Workshops at the Daniel Stoffel chocolate factory – I tested it!

The Daniel Stoffel chocolate factory in Ribeauvillé, a village on the Alsace Wine Route, regularly organizes workshops around… chocolate, of course! I had already participated in a chocolate workshop a few years ago at Daniel Stoffel’s and had really enjoyed it. So I repeated the experience with great pleasure and was not disappointed. We are always welcomed and the workshop allows us to make beautiful discoveries.

An Alsatian and family chocolate factory

The Daniel Stoffel chocolate factory is a well-known chocolate factory in Alsace. It is a family chocolate factory created in 1963 and now owned by the founder’s children.

There are three stores in Alsace: Ribeauvillé, Haguenau and Mundolsheim. Places where it is impossible to leave without having filled up on chocolates because the products are so tempting! You can find chocolate candies, mouldings, spreads but also chocolate bars of different origins. The chocolate factory offers traditional recipes but also more original ones. Something to satisfy all the gourmands, besides there are even vegan or sugar-free chocolates.

Various chocolate workshops for young and old

Workshops on different themes and for different audiences are offered at the Daniel Stoffel chocolate factory:

• Choco’Time, a chocolate discovery workshop. Free and accessible to all.
• Choco’Chups, a chocolate lollipop workshop. 5€, for children.
• Choc’Origines, a workshop to discover the chocolate making process from bean to bar. 25€, for adults and children from 12 years old.
• Choco’Vino, a wine and chocolate tasting workshop. 15€, for adults only

Choco’Vino, a wine and chocolate tasting

I tested theChoco’Vino workshop, which allows you to taste chocolate and wine at the same time. What better combination than this one when you are on the Alsace Wine Route, right? 😉 The workshop officially lasts about 1 hour, but count on a little more time because you will be welcomed by the team of the chocolate factory, to whom you will be able to ask questions: it quickly takes a little more time!

The workshop begins with a short film presenting the chocolate factory, which makes your mouth water and makes you want to eat chocolate! Good news, you will be allowed to eat one already… Just be patient to eat the 3 others which will be given to you on a small plate, you will have to wait a few more minutes to taste them 😉

Then we go to the stage of the tasting itself. Two wines are tasted, a white wine and a red wine, both coming from very good Alsatian domains, the Domaine Bott Frères of Ribeauvillé and the Domaine Fernand Engel of Rorschwihr (neighboring village). We learn the basics of tasting and above all, we make our own experience! We don’t all have the same feelings, there is no right or wrong answer, but it is interesting to focus on your feelings and share them with the other participants.

I found the tasting of the first wine, which is made with two very different chocolates, really impressive. One becomes fully aware of the influence of what one eats since, depending on the chocolate, the wine seems very fruity and quite sweet or more acidic and fresh… I won’t give you more details so you can make your own experience!

After this excellent moment, both greedy and rich in learning, we go to the chocolate factory where we are welcomed by the master chocolate maker, who presents the different stages of chocolate making from the cocoa bean to the bar. An opportunity to learn new things, but also to taste chocolate again!

We taste different pure origin chocolates, that is to say made with beans from the same country, without mixing. Here again, it is interesting to discover the variety of tastes of the chocolates we taste. Like wine, the taste of chocolate depends on its terroir, i.e. the composition of the soil in which the cocoa tree grows. Between a cocoa from Nicaragua, Togo or India, we have very different soils and therefore very different tastes!

Before leaving, take a look at the store… In my opinion, you will not leave empty-handed! 😉

My pictures from the workshop at Daniel Stoffel chocolate factory