Follow the Chocolate Trail

Follow the chocolate trail, follow the chocolate trail. Toto we're not in Kansas anymore.

In fact, were in Stratford, Ontario where this trail leads you to chocolatey goodness. It is well known, "Come for the chocolate and stay for the plays". Or is it the other way around?

Regardless of your favored order, savour Stratford and take a bite out of the chocolate trail. $20 gets you an all access pass to your choice of scrumptious tastings at 8 stores out of a self guided map of 21. This golden ticket will not only satisfy your sweet tooth but give chocoholics a chance to speak directly with each chocolatier and ask them the age old question- does working with chocolate really take the sweetness out of it?

Choco-locate visited the charming Victorian city to do some hard journalistic research, crunching of numbers and yes, O.K. eat chocolate. We met up with Danielle Brodhagen from the Stratford Tourism Alliance who told us all about the European inspiration behind the Stratford Chocolate Trail. “I was in Italy and stumbled upon the ‘ChocoPass’. After the trip the excursion was something that stayed with me. We knew trails were a new thing in culinary tourism and we wanted to be the first to bring it to Ontario. We were looking at our assets and what we really have to celebrate, which any community should do when they are exploring culinary tourism. And then from there we built the chocolate trail.”

This self-guided tour has a little something on the menu to satisfy just about any sweet tooth. From Chocolate Mocha Sauce, creamy ganache truffles, an Organic Dark Chocolate 70% bar with a touch of Fleur de Sel to a pot of chocolate Mint tea and chocolate and wine pairings. “We really turned it into an opportunity, we highlighted the assets of each store on the map,” explains Danielle. Just do yourself and others a favour- use the full three days on the Chocolate Trail pass to redeem all of your delights. Save the tummy ache, you can thank me later.

The chocolate excursion is not only your ticket to endless seductions of chocolate, but a taste of culinary tourism at its best. Robyn, our faithful chocolate guide for the day and Marketing Assistant for the Stratford Tourism Alliance, explains the enthusiastic response from the community to the Chocolate Trail. “The concept was really easy to adopt. We are about fostering authentic relationships, so the products were already here. We just found a way to connect it using a trail that is more cohesive.”

For more information about the stores involved visit the Choco-locate iPhone app under locations ‘Stratford’ and on the web at http://choco-locate.com/shops/?city=4&keywords=

Or purchase your Chocolate Trail Pass in person at the Stratford Tourism Alliance office.