The Cocoabean Company — Attraction in Scotland

Booked the chocolate factory for 2 adults and our 3 year old. We loved this part- we got to eat lots of melted chocolate and make a chocolate shape of our choice, a chocolate bar and a marshmallow creation this lasts about 45- 50 mins. This part I would give 5 stars.

Afterwards the soft play inside was quite big this is included in your price - to a toddler it does look amazing - unfortunately to an adult - at the top there a few very dark tunnels lots of kids crying being scared of the dark, bolts were showing and mats were slipping about.

The outside park this was brilliant very large pirate ship bridges, slides and a zip slide. Benches to sit around the park too. There is also a little bit where you can do some gold panning - no bad points here just that they're alot of part of the outside half finished - chairs blocking a part that was leading to a very dangerous unfinished site....chairs that kids could have got past - don't feel like this was cordoned off properly for a work site. So I would advise not letting your kids run ahead if your going out the back doors to play area. The very expensive cafe £8 for a cheese panini that really wasn't up to much. They got my husbands order wrong due to the girl behind the till before finishing my order turned to her collegeue and started to talk about how nice her hair was...... although they did apologise and were quick to correct it and offer a free coffee - I just felt that it's a bit on the pricey side for the food. Advice would be take a picnic! As much as I've put some negative here it is a great place to visit and loved the chooclate making part and we came away smiling and my 3 year old didn't want to leave. I would...

Entry price for an eight year old to make some chocolate and have a play was £16. Entry for non chocolate making 1 year old was £3. To be fair, it was a nice day and so probably was worth the price as my kids could play outside too. As well as 30 minutes spent making chocolate, there's an indoor soft play which will keep an eight year old busy for about half an hour. The outdoor play area is really good for the over 5s if it's a dry day. Maybe a bit slippy and exposed if wet. I thought charging for under 2s was a bit unnecessary especially as you can calculate the money they are making through the chocolate workshops. For little ones, there is a small soft play area just beside the workshop area so you can supervise a little one whilst being on hand to see what's happening in the workshops. The outdoor play area for little ones is really just a larger little tikes toy slide thing near a steep embankment which isn't ideal. There's a shop to buy chocolate and a cafe which was really busy even at 12pm in the easter holidays. Four picnic tables beside the car park if you bring your own food. We spent 3 hours there. We could've spent longer but my toddler just wouldn't nap in his buggy and there wasn't anywhere to just quietly walk him. The path from the car park to the entrance is gravel as is the path up to the outdoor play area from inside so bring your all terrain buggy or get dropped by the door by your designated driver otherwise it is...

Booked family workshop as non dairy for two people. Reminded reception non dairy on arrival as directed. Unfortunately we had to remind again in workshop when offered white or brown milk chocolate and heard faciltators confer about the fact they had forgotten that three of us (from two different parties) were non dairy. Choices of materials for non dairy poor unfortunately. Orange liquid to paint on mould wasn't suitable consistency and didn't stick well to mould, it pooled in centre instead. For second item others got a choice of two colours of milk chocolate, we didn't and were offered only single coloured material. For third item others got marshmallows and chocolate we just got the chocolate. Sad when we paid £3 extra each and vegan marshmallows are easily available locally ( e.g In Castle Douglas Sunrise shop). Offered vegan jelly sweets to match other jelly sweets others got which was appreciated. Facilitators young and their chat is at a basic level....i had thought we might have got some info such as how chocolate is made etc but it felt as though chat was aimed at children about 6 or 7 years old. Soft play and outdoor play areas good. Cafe reasonably priced, large and all areas were clean. I live locally and had hoped this would be a real treat but it was just OK. I would go back to use cafe but wouldn't go back...