Chocolate is amazing for a lot of things, from relieving stress, helping make sex better, and most importantly, apologizing to your loved one when you really screw up. However, even if you don’t have a significant other, you can spend several days eating decadent chocolate in Las Vegas, and still want more and more. Good news is that there are plenty of chocolate adventures in Las Vegas to get into, and lots and lots of chocolate to eat. Here are a few decadent stops in Las Vegas that will make you have the best chocolate and sugar coma ever.
HEXX Chocolate Tasting Tour at Paris Las Vegas
3655 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109
In the most decadent tour of Las Vegas, find how chocolate is made and try several tantalizing tastes of different types of chocolate. Free Tours start at 11am and 1pm daily on their website. Chef Matthew Piekarski has made chocolate unique. “As a chocolate maker, we purchase cacao beans directly from farmers, which we then sort, roast, and grind here in our exhibition kitchen to make chocolate. Our chocolates consist of solely two ingredients: cacao nibs and organic coconut palm sugar. They are high quality, healthy, and pure.” Al Mancini wrote that “Hexx offers five varieties of chocolate. Each features beans from a different country: Peru, Tanzania, Venezuela, Ecuador and Madagascar. They contain between 70 and 74 percent cacao, the dried beans of the cocoa tree. (By way of comparison, commercial milk chocolate can contain as little as 15 percent cacao, while commercial dark chocolate will generally range from 45 to 60 percent.) As a result, Hexx’s chocolates aren’t as sweet as a commercial candy bar. But tasting them side-by-side is as palate-wowing as sampling a selection of fine wines. One may contain hints of plums, peaches, vanilla and caramel, while the next offers up almonds, sweet marzipan and florals. And the texture of each is slightly different. It’s easy to be skeptical before you’ve tried them, and you may not get every flavor the chefs find, but the difference from one to another is nothing short of astounding.”
Jinju Chocolate
707 Fremont St #2280, Las Vegas, NV 89101
Michael Uzmann described Jinju best as “Every bit artisan with well selected beans forming the base of inspired bars, bob-bons, truffles, and confections crafted by a team of eight in an offsite professional kitchen. The JinJu storefront on the second floor of The Container Park is the chef’s first true brick n’ mortar and although many have seen her work over the last three years featured at various hotels, including The Venetian, the full collection in such a cozy space is truly something to behold. “JinJu Chocolates was founded by Jin Caldwell. Caldwell honed her skills as a Master Chocolatier and an award-winning pastry chef under the guidance of some of the world’s top pastry chefs in Las Vegas. Jin became a chocolatier for Ethel’s chocolates where, for six years, she provided product innovation direction for Mar’s Chocolate Inc. Las Vegas Magazine wrote that “Jin Caldwell is one of a handful of chocolatiers with access to the Nacional cocoa bean from the Marañon Canyon in Peru. The rare Fortunato No. 4 was only recently rediscovered. The beans are slow-roasted, preserving the natural fruity, floral, and nutty favors. Caldwell crafts small chocolate disks, mixing them with favors like honey and raspberry, but the pure Fortunato No. 4 bar allows the famous bean to shine.”
Jean Marie Auboine Chocolatier
4780 W Harmon Ave #1, Las Vegas, NV 89103
The real difference, says Auboine, is that they make virtually everything in house–even the marzipan from almonds, the candied orange and grapefruit peels (a ten-day process), the Tonka bean and hazelnut ganache–and from natural, pure, even organic ingredients when available. “And we cut everything by hand. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a different quality.” Almost the only thing they don’t do is make the actual chocolate from the cacao beans, and that, says J-M, is on the horizon. Caramel, fudge, ganache, marshmallow, gummies, licorice, coated nuts … Auboine’s team will make them all here, to go and to order. “The idea is, give the customer what they want,” says Auboine, “but artisanal, all natural flavorings, organic, no preservatives.” Auboine told French Quarter Magazine in an interview about his passion: ” I think passionate, hard worker because chocolate and pastry is my passion, and hard worker because we have to work hard in this business. It’s a lot of hours, especially at the end of the year like that for example, where we have a large amount of confections and product to prepare and we have to be a hard worker and because it is my passion I don’t count on that. It is not a problem.”
Hersey’s Chocolate World
3790 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109
While some people might not consider this “real chocolate” it’s still enough sweet delicious sugar fun. The 13,000 square foot, two-story shopping destination is home to an 11-foot, 800-lb. Statue of Liberty replica hand carved from Hershey’s Milk Chocolate and the Empire State Building comprised of 1,800 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars, as well as dispensaries where shoppers can choose their favorite Hershey’s Kisses and Jolly Rancher flavors. Once inside, guests can take selfies in front of two good-enough-to-eat versions of New York City icons. A sculpture of the Statue of Liberty was carved from nearly 800 pounds of milk chocolate; a fanciful Empire State Building was erected using 1,800 chocolate bars.
Ethel M Chocolates
2 Cactus Garden Dr Henderson, NV 89014
Founded in 1981, Ethel M Chocolates is Southern Nevada’s very own gourmet chocolatier and has called Henderson home for 30 years. The attraction offers free, self-guided factory tours from 8:30am-6pm, showing every step of candy-m aking in the chocolate factory. Guests may enjoy free chocolate samples at the conclusion of the tour. The company’s founder and creator of M&M’s and Mars bars, Forrest Mars Sr., retired from the family’s business, Mars Incorporated, and created Ethel M Chocolates as a tribute to his mother and chocolate-making heritage. LVRJ Wrote of Ethel M. Chocolates that “Over the years, Ethel M has become part of the flavor of Southern Nevada. It has retail stores throughout the valley, including four at McCarran International Airport; out-of-state tour buses frequently visit the factory; and the annual lights show on its three-acre cactus garden has become a holiday tradition for many…It’s unclear why Mars chose to settle here. Some speculate it’s because Nevada’s lax regulations allowed him to sell the liqueur-filled chocolates, which were illegal in other states. Gudgel said Mars was a savvy businessman, and knew he could make the chocolate factory a destination to capitalize on Las Vegas’ tourism industry. ”
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