After having a bit of a break from our craft chocolate chomping, our Wellington  Chocolate Gazetters invited us down for the weekend to visit the Wellington Choc Stock Festival.

We had to book in a time slot, so we booked a 3 hour time slot on Saturday afternoon.  It was PACKED!!
The festival had over 2000 visitors over 3 days.  It was held at the Wellington Harbourside Function Centre.  It seemed like there was at least 200-300 visitors when we were there.  It was really hard to visit some stalls because of all the people, especially if they had samples, (which most did).  There were a few exhibitors we didn't get to visit, and towards the end we didn't stop and eat samples, we just bought what we wanted and moved on.  We stayed for about an hour and a half.

We did buy a good lot of new chocolate to try.  We did have a couple of quick chats and took some photos.  I think a bigger building would have made it less squished and more relaxing.  If it was the same situation next year, we may not make  the trip, but we are glad we got to do it once.

Here are some photos of the event.

The Chocolate & Coffee festival was held in Auckland, at The Cloud.  It was open on the weekend, and we travelled up on the Sunday.  There was lots to see and taste and we really enjoyed it.  So many samples to try, and we got a little hyper on all the sugar and coffee.
Here is a list of the chocolate booths we visited, with some info on each.  Also there was Kako, Kapiti Chocolate factory and Bohemein Fresh Chocolates that we had visited in our Wellington Chocolate Tour.

BE HAPPY CHOCOLATE
Small batch chocolate makers located in Martinborough. They use ethically sourced Peruvian cacao. Their stone ground chocolate is handmade, dairy free, refined sugar free, raw and organic.  We bought 3 bars and are curious to see the taste difference in raw cacao beans versus the more common roasted beans.

FLINT CHOCOLATE
Small batch, bean to bar chocolate makers based in Auckland.  They use ethically traded cacao, and use the traditional method of stone grinding their cacao beans.  Their chocolate is vegan and refined sugar free.  We had a nice chat about the olive oil bar and bought it home.

FOUNDRY CHOCOLATE
This was the booth we looked forward to the most.  Foundry chocolate is run by husband and wife team David and Janelle, based in Mahurangi.   David is the chocolate maker, and the both are really passionate about their craft chocolate making.  They really are meticulous in each step, from sourcing the best cacao beans right through to the end product.  David talked us through the 7 single origins and did a tasting of each.  We bought  home the 7 single origin pack to try.  We also had a interesting chat with Janelle about the bean to bar, craft chocolate awareness in New Zealand.

FRUNEY
Fruney is a confectionary company that create very pretty chocolate bars with ingredients you can see.  They are made by the Reviakin family, based in Hamilton.  We bought 3 bars home to try.

MAKANA CONFECTIONS
Makana Confections make chocolate truffles and other yummies.  They are located in the Bay of Islands and also in Marlborough.  We sampled a few of their choccies and loved them.  Joni especially liked the pinot noir truffle. We bought a chocolate assortment box to try.

MESTIZA
Mestiza is based in Auckland.  Chocolatier, Maria Rogers makes handcrafted bon bons from natural ingredients and single origin cacao.  We bought a cute little 3 pack assorted box to try.

SHE UNIVERSE
Chocolatiers and confectioners based in Christchurch.  They use natural and organic ingredients, and we got to sample a range of their yummies alongside their single origin drinking chocolate.  We bought a yummy chocolate hazelnut bar to try.

TRICE CHOCOLATE
Trice chocolate makers are based in Wellington.  They make small batch, bean to bar craft chocolate.   Their cacao is ethically sourced and their bars are vegan.  We bought 4 bars to try.

VALURA CHOCOLATE
Bean to bar, small batch, chocolate makers.  This is a family run business based in Auckland.  They had these cute sized mini bars of their chocolate range, so we had to and needed to try them all.

CHOCOLATE BROWN
​Chocolate Brown is a Chocolaterie in Warkworth and Paraparaumu.  They specalise in chocolate pralines, truffles and novelties, all handmade using Barry Callebaut couverture with New Zealand butter and cream.
We did our Wellington chocolate tour just before the opened up in Paraparaumu so we were pleased to see them at the Chocolate and Coffee festival.  We bought their Chocolatiers Favourites 8 box.

Along with all these chocolate booths, we also tried various espresso martinis and whiskeys, coffees, and other yummies.  It was a great day out.

Keep an eye out on our review page as we taste all our chocolate goodies.

This is our adventure, exploring the Wellington region for Chocolate.  
We deputized two of our Kapiti family members, and as 4 Chocolate Gazetters, we visited as many chocolate shops and factories we could find.  Here is our travel notes so you can do your own Wellington Chocolate tour.

To visit everything and do the Wellington Chocolate Factory tour, we think you need 2 days.  Here is how we did ours.

SATURDAY
FIRST STOP: Kapiti Chocolate Factory
5 Lorien Court Raumati Beach
Saturday hours: 10am to 3pm
The shop has its own car park.
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You can also book a Chocolate making demonstration, which also includes a factory tour, tastings, and a talk about the history of chocolate.  This is only available weekdays and have a group size of at least 10 people, 25 maximum.

Kapiti Chocolate factory is owned Sarah and James Abaniel.
The shop offers a range of boxed and bagged choccies as well as individual bonbons, fudges and other chocolate yummies.  You can also subscribe to a monthly chocolate box.

SECOND STOP: THE CHOCOLATE STORY
185a Jackson St Petone
Saturday hours: 9.30am to 4pm
Free street parking behind the library or in the Peel carpark on Saturdays
The Chocolate Story is about a 45 minute drive from Kapiti Chocolate Factory

Owned by chocolatier Brett Nicholls.
The Chocolate Story has a range of individual bon bons, gift tins and boxes, stockist for Hogarth a few New Zealand Chocolate makers including Hogarth.  Brett also makes a GORGEOUS hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate is inspired by a French recipe using actual melted chocolate and not cocoa powder.

THIRD STOP:  BARON HASSELHOFFS CHOCOLATE EMPORIUM
464 Adelaide Road
Berhampore
About a 30 minute drive from The Chocolate Story
Free street parking, (we parked around the corner)
Saturday Hours: 9am - 3pm

Baron Hasselhoffs Chocolate Emporium is a small family run chocolate making business.  The shop and chocolate making room is petite and wonderful.  You can smell the chocolate and spices as you enter.  
Chief chocolate maker is Clayton McErlane and we were met by daughter Lily on the day.

* A little inclusion here.  A few weeks after we had done the tour, a new chocolate shop opened up, just a 4 minute drive away from Baron Hasselhoffs.  La Petite have moved into 277 Tinakori Rd Thorndon Wellington.  They sell bon bons, hot chocolate mixes,  and single origin chocolate bars with some exciting and different flavours to try.  We will definitely be ordering from them soon.

NEXT STOP:  WAKEFIELD CAR PARK ON WAKEFIELD ST WELLINGTON CENTRAL
About 15 minute drive from Baron Hasselhoffs, all the rest of the chocolate tour locations, are walking distance from this car park.  You may want to do this on a second day.
​Cost of parking on the weekend is $3 an hour.

KAFFEE EIS
146 Cuba St  Wellington
Saturday Hours: 9am -11pm

This cafe has a selection of gelato, but particularly, an award winning Chocolate Gelato that tastes just like a rich chocolate bar in gelato form.

Also of note in this area is:

Duck Island Ice Cream 168 Cuba St
Wellington Chocolate Factory and Duck Island do collaborations together in chocolate bars and ice cream.  Wellington Chocolate Factory also have their collaboration ice cream available in their own cafe.

Havana Coffee Works 163 Tory St
This is the coffee used in the Wellington Chocolate Factory Coffee Chocolate Bar.

NEXT VISIT: BOHEMEIN FRESH CHOCOLATES 109 FEATHERSTON ST
Saturday hours: 10am - 5pm
Owner is Jiri Havlik.  This shop offers some very unique and interesting flavoured individual bon bon chocolates and truffles, as well as some more traditional flavours.   They also have some gorgeous stiletto chocolate shoes which can be filled with choccies, and some award winning chocolate fish among other chocolate goodies.  They also do a range of hot chocolates.

WELLINGTON CHOCOLATE FACTORY - 2nd day
5 Eva St, (found between Eva st and Hannahs Laneway). Park at Wakefield car park again.
Weekend Hours:  10am -4pm
We booked into their Chocolatier for a Day tour.  This was on the Sunday 2.30pm - 4.30pm

As well as the tour, the shop offers their chocolate bars, and hot chocolates as well as an onsite cafe.

The Chocolatier for a Day tour teaches you to temper chocolate correctly, and you make and wrap 3 of your own chocolate bars.  The tour also includes a hot chocolate in their cafe and a little talk on cacao beans and the chocolate bean to bar process.

Also around this area, which we ran out of time to visit is Butlers Chocolate Cafe at 172 Lambton Quay.  As well as the cafe, they do sell individual chocolates and chocolate goodies.

That was our Wellington chocolate tour.  It was a fun way to spend a weekend, and it keeps on giving, as now we can start eating our stash bit by bit.  Our tastings of these will be on our review page as they are done.

If you attempt the tour yourself, make sure you let us know your favourites!