For years, my childhood friend Victoria has been a guide with Boston Chocolate Tours. And I finally get to join one of her tours! This reunion is extra fun because I went to Emerson College in Boston and enjoy any excuse to visit the city.

I actually go on TWO tours — the first one takes place in Back Bay and features lots of stops on swanky Newbury Street. (Tomorrow I’ll share photos from my afternoon tour of the South End.)

We begin at Hotel Chocolat, a popular U.K. chocolatier with over 70 locations in Great Britain but only two in the States.

Their samples are decadent… more on those in a moment.

Tour guide Victoria welcomes our small group of six:

We are given bags to save any leftover treats, as one of Victoria’s rules is “no chocolate left behind.”

This is a cocoa pod. Each one contains several dozen cocoa beans (visible in the trough below) from which cocoa solids and butter are extracted.

A representative from Hotel Chocolat explains a bit about the company’s history and chocolate-making processes. They own a cocoa plantation in Saint Lucia.

Of all the places we visit today, this store has the most unique flavor combinations. Check out some of these names:

These are pink champagne truffles. I can confirm that they have a distinctive bubbly flavor. SO GOOD.

Hotel Chocolat also sells single origin chocolate bars. I smile at these two and recall my visits to Ecuador and Java, Indonesia. Chocolate and travel go hand-in-hand!

I’ve never seen anything like this: Cocoa Pesto on the left, and White Chocolate Horseradish on the right. I don’t get a chance to try either but I’m so curious about those flavors.

Our next stop is O&CO, featuring olive oil and a variety of products made with that ingredient.

We sample these truffles… the pistachio one is my favorite:

And we try the pistachio spread on the far right below. I purchase a small jar to take home to my parents, who love that flavor. Most of these stores offer 10% off to anyone on a chocolate tour.

Our third stop is Ben & Jerry’s. While their brand doesn’t immediately spring to mind when I think of chocolate, the representative who speaks with us is extremely knowledgeable about the company and their products, including chocolate.

And since ice cream is my favorite dessert (shhh, don’t remind my dairy allergy about that), I thoroughly enjoy a sample of cookies & cream.

This catches my eye — it’s one of dozens of pianos in public places around the city. A few months ago, a young man from my alma mater (and co-ed fraternity) embarked on a challenge to play all 70+ pianos in Boston on a single day.

Our happy chocolate tour guide:

Our fourth stop is Teuscher, a Swiss chocolatier. They import their chocolates and gift boxes from Switzerland.

We try their champagne truffles, which feature Dom Perignon.

Our fifth stop is Sweet, a cupcake bakery.

These all look scrumptious. My mouth is watering just glancing at these flavors…

We sample a mini chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing.

Our sixth stop is Robin’s Candy, which sells every kind of sweet you can think of, and even a few you can’t (like bugs… more on that in a moment).

I’m a sucker for globes and there are at least two on display:

The store rep presents us with many different candy samples. The oddest is this fried bug:

Not one to sit out on a food challenge, I pop the bug in my mouth. Here are my before and after expressions:

Hey, at least this creature isn’t real…

Our seventh and final stop takes us one block over towards Copley Square. We head into Gourmet Boutique:

Their rep details a bunch of unique chocolate bar flavors offered in the store, many of which are international.

These bars from Dubai are made with camel’s milk:

We sample two flavors. The one on the left is a very delicate flavor of strawberries and roses, and the one on the right is orange caramel.

And that wraps up the morning tour! Stay tuned tomorrow for part two… my afternoon chocolate tour of Boston’s South End.

DETAILS:

Boston Chocolate Tours offers the Back Bay tour every Saturday morning at 10:15am. Tickets are $48. Show up with an empty stomach to enjoy all of these sweets! (You can take home anything you don’t finish.) The tour takes about 2.5 hours and there’s less than a mile of walking.

Many thanks to Boston Chocolate Tours for sponsoring my tour! As always, opinions are my own.