Chocolate Museum of Granada — Attraction in Sector Urbano

This place is a joke!!!!We took a free tour and signed up for a chocolate making workshop for the next day which by the way is $25 per person and that is a lot of money for an average Nicaraguan. The website described that the workshop would last 2 hours and we would make our own chocolate bars from scratch. My husband and I were the only people in the workshop and it lasted approximately 45 mins. During that time we roasted and ground cacao beans which took most of the time, the person explained the exactly same things as were explained to us in a free tour, we made ourselves the hot cocoa drinks after which we were asked if we wanted 100% cacao bar or 70% (did not even give an option of a milk chocolate which we should have had according to the description on the website), we chose 70% and they just poored the already made chocolate into a mould for us. There was no tempering of a chocolate or anything in between. They simply skipped that very important step and when I asked why they said that their boss did not want to invest money into that machine even though for chocolate tempering they only need a marble board, a thermometer, 2 spatulas and some skills. So in their museum they describe on posters how important the chocolate tempering is as thats what makes the chocolate nice and smooth and all the right things but they don't do any of that!!!!As a result the chocolate comes out lumpy and crystalic so save yourselves $5 and buy a swiss chocolate bar for the same money from a store. I tried a few different brands and it seems Nicaraguans only know how to grow cocoa but not how to make it into a proper chocolate bar. No wonder most of their cocoa is being exported to other countries that actually know how to use it better and it's not Nicaragua that's famous for their chocolate!Additionally we ordered a hot chocolate drink from their bar and they simply poured some milk with a tiny amount of cocoa that the resulting drink did not resemble anything like what their typical hot cocoa should be and what we make in the workshop (with cinnamon and etc).Shame on you for being a choco museum and not being able to make your national cocoa...

A Must-Do in Granada – Choco Museum!

We had such a great time at the Choco Museum in Granada! It was fun, informative, and honestly one of the most memorable parts of our trip.

We did the “Bean to Bar” workshop, which I highly recommend. We learned all about the cocoa harvesting process and how chocolate is made, from the raw bean all the way to the finished bar. It was super hands-on, and we got to:

• Make an ancient Mayan cacao drink, which was really unique and full of flavor • Enjoy a cozy cup of hot cacao with marshmallows • Create our own chocolate bars, choosing toppings and getting a little messy in the best way

They also let us try a bunch of different chocolate samples throughout, which was a sweet bonus!

Huge shoutout to Brandon, our guide and instructor. He was awesome—super animated, spoke great English, and made the whole experience really fun and easy to follow. He got everyone involved and made us feel welcome right away. You could tell he loved what he was doing, and that made all the difference.

If you’re in Granada and looking for something fun (and delicious), the Choco Museum is a must. You’ll learn a lot, laugh a lot, and go home with your own...

We went to the museum enthousistic about the 1-2h workshop and eager to make our own chocolate, but the experience ended in disappointment.

Once we started, we were first given a guided tour about the chocolate making process and a tasting of the products they had on sale, continuously and slightly obnoxiously reminded that all the testers were purchasable. After 1,5h we actually started the workshop. Despite the website mentioning we would be able to choose between dark, milk, and white chocolate, they only had 70% and 100% dark. This wouldn’t have been a problem if they’d mentioned it prior, but it was a bummer to hear it at such a late stage. Besides, the flavour options were basic (5 or so total) and the peanut jar was full of ants so unuseable and not hygenic AT ALL. The resulting bars were also disappointing. The chocolate is grainy and nothing special - also too dark for our taste.

One redeeming factor was our guide Sylvia who was very friendly and enthousiastic during the whole tour.

However, given the entire experience (mainly the key factor of chocolate making that severely disappointed) we don’t think it’s worth the $25...