The Chocolate Museum & Experience With Jacques Torres
Chocolate Museum New York
I was walking around downtown Manhattan to renew my passport and I passed by one of my favorite stores, Jacques Torres. For those of you who don’t know, Jacques Torres is a chocolate shop featuring delicious locally handmade chocolates. I’ve been a patron of this shop for years, but recently I’d heard some buzz about Jacques Torres opening a chocolate museum. This is the first Chocolate Museum New York has ever been home to. On a rainy Wednesday in Spring, I decided to go. I casually mentioned I might go to a friend, and before I knew it, I had 6 guests meeting me there!
You can purchase tickets in advance, but because it was a weekday not during spring break, we decided to take our chances and walk in. The museum was not crowded at all and we had plenty of time to browse the 5,000 square foot museum and get front row spots for the chocolate demonstrations.
Throughout the museum there are 8 chocolate tasting stations. You’ll be able to sample milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, Mayan Hot CoCoa, bon bond and 3 international chocolates!
Hot Chocolate Demonstration
We did the museum backward to ensure we were able to see the two demonstrations. Upon arrival, the Hot Cocoa demonstration was about to begin. Our group of 7 (4 kids included) hurried over to join two other visitors.
In a beautifully designed hut, our host demonstrates how to make hot chocolate by hand. Once she finishes, we are invited to add spices to our hot chocolate.
You can choose from these four spices to flavor your hot chocolate. Anise, Cinnamon, Mexican Pepper, and Hot Chile. Don’t forget the sugar!
Chocolate Bonbon Demonstration
Immediately after the hot chocolate demonstration, we went to learn how bonbons are made!
Upon arrival, the chocolate was already melted and kept at an appropriate temperature in the large container you see below. Our host grabbed a tray and filled it with chocolate, and then dumped out all of the chocolate! She was trying to create a basic chocolate coating to serve as the shell for the chocolates.
Our host prepares the tray by creating a chocolate shell which will harden and be filled with ganache to make lovely bonbons.
Making the perfect ganache to fill chocolate bonbons.
Our host fills the chocolate bonbons with fresh ganache.
Our host shows us how to tell if the chocolates are ready to come out of the tray. When you see they’ve contracted and are surrounded by air, they’re ready!
A beautiful tray of Bonbons, handmade. The chocolates made in their Brooklyn factory are made by a machine that creates 80,000 chocolates a day!
The Artifacts
After the two demonstrations, we went back to the beginning of the museum to explore the artifacts.There’s far too many to share them all, but I’ll include a few of my favorites. The artifacts range from tools used to make chocolate to tools used to ENJOY chocolate!
These were used to help grind the cocoa into powder for chocolate making.
This was one of my favorite artifacts, letting my mind and tastebuds dream of all of the wonderful chocolate flavors I could consume.
Just in case you ever wondered the difference between a squirrel and a woodpecker eating a cocoa pod.
This was obviously my favorite artifact of all. I am definitely a milk chocolate girl, but I won’t turn the other two away!
Chocolate as Art
Chocolate from Around the World
You have to sample all three. My favorite was Vietnam, and I found Costa Rica almost hard to eat…and that’s coming from a chocolate lover!
The App
Before you arrive, you can download the kid friendly app that scans various pictures around the museum to continue telling the Choco Story! This app is available in various languages.
Children’s Playspace & Education Center
I loved these beautiful chairs in the children’s play space. My four guests under 10 could have spent hours between the playroom and the cafe!
The cleanest sand table I’ve ever seen in Manhattan (coming from someone who was a nanny for 12 years, this says something!) Here kids can dig for artifacts like the ones they saw in the museum.
This train carrying supplies for making chocolate was definitely a crowd pleaser!
Here the kids could sell their handmade chocolates and hot cocoa.
Gift Shop & Cafe
Finally, the tour ends in the gift shop and cafe where you can eat even more chocolate, or buy some to take home with you. They have a variety of hot drinks, pastries, and chocolates available for sale.
Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for children and includes hot chocolate, bonbons, and 6 other flavors of chocolate to taste. You can probably experience everything briefly in about 30 minutes, but I would recommend planning on at least 1 – 2 hours, especially if you have children who will enjoy the play space and enjoy a little treat in the cafe before you go.
If you’ll be in NYC and want to visit the Chocolate Museum New York, you can buy tickets here.
Just to be honest with my followers, this is NOT a sponsored post. We paid for seven admissions to the Chocolate Museum New York and the thoughts and opinions in this blog post reflect the honest review of my six guests and me.
I love visiting museums with live demonstrations. It adds so much to the experience. The chocolate art is so cute and I am curious as to which 3 international chocolates you got to taste. Chocolate in other countries taste so different and I always thought that the chocolate in the states was much sweeter than the chocolate in Japan 🙂
Candy recently posted…The Most Comfortable Shoes with Memory Foam : Bearly There Footwear
This is my kind of museum, sounds like a lot of fun! Definitely putting this on my list for my next trip to NYC!
Kaylene recently posted…11 photos that will make you want to hike the Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland
So cool – I didn’t know this was here! As an NYC local, will definitely have to check it out. 🙂
My office used to be by the store which was dangerous because the stuff there is so good. The museum sounds like a lot of fun. I will have to check it out.
Anisa recently posted…Porto Food Tour: Taste the Local Specialties
Yes!!!! I wish we had smello vision! This sounds like pure heaven. I will add this to my list my next visit to NYC. I’ll have to pin this too.
I’ve been thinking about bringing my nephew and niece on a trip to New York when they get just a bit older and they absolutely love their sweets. It’d be great to show them the demonstrations on how they’re made!