Chocolate Paradise  New Walk!

Chocolate Paradise: handmade chocolates, truffles and irresistible temptations on London’s most delicious walk.

Mayfair. Soho. Royal chocolatiers. Chocolate houses. Hot chocolate. Truffles. Scandal. Mayfair. Soho. Royal chocolatiers. Historic chocolate houses. Truffles. Scandal. And some seriously good chocolate tasting along the way.

Welcome to the most delicious walk in London.

Fit for a Queen: English Rose chocolates by Charbonnel et Walker, the chocolatier favoured by Queen Elizabeth II.

We start in Soho and weave our way into Mayfair, calling at some of London’s finest chocolatiers and dipping into 350 years of chocolate history as we go.

Because chocolate wasn’t always a sweet treat. Once upon a time it was an exotic, expensive drink, the preserve of royalty, aristocrats and the seriously rich. London went mad for it.

And, truth be told, it never really recovered.

Our first stop is one of Britain’s most celebrated chocolatiers, a four-time winner of Britain’s Best Chocolatier. French flavours meet Japanese precision here, with extraordinarily delicious results.

William Curley. One of Britain’s most celebrated chocolatiers, and a very good reason to take chocolate seriously.

Then things get gloriously messy.

Almost too handsome to eat. Almost. Chocolate bears dressed for the occasion.

At Italian Bear Chocolate, the hot chocolate is thick, decadent and served in cups slathered with three different kinds of melted chocolate. Yes, the cup as well. This is not a walk for people who believe chocolate should know its place.

Yes, even the cups and saucers are chocolate. Welcome to the Chocolate Paradise.

A saunter through Carnaby Street takes us on to a chocolatier with a rather impressive customer list: Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana and, rather more recently, Taylor Swift.

And then Italy calls.

At Venchi we sample gourmet Italian chocolate and discover why, in the 17th-century, chocolate landed the Catholic Church with a delicious theological problem. Could you drink it during Lent?

Pope Alexander VII eventually pronounced: Liquidum non frangit jejunum. “Liquid does not break the fast.”

Phew.

But chocolate has a darker side.

We’ll see White’s, founded as a chocolate house in 1693 and later notorious as “the most fashionable hell in London”, where the great and the good drank chocolate while gambling away fortunes.

Today it’s London’s oldest and most exclusive gentlemen’s club. But it began life in 1693 as Mrs White’s Chocolate House.

We’ll discover why British and American chocolate taste so different. Put Hershey’s and Cadbury’s to the test. And see where General Eisenhower had his wartime headquarters while American troops were being issued the extraordinary D-ration chocolate bar.

It was packed with calories and deliberately designed to taste only “a little better than a boiled potato”. The US Army didn’t want its soldiers enjoying their emergency chocolate too much.

There are chocolate stories everywhere on this walk: chocolate and royalty, chocolate and literature, chocolate and health, chocolate and religion, chocolate and war. And, naturally, plenty about how the stuff is actually made.

And for the grand finale?

Fortnum & Mason.

London’s magnificent 18th-century department store has been supplying royalty for centuries. Today its confectionery counters groan with hundreds of varieties of chocolates, from champagne truffles and pralines to those gloriously old-fashioned rose and violet creams.

We finish there, leaving you free to browse, taste and shop.

Three centuries of London. Some of its finest chocolatiers. And chocolate running deliciously through it all. 

What’s not to love?

Special note: For your own safety, sampling edible products on this tour is your own responsibility, not the responsibility of the tour guide. Please check allergies and dietary requirements with providers.