your group. I do apologize for having been understaffed, and I hope I'll get to make it up to you!
Thanks for your email; I really appreciate the feedback!
All the best,
Valerie

Hi Valerie.

I just wanted to say thank you again. We had an absolute blast on the tour Saturday. The Bride LOVED it!!! Heidi is such a doll, she made the perfect tour guide. (And, since the bride is a teacher she felt an automatic kinship to Heidi!) I've visited several Chocolatiers which have provided a quick overview on the history of chocolate and I still learned a TON from your tour.

Looking forward to my next tour.

Thanks!
Nicole

Just wanted to drop a note to say Thank You for the lovely time we had with you and your chocolate tour last week. Our tour guides Kelly and Krista were not only knowledgeable about chocolates but also about the local architect.
One can tell they really love their job by how enthusiastic they were in giving us the history behind the different chocolates. How refreshing to have guides who talk to you not at you. I was impressed with how they involved each one of us in lively conversation while moving us along tour. The 2 1/2 hour tour just flew by. I must say something about James. He is the Willie Wonka of chocolate. I could listen to him talk all day. What a wealth of knowledge he has on the subject not to mention his enthusiasm about chocolate it's contagious. I can still taste the lemon -pepper chocolate melting in my mouth. It was heavenly. Who would have thought that combination would end up my favorite? Thanks James for sharing and educating me on these heavenly chocolates.

I also want to thank Krista for patiently waiting for us to arrive. We truly appreciated that.

And lastly Valerie (our Chicago Audrey Hepburn) thank you, thank you, thank you for taking your dream and making it a reality.

Continued success and Chocolate kisses to all,
Theresa

Oh my gosh, that was a lot of fun and a nice pace too! My sister and I surprised our Mom for her birthday with the tour and it went over famously! My sister and I would love to try the other routes you have set up as well... fun time had by all! Thank you!

Nora

PS My friends think I have some investment in your group with how much I've talked it up! Wishing you great business, take care!