On our recent trip to Daytona Beach I heard about a local chocolate factory that gives free tours. We love chocolate, so a free tour with the promise of free chocolate at the end was perfect for us!
When I think chocolate factory I think big Willy Wonka type factory. Maybe with some oompa loompa's stirring a big chocolate river. But this isn't like that. It's a store located just a few miles from the beach on S Beach St in Daytona.
While a big chocolate river would have been nice, the store was still pretty awesome. It is packed with every kind of chocolate you can think of. There's a display case where they sell their fudge and fresh made chocolates. They have just about everything you can think of. Chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered caramels, chocolate covered cherries, chocolate covered potato chips, chocolate covered coconuts, chocolate covered Oreo's (my favorite!) and more. Their strangest one is chocolate covered bacon. Yes, that's right, bacon! I was intrigued by the idea. We love chocolate, and we love bacon, so putting them together should be perfect right?
The rest of the store is filled with already packaged chocolates. You can buy them by the box, by the bag, or individually. They have milk chocolate made into lots of molds. Race cars, starfish, seashells, dolphins, turtles, flip flops, and lots more beach themed candies.
The tour runs several times a day. At the side of the store is a long hallway which runs down the side of the kitchen area where they make the chocolates. Through several big glass windows you can watch what they are doing while the tour leader explains everything and gives you the history of the company. We got to see them mixing the chocolate, getting bacon ready for coating, packaging, and making chocolate covered pretzels.
After the tour they have a tray of free samples and you can choose 2. Brianna got a chocolate covered potato chip and a solid milk chocolate. Junior got a chocolate covered pretzel and a solid chocolate. I just got 2 solid chocolates.
After the tour, we went out front and sampled their fudge and the chocolate covered bacon. I thought this would be really good, but I just didn't like it. Brianna loved it. She ate her piece, my piece, and Junior's piece she liked it so much! I'm just a plain chocolate kind of person. I don't want my chocolate coating anything unless it's Oreo's. I didn't like the chocolate covered pretzels or potato chips either, but the kids loved them.
We really enjoyed our visit, and we left with a bagful of goodies. If you look in the local coupon books you can find a coupon for 10% off a $10 or more purchase. You can also order their chocolates online and have them shipped to you. They use some kind of new ice packs that keep it from melting but don't sweat so everything doesn't get soggy. The lady explained it during the tour but I was busy watching the pretzels and wasn't paying close attention.
If you want to check out their assortment of chocolates you can visit their website here. And if you're ever in Daytona you have to stop by for a visit and a taste!
