An entry · Work · Life

Chocolatier

Bitter bean, human patience, and a shine you only get if a person got the temperature exactly right.

Find training Try an experience Meet the craft Before you go

A chocolatier's gloved hand finishing a bar of chocolate in the kitchen — Photograph · documented by hand

From curious to committed

Your first steps.

A first visit can be enough. It can also be the beginning.

Meet the craft

Temper, mold, and take home a bar you made.

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Give it another afternoon

Notice what you want to come back to. Ask the teacher what regular practice would look like, and what support you would need.

Keep a note for next time →

See the working day

Formal training in tempering, molding, and ganache.

Explore ways into the work →

These are starting points. A workshop is not a professional qualification. Entry requirements and recognised training depend on the work and the country.

Before you walk in

A few things worth asking the host before you book.

Is this session suitable for someone who has never tried it?
What should I bring, wear or prepare?
What is included, and are there any extra costs?
Can you accommodate my access needs?
What could I try next if I enjoy it?

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Work it

Do the work.

Jobs, apprenticeships, and training that put a person in the room.

Places to begin

Ecole Chocolat
Professional Chocolatier certification
Online
A respected professional program in tempering, ganache, enrobing, and bean-to-bar craft, with a certification badge.
Certification

Ways in

Pastry and confectionery school
Formal training in tempering, molding, and ganache.
Course
Work in a chocolate shop
Learn on real product, from the person who owns the recipe.
Entry job
Bean-to-bar apprenticeship
Small makers train roasters and temperers hands-on.
Apprenticeship

Ways in, gathered by hand.

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Live it

Live the hour.

Experiences, classes, and places where the presence is the whole point.

Places to begin

Atlanta1 place

Explore the Atlanta guide

Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate
Guided Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Tasting
Weekends at 2pm and 4pm
Follow cacao from bean to bar with a maker-led tasting of single-origin chocolate and bonbons at their Westside factory tasting room.
Tasting

Boston1 place

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Cocoa Beantown
Boston Chocolate Walking Tour
Follow a chocolate sommelier through Boston's neighborhoods to taste fine chocolate and learn the story behind every bite.
Tour

Houston1 place

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Mostly Chocolate
Bean to Bonbon Tour and Tasting
Tour a working chocolate factory, taste single-origin bars, and box up bonbons you choose yourself.
Tour

Minneapolis1 place

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Taste Twin Cities
Chocolate Decadence Guided Tour
Public tours on Saturdays
Ride along to meet local chocolate makers, taste their best work, and even make a piece of your own on this guided chocolate tour departing from St. Paul.
Tour

Nashville1 place

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Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co.
Bean to Bar Factory Tour
Saturdays at 10am
Taste your way through Tennessee's first bean to bar maker and watch cocoa become chocolate on antique stone mills.
Tour

New York1 place

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Raaka Chocolate
Bean-to-bar chocolate making class
Fri to Sun
Spend an afternoon in a real Red Hook factory, roasting, grinding, and molding your own single-origin bars.
Class

San Diego1 place

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Seabreeze Craft Chocolates
Chocolate Making Class
Tuesday evenings and select Saturdays
You temper, mold, and decorate your own boxful of chocolates at the only bean to bar maker in San Diego.
Class

San Francisco1 place

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Dandelion Chocolate
Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Making Class
Get hands on with cocoa nibs and sugar inside the Mission's landmark 16th Street factory and walk out with a bar you tempered yourself.
Class

Seattle1 place

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indi chocolate
Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Making at indi chocolate
90-minute classes, booked by request
Step behind the scenes at Pike Place Market to roast, refine, and temper your own chocolate with one of indi's makers.
Class

Amsterdam1 place

Explore the Amsterdam guide

Cacao Museum
Make chocolate from bean to bar
Roast, grind, and temper cocoa into your very own chocolate bar in a small Amsterdam cacao museum.
Workshop

Barcelona1 place

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Cukor
Temper chocolate and roll bonbons at Cukor
Weekly workshops for adults and families
Step into an artisan sweet factory in the Gothic Quarter and learn to temper chocolate and shape your own bonbons to take away.
Workshop

Berlin1 place

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Rosa Canina Chocolate
Turn Cocoa Beans Into Your Own Bar
Every Saturday, English and German
Follow chocolate from raw bean to finished bar, taste your way through single origins, and pour a bar to take home in a cosy Prenzlauer Berg workshop.
Workshop

Cork1 place

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KoKo Kinsale
Truffle making course above the shop
1.5 hours, booked online
Ninety minutes in a family run Kinsale chocolate shop's kitchen tasting single origin bars, making ganache and rolling twelve truffles to take home.
Workshop

Dublin1 place

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The Chocolate Warehouse
Coat, decorate and pipe your own chocolates in a working chocolate factory
Two hour sessions, morning and afternoon slots, booked ahead
In Walkinstown you put on an apron after the production demonstration and coat, top and hand pipe chocolates you take home.
Workshop

London1 place

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The Chocolate Museum
Chocolate Truffles Making Workshop
A recurring weekend workshop on professional truffle technique, from ganache to tempering and decorating.
Workshop

Melbourne1 place

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Chocoholic Tours
Chocolate Making Class
Saturday mornings
Spend a Saturday morning beside a chocolatier at South Melbourne Market, tempering, dipping and decorating your own handmade chocolates to carry home.
Class

Mexico City1 place

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Choco-Story Zocalo
Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Workshop at Choco-Story Zocalo
Daily
Grind cacao and mould your own artisanal chocolate bar with a chocolatier inside a restored colonial building steps from the Templo Mayor.
Workshop

Montreal1 place

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Chocolat Avanaa
Taste chocolate from bean to bar
Saturday mornings
Sit down with a Montreal bean to bar maker to taste cacao at every stage and learn how a chocolate bar really comes to be.
Tasting

Paris1 place

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Choco-Story Paris
Mold your own chocolates at the chocolate museum
About 45 minutes, museum included
Temper, mold, and decorate your own chocolates alongside a chocolatier, then wander four thousand years of chocolate history in the museum.
Workshop

Toronto1 place

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Soul Chocolate
Bean to Bar Chocolate Making and Tasting
Weekends
Taste single origin bars from around the world, then roast, grind and mould your own chocolate from the cacao bean in a working Toronto kitchen.
Workshop

Vancouver1 place

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The Good Chocolatier
Chocolate Making Workshop
Public workshops, ongoing
On Main Street you temper chocolate and roll, dip, and decorate your own truffles to carry home from a small hands-on class.
Workshop

Ways in

Chocolate-making workshop
Temper, mold, and take home a bar you made.
Workshop
Tasting at a bean-to-bar maker
Taste single-origin chocolate and hear where it grew.
Gathering

Ways in, gathered by hand.

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Why the human is the point

Chocolate is chemistry with a temper. Get the heat wrong by a degree and it turns dull and grainy; get it right and it snaps and shines and melts at blood heat, which is the whole magic. The chocolatier tempers, molds, and finishes by hand and by feel, coaxing a bitter bean into a small, precise pleasure. A factory makes chocolate consistent. A chocolatier makes it personal, and you can taste the difference between a machine's patience and a person's.

Kept nearby

Elsewhere in Human Authorship

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