A chocolate tasting table with a box of artisan chocolates, cacao pods and candlelight

Chocolate tasting: The Art of Decadence

Two hours, forty thousand years, and rather more chocolate than is sensible. You will also learn to taste it properly, which ruins supermarket chocolate for you permanently.

£30 a head
2 hours
Grown-ups, minimum 8
At your venue

Check a date 07835 501419

This is the one we know most about

We ran a chocolate shop on the Plymouth Barbican for years. This session is the distilled version of everything we learned standing behind that counter, and it is the party we are proudest of.

It starts a very long way back. Cacao was a drink before it was a bar, and the first version was bitter, spiced and nothing like what you are expecting. We make it to a Mayan recipe and hand it round. Reactions vary. That is half the fun.

From there we work forward, tasting as we go, using chocolates from Iain Burnett, a world award-winning chocolatier. Along the way we teach you how to actually taste: the snap, the melt, where on your tongue it lands, why you should never chew it, and why the smell matters more than the flavour.

It is light-hearted rather than reverent. Nobody is going to make you write tasting notes.

Add-ons. Wine tasting alongside works beautifully. So, oddly, does life drawing afterwards, which we have run as a pair more than once. Ask and we will quote the combination.

Thick dark hot chocolate being poured from a copper pan into a glass

What is included

A guided tasting of world award-winning chocolates
The Mayan hot chocolate, made in the room
A presentation box, and whatever you do not eat goes home with you
Vegan and gluten free alternatives, if you tell us in advance
All the set dressing, candles and table styling
Setup and clear-up

The practical bits

Price: £30 a head
Minimum: 8 people
How long: 2 hours
Ages: Grown-ups
Pay on booking: In full, by card

Bring your own drink if the venue allows. We are not licensed and do not supply alcohol.

Twelve artisan chocolates in a gold-lined presentation box with cacao pods — What arrives in front of you.

Chocolates, cacao pods and candlelight on a styled table — We dress the table. It matters more than it should.

Cocktails in tumblers packed into a bowl of ice — Add drinks and we will theme them to the tasting.

Two of these three were made for this page to show the tasting box and the Mayan hot chocolate accurately, because we had not photographed a session properly. The styled table shot is our own.

Questions

How much chocolate is it, honestly?

Twelve chocolates each, plus the hot chocolate. That is more than most people can finish in one sitting, which is why the box goes home with you.

We have a vegan and a coeliac in the group.

Both are catered for, but we need to know at least a week ahead so we can order the right things. Tell us when you book rather than on the night.

Can you run it in a village hall?

Yes. Most of ours are in halls and community centres. We bring the styling with us, so a strip-lit room becomes something rather nicer for a couple of hours. All we need is tables and a socket.

Is it suitable for teenagers?

It works for about fourteen and up, though it is pitched at adults and runs for two hours, which is a long time for a younger group. For teens we would steer you to the potion party instead.

Got a date in mind?

Tell us the date, the ages and roughly how many, and we will come back to you the same day with what we can do.