Wellington Chocolate Factory — Local services in North Island

Cafe: 4 stars (Good) Tour: 2.5 stars (Neutral)

Overall, the Wellington Chocolate Factory is a cool place to hang out; yummy hot chocolate (if a bit too sweet!), and plenty of games to play, but wouldn't particularly recommend their tour.

I'd also like to mention that their website's reviews are not necessarily an accurate representation of people's experiences, because the reviews must be approved before being submitted.

The Tour: The tour began with a complimentary cup of hot chocolate while we waited for others to arrive, followed by around 40 minutes of information about History of WCF, and information about the chocolate beans. They passed some beans and other objects around. There was some interesting information, but overall this part of the tour seemed to drag a bit long. It would have been improved by being more interactive, or if we still had our complimentary cup of hot chocolate to enjoy while we were listening.

The tour itself didn't show anything you can't see from the cafe, but we got to try some of the chocolate at different stages of being made which was quite interesting.

A map of where the beans came from would also have been a plus, especially in non-covid times when they would have more varieties.

Our experience would have been improved if they had more varieties of beans to try, as we weren't particularly interested in the flavored chocolate.

Lower-sugar options would be a nice addition, such as 90% or 100% chocolate, which I understand they sometimes do.

In summary, worth a visit to try their hot chocolate and play some games. If you're pretty interested in chocolate but don't know too much then the tour might be...

As a local and regular of WCF, I would say for me this is a destination - somewhere worth travelling to! Even with the frustrating Wellington street designs and lack of easy parking nearby on some days… Luckily Wellington is a great walking city.

The staff are always friendly, the chocolate is delicious and bean-to-bar, with a good mix of flavours + regular limited edition bars and other creations. There are additional products on offer, aside from their yummy bars, including hot chocolates, boutique ice cream with chocolate on top, local strawberries covered in chocolate (seasonal) and house-made chocolatey baking.

One thing I would ask is whether you’d please consider using whole milk from glass bottles or a milk tap for your drinks? Shelly Bay Bakery ‘round the corner does this - there’s a great local (Horowhenua) producer who’s also organic and delivers. I’d happily pay $0.5-1.0 more for a hot chocolate that used decent milk, not the blue top Fonterra rubbish! Also, my last three hot choccies have been very hot. I’ve got them to takeaway and had to wait at least 15-20 minutes before I could drink them safely - plus it makes the cups hard to carry! Please check this when frothing the milk, could be hazardous for little ones!

Otherwise keep up the great work team - it’s been wonderful to see you busy over the summer. I would definitely say this place is a MUST DO for your visit...

Kids too young for the tour so just went to cafe, although found out they do junior tours during the school holidays so will go back then. So for the cafe: Natural decor and board games, able to see the chocolate being churned in the cafe. I liked the deep grown up flavours of the hot chocolate. One of my seven year old twins not so keen. Just be aware it's not a sugary kiddy-esque hot chocolate. But I sold it to them that this is what real grown up chocolate tastes like. We slo had cookies and the mini donuts - three mini donuts come with a little pot of melted chocolate. I should have bought more, yummy and went too quickly. There are also duck island ice cream treats in there but the weather was cold wet and windy on the day of our visit so we were seeking warm items. Also be aware that aside from hot chocolate it is just filter coffee available. That was fine with me but I did hear a couple near me discussing that, so...