Chicago Chocolate Tour!

This past weekend, C and I went on a delicious Chicago Chocolate Tour with our family.  C and I have done several tours over the years...we try to find one whenever we visit a new city.  So far we've been on tours in Chicago (which is home), San Francisco, and New York City.

This tour started off with a bit of education on what chocolate is and where is got its beginning.

Our first stop on the tour was to More Cupcakes where they specialize in savory cupcakes including BLT, Bacon Maple and for the holidays, Sweet Potato.  For the tour, we were given a sample of their most popular: Chocolate Chocolate Cupcake.  It was DELISH!

Cupcakes!

They were devine

The unassuming storefront of more

The second stop on our tour was to Hendrickx Belgian Bread Crafter (they don't have a website unfortunately).  Here we were welcomed into the back where we got a firsthand look at how they make their delicious breads and pastries.  We sampled a fantastic chocolate cake and a white chocolate bread.  Of course they use only the best chocolates from Belgium.  This was by far my favorite stop on the tour and C and I will be returning again on our own.

The owner (right) and one of the bakers.  The only part not shown in the kitchen was the wall of ovens.  Everything else is made right on these two tables

Fresh out of the oven white chocolate bread loaves

The Hendrickx storefront

Our third stop was to Harry & David which is typically known for their specialty fruit baskets and more specifically, pears.  They have started to expand into other areas, chocolates being one of them.  We received a nice goody bag of 6 different chocolates and a pear!

The Harry & David entrance

A lovely Christmas display

C and I are the perfect pear!  :)

The fourth stop on the tour was to Sarah's Candies.  Amazingly, Sarah has been in business for 5 years and she is only 30 years old!  One of her wedding cakes was voted as America's Most Beautiful Cake by Brides Magazine and will be on an upcoming episode of Food Network Challenge Cakes!  We sampled a Royaltine, which is a chocolate candy coating covering a crispy something-or-other (have no idea what it was but it was good!).  I only got one picture from Sarah's though, as it was very small and very crowded.

Sarah also has her own cookbook

Our fifth stop was to Teuscher (toy-sher) Swiss Chocolates where we sampled a decadent champagne truffle.  It was heavenly.  Teuscher was another very small crowded shop, so much so in fact that we couldn't even go inside as a group!

The teuscher storefront

Some of the very tempting treats

Our sixth and final stop was to Argo Tea Cafe where we sampled a specialty drink: chocolate chai lattes and a homemade chocolate brownie.  I didn't get any pictures at Argo, mainly because I had been there before and it didn't occur to me, but also because after almost 3 hours of walking, most of which was in the rain, I couldn't be bothered to bring out my camera for another picture.  :)

But I did get a few other neat pictures along the tour:

The John Hancock Building piercing the foggy sky

The Christmas tree in Daley Plaza surrounded by the Christkindlmarket (see all of that rain??)

The Christmas tree surrounded by foggy skies and beautiful buildings with the Picasso statue off to the left.

With all of this Christmasy stuff going on over the last few weeks, I have had almost zero time for anything hooky.  It makes me sad because there is so much that I want to work on, but I just don't have the time right now.  I have a few projects in my sights for after the holidays though and I can't wait to get to work on those.  But this is all for now.  Ta-Ta!