tcho tour

TCHO Chocolate: Factory Tour and Tasting

Take a guided tour and get a behind the scenes look at how the award-winning chocolate is made from raw ingredients to finished products. You’ll learn loads about the chocolate making process, the responsible sourcing methods, the unique production facility, and walk through the bean-to-bar flavor laboratory.

After the tour, you’ll get to nosh on some of the single-origin dark chocolates, pure milk chocolates, and a featured Flavor of the Day in a guided tasting. At the end of the tasting, the TCHO retail store will be open for business.

The tour includes $10 off an in-store purchase.

Hurry and purchase your ticket today as this will sell out! Tickets are limited and only available to active Chronicle members and their guests.

Monday, Feb. 26

10:20 a.m.: Check-in*

10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.: Factory tour and tasting

*Please arrive at the check-in time, the tour will start promptly at 10:30 a.m. You will be given hairnets, smocks, etc.

TCHO Chocolate

3100 San Pablo Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94702

*You are responsible for your own transportation and any parking fees.

For any questions or inquiries, do not contact the venue, please the email membership team.

All items are non-refundable, all sales are final.

All items are non-refundable under any circumstances.

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TCHO Chocolate Factory Tour

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TCHO Chocolate Factory Tour - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Satisfy your chocolate cravings with a tour of San Francisco’s TCHO New American Chocolate at Pier 17 along the Embarcadero. Knowledgeable chocolate experts will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about TCHO, from chocolate’s history to the TCHO bean sourcing program to how they manufacture everything from scratch right downtown. Both public and private tours run twice daily. Visit the website to learn more—and decide which chocolates you want to sample.

More Recommendations

San francisco’s tcho chocolate factory, tcho is for chocolate lovers.

Have a rainy afternoon to spend in San Francisco? Maybe a friend visiting from out of town, or perhaps you’re a visitor here yourself? If you’re a chocolate lover, there is really just one way for you to spend your time in any/all of the above cases -- tasting + touring at TCHO on the Embarcadero! Tours run daily at 10am and 2pm (reservations recommended) and they are a great introduction to the innovative, modern, and DELICIOUS science behind this up and coming chocolate company AND you’ll get to taste all of their flavor profiles, and even take some chocolate home for later. YUM.

Information on this page, including website, location, and opening hours, is subject to have changed since this page was last published. If you would like to report anything that’s inaccurate, let us know at [email protected].

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Free Chocolate Factory Tours

Ghirardelli may get all the hype from tourists, but there’s some awfully tasty chocolate being crafted a little further down the Embarcadero.

TCHO invites you for daily one-hour tours of their factory for free followed by a guided tasting .

Learn how their chocolate is made, why you should suck (and not chew) on their tasty nibblits, and learn how to wear a beard net… very very important.

TCHO Chocolate Factory Tours – 7 days a week. Tours at 10:30 am and 2 pm on most days – Pier 17 (Embarcadero between Green and Union), San Francisco >>  RSVP for Free Tickets  This TCHO Factory experience includes a presentation and factory tour with a knowledgeable (and hopefully entertaining) tour guides, as well as an in-depth guided tasting of this flavor-driven, artisan chocolate. The tour lasts about an hour long.

Some rules: This is a food production facility so there are some rules. Do not wear open-toed shoes (incl: sandals & flip-flops). Kids under the age of 8 are not allowed (this is not Willy Wonka’s factory). You must put away jewelry, watches, loose objects, cameras and cellphones. You do have to wear the provided hair net, beard guard (that goes for you too, Brian Wilson) and earplugs.

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The TCHO factory tour is rich, chocolatey goodness for bean-to-bar nerds

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Before you even arrive at the TCHO Chocolate factory in southwest Berkeley, you should know there is a somewhat long list of rules and requirements to be able to attend. First, guests must be at least eight years old, and all minors must be accompanied by an adult. Fine and good. There will be no Augustus Gloops getting sucked into tubes here. But the rules go on. There’s a checklist of things you cannot wear: No jewelry. No open-toed shoes. No heels. No fragrances. No nail polish. No excessive makeup (including, specifically, no false eyelashes). No shorts, skirts, capri pants or other bottoms where bare legs are exposed. No facial piercings. And, finally, you will want to avoid serious bodily injuries in advance of this tour, as there will be no entry by those wearing body casts of any kind.

All these rules may make you wonder: is this chocolate factory tour worth the $10 ticket price? Will it even be fun? And most importantly, will we get to eat chocolate? Fortunately, the answer to all of these questions is yes. Still, this is a tour best suited for chocolate nerds, or at the very least, people who like to learn a little while getting behind-the-scenes.

It makes perfect sense that a tour at TCHO (pronounced “Cho”) would be an informative one, being that the company was originally founded by some brainy, technically minded people. A one-time NASA scientist, Timothy Childs, and Karl Bittong, a longtime chocolate industry guy from Germany, started the company in 2005 on Pier 17 in San Francisco. As makers of artisan, single-origin chocolate, their mission was to not only create better tasting and better quality chocolate, but to improve working conditions for cacao farmers and lessen the environmental impact of chocolate sourcing — both problems in the world of Big Chocolate.

In 2014, TCHO outgrew its SF facility and moved to Berkeley, into the Marchant Building at 3100 San Pablo Ave. (just south of Ashby), a space about three times bigger than the Pier 17 facility. One of TCHO’s popular attractions at Pier 17 was its guided tours, but for its first three years in Berkeley, the factory was closed to the public. The company used this time to settle in and focus on wholesale and distribution. It wasn’t until this October that it started giving guided tours again.

TCHO’s factory tour and store manager Catherine Liu is one of 35 employees who works at the Berkeley factory. She is the company’s sole tour guide, giving two 90-minute tours a day.

A large part of the Berkeley tour doesn’t even concentrate on what happens inside the factory. Instead, the focus is across the world, on the farms in the four countries from which TCHO sources cacao, or the beans that become chocolate: Peru, Ecuador, Madagascar and Ghana. Guests learn how cacao is grown and processed, and about TCHO’s sourcing programs.

According to Liu, many traditional cocoa farmers never taste the chocolate made from their beans, so they have little control over, or knowledge of, the final product. To help remedy this, TCHO has built flavor labs at each of the co-ops it works with to introduce farmers to the entire process of chocolate making. It provides training, equipment and technology for growing higher quality beans. Farmers take sensory training classes to expand their knowledge and palates. These classes not only improve the taste of the product, but give farmers the tools to work with other markets and hopefully, get paid a better wage for their product.

The processing of cacao beans — harvesting, fermenting, drying, roasting and then transforming it into a mass called cocoa liquor (made of equal parts cocoa solids and cocoa butter) — all happens at the bean’s country of origin. This means more employment for farmers, and a smaller carbon footprint for TCHO, which only imports the processed cocoa liquor to its factory.

The next part of the tour takes visitors on to the production floor, where the pure cocoa liquor is transformed into chocolate bars. Here, a series of machines melt, mix, grind, store, temper, mold and finally wrap each individual bar. Although the heavenly aroma of chocolate is pervasive throughout the factory, the rich fragrance is strongest in the production room.

Fans of shows like “How It’s Made” will get special pleasure out of the walk-through, although this segment of the tour is fairly short and, depending on what day you go, you may or may not see any chocolate on the production line. This is also the part of the tour where all those strict hygiene rules matter most. Disposable hairnets and lab coats must be worn inside. Phones, purses and other belongings are stored away in lockers before entry.

Finally, after viewing the machines, visitors are led back to the presentation room, where the best part — the tasting — happens.

There’s a method to tasting single-origin chocolate bars, Liu told us. Chocolates should always be sampled in the order of darkest to lightest, otherwise bitterness will overwhelm any subtler flavors. Before you place a piece of chocolate in your mouth, first break it in half; you should hear a good snap. If a single-origin chocolate bar doesn’t make a sound when broken, Liu said, it probably wasn’t tempered correctly, which gives it its strength and glossy appearance. Then, give the chocolate a whiff, appreciating the aroma before finally eating it. Rather than chewing chocolate, let it melt on our tongue, to best detect its notes and flavor profiles.

During our tasting, we tried three single-origin dark chocolates: TCHO’s most popular, a 70% dark chocolate from Ghana with a rich chocolatey profile. It has a little vanilla added, which actually enhances the deep flavor of chocolate. Then, we had a 68% dark chocolate from Peru with a fruity profile. I immediately tasted raisins, but Liu said some detect notes of cherry, raspberry and even orange. This chocolate goes well with red wines. And last, we sampled TCHO’s lightest single origin, a 65% dark chocolate from Ecuador with a nutty, roasted flavor.

Like with wine, a chocolate’s tasting notes are often subjective to the taster, but inclement weather, or other environmental factors, can determine flavor. Liu said that flavor consistency is not easy when producing single-origin chocolate.

“When you’re dealing with nature and the ingredients are not genetically modified, flavors can differ from harvest to harvest,” she said.

Although TCHO’s specialty is single-origin chocolate, it does offer a few other types of blends and flavored bars. It makes two milk chocolate bars made from a blend of chocolate from Ecuador and Peru, one at 53% and another at 39%. (To compare, the average milk chocolate bar is 20% to 25% chocolate.) It also makes eight flavored bars, including its most popular and bestselling Mokaccino, featuring Blue Bottle coffee beans. And it recently started a special Maker’s Series. Every two months TCHO chocolate makers create a new, limited edition bar for this micro-batch series, where they can get a little bolder and weirder with ingredients. I took home the Umami bar, featuring black garlic, seaweed, shiitake and sea salt.

The tour ends with time in the TCHO retail store. The tour costs $10, but guests are given $10 credit to spend here, so, as long as you buy something, you’ve essentially gotten a free tour, a whole lot of chocolate knowledge, and, most probably, a bounty of chocolates for the road, too.

90-minutes factory tours take place two times a day at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at TCHO Chocolate , 3100 San Pablo Ave., Suite 170 (enter on Folger St.). Go to Eventbrite for available dates and to purchase tickets.

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Sarah Han was the editor of Nosh from 2017 to 2021. Previously, she worked as an editor at The Bold Italic, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2020, Sarah won SPJ NorCal's... More by Sarah Han

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Contact Information

• 3100 San Pablo Ave.
• Berkeley, California 94702
• Phone: (844) 877-8246

TCHO Chocolate

Berkeley Bucks Accepted Here!

Welcome to the Berkeley's Chocolate Factory! TCHO is a Berkeley-based, artisan chocolate manufacturer obsessed with creating amazing chocolate, innovating in everything we do, and making a better world by making better chocolates. Designed for foodies and professionals, TCHO's New American Chocolate explores the pure flavors inherent in cacao itself.

Walk-ins are not accepted for TCHO chocolate factory tours, please click here to book a tour .

TCHO: Chocolate Factory Tour & Tasting 3100 San Pablo Ave Berkeley, CA 94702 U.S. Details   Open in Google Maps

TCHO: Chocolate Factory Tour & Tasting

Tour TCHO Chocolate Factory in Berkeley

• May 2, 2023
• by Heather Flett
• No Comments

See how the chocolate is made! For dark chocolate-loving tweens, teens, and adults, the interactive TCHO (Pronounced with a long ‘O’, like Cho ) Chocolate Factory Tour in Berkeley could only be more delightful if there were real Oompa Loompas singing songs. This experience was very close to my personal idea of heaven, but it is not for everyone.

See more of Violet’s experience at the TCHO Factory @theTasteBud >

Take a guided tour and get a behind-the-scenes look at how TCHO’s award-winning chocolate is made from raw ingredients to finished products. You’ll learn loads about TCHO’s chocolate-making process, responsible sourcing methods (TCHO Source), the unique production facility, and walk through the bean-to-bar flavor laboratory.

All components of the tour are guided by a knowledgeable representative of TCHO. Our tour guide told us all about the process and various machines as we walked through the small factory workstations. I got the impression that people further away from her couldn’t hear all her remarks because it was noisy inside. The smell is amazing.

Pro tip: Younger kids who really think “chocolate factory” means Oompa Loompas will be disappointed and fidgety. The TCHO staff invites children as young as eight, but as always, you know best if your kid would be interested in a manufacturing lesson!

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Vince Vasquez (@thetastebud)

Make advance reservations  to  tour the chocolate factory because walk-ins are not welcome. As of this writing, tours are only offered on Wednesday and Thursday; however, that may change over time.

Pricing and logistics:

• Tours are offered most Tuesdays and Thursdays at various times.
• Reservations are required; Book your tour online .
• Admission is $15 for all humans over age 8; parking is free or metered. There is also a paid lot off 67th ($3/hour)
• Visit TCHO online.
• Make sure to note restrictions before you show up, including NO jewelry, close-toed shoes, and long pants. Masks are required at this time. Lockers are available for no additional charge.
• Address: 3100 San Pablo Ave in Berkeley . Plan to arrive 10 minutes ahead of time. From San Pablo Ave., head west onto Folger Ave. and look for a glass door with “3100” on the wall above and “TCHO” on the glass door.

Bottom line:  a ton of fun for chocolate and factory lovers (me times two!). Recommended for ten and up; plan to bring children with the attention span for a chocolate lesson and a curiosity about machines.

Did you have a great time? Let us know in the comments.

[Photos by the 510families team and TCHO as noted]

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• Filed Under: Berkeley , Foodie , Teens , Tweens

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TCHO Plant-Based Chocolate Factory Tour Berkeley, CA

When in Town

I received my very own golden ticket, and was invited to receive a personal tour at TCHO ! TCHO , pronounced “Cho”, is an award-winning and fully plant-based chocolate company located in Berkley, California.

Recognizing environmental impact, TCHO converted to an all plant-based company in 2023. TCHO Chocolate is not only 100% plant-based, but Fair Trade Certified, Certified B-Corporation, Certified Organic, and non-GMO. TCHO , as a B-certified corporation, ensures transparency at every level – from sourcing to practices, and now, this even includes their factory!

Visit the TCHO factory in Berkeley, and see exactly how their chocolate is made! Learn how TCHO ethically sources their cacao beans and all about their Flavor Labs and Source Program around the world, where they partner with cooperatives at the origin. TCHO partners with their cacao farmers and scientists worldwide, offering sensory analysis training, in-house flavor labs, fermentation centers, and even full cacao research buildings. Most cacao farmers have never tasted chocolate, let alone chocolate made from their own beans! In offering these opportunities to the communities that grow and harvest cacao, TCHO really sets itself apart.

My tour was hosted by TCHO’s lovely social media manager Alana, and I had the opportunity to meet some of the factory staff (one of which was from Modesto) and even TCHO’s new CEO Takayuki Date! Before the tour, Alana and I sat down for a short presentation on TCHO’s process from source to the lab, and even the life cycle of the cacao plant- which let me just say, is absolutely magical! Next, we put on our lab coats, face coverings, and TCHO orange hair nets to begin our tour.

I had the opportunity to visit TCHO on the first day of creating their new bite-size squares , so production was a little different than usual. I saw the storage area for all their yummy ingredients, Dark Duo deposited into molds, and Holy Fudge being packaged. I also saw the chocolate being refined, conched, and tempered, but my favorite thing was the modernized version of the I Love Lucy conveyor belt! Seeing each little bite-sized Holy Fudge piece slide by on its way to being packaged was just too fun! Lastly, we saw TCHO variety boxes being packaged, and headed to the flavor lab!

The flavor lab is where partners and farmers can make chocolate bars immediately at the source. In Berkely’s Flavor Lab, we caught TCHO CEO working on some hand-made creations, and I saw the simple tools they use for the process. Things like hairdryers and microwaves, so partners worldwide can easily access the same equipment and create a shared sensory experience.

We ended the tour with a TCHO tasting! We tasted Holy Fudge , Born Fruity , Dark Duo , Oat My Gawd , Toffee Time , and roasted cacao nibs. Alana went over the different flavor profiles of each variety, and I was surprised to find that even after being processed the exact same way, chocolate can taste entirely different, simply depending on the country of origin! Holy Fudge and Born Fruity are made using the same recipe but use cacao sourced from different places, resulting in two different flavor profiles. Wild!

I of course took some chocolate home for a full taste test and review, so stick around for that post coming up!

If you’d like to take your very own TCHO Factory Tour , tickets are available at $15 on their website , and you can even schedule group tours! TCHO is proud to be a California Bay Area company and wants to share their vision and values with us all.

Do you think you’d make it out alive on TCHO’s factory tour? I did!

TCHO Factory Location- 3100 San Pablo Avenue Berkeley, CA 94702 TCHO Tour

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World's Most Decadent Chocolate Tours

Need a unique date idea? Try a chocolate factory tour and tasting.

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Photo by: Christine Rondaeu via Flickr Creative Commons 2.0

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Once upon a time, 2 brothers from Iowa began making chocolate — literally from bean to bar — in their Brooklyn, NY, apartment, perfecting each piece with an artisanal touch and wrapping them with handmade "butcher paper." Within 5 short years, their enterprise, Mast Brothers Chocolate, began receiving copious accolades, including best new American chocolate from Food & Wine magazine.

Today, Mast Brothers has set up headquarters in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, where it offers tours of the factory daily. Visitors are taken on a journey through the entire chocolate-making process, allowing them to watch the creation of unusual varieties such as sea salt and chili pepper. As the tour comes to a close, guests enjoy a tasting of 5 chocolates so they can discover how different beans yield different but mind-bogglingly delicious flavors.

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For nearly 100 years, Perugina has been churning out everyone's favorite Italian chocolate treat, Baci, which translates to "kisses." Double the pleasure of your visit to Perugina 's headquarters in Perugia, Italy, by combining a factory tour with a class at its chocolate school. Each Baci chocolate is wrapped, or hugged, by a little love note, typically a brief quote about the magic of love and affection. Plan a visit to the Casa del Cioccolato ("House of Chocolate"), and begin your tour at the Perugina Museum, where you'll discover the history of the acclaimed chocolate-maker, as well as tokens of the Baci brand over the past century, followed by a chocolate tasting. After the museum, you'll enjoy a tour of the factory, looking into the chocolate workshop and production line. Finally, partake in a class at the Perugina Chocolate School, where you'll learn how to work with chocolate and even create your own treats. Reservations for the popular tours are recommended.

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TCHO Chocolate Factory Tour & Tasting

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Moscow Metro Tour

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Description

Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the walking tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

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TCHO Source

TCHO Source is our unique program for partnering with cacao producers and research institutions worldwide to create a better cacao bean, because better cacao means better chocolate . And we're not just talking about the quality and taste of the cacao beans; we're talking about how they're grown, harvested, roasted, and moved along every point along the supply chain. We care about the people behind cacao, from the farmer to the roaster and all the communities in-between. Through TCHO Source, we establish partners at every step to co-create better cacao for the benefit of the entire chocolate industry.

Better beans, better chocolate

A simple concept but a complex process. When we started out, we discovered quickly that there were many challenges to sourcing great cacao consistently. • Most cacao farmers have never tasted chocolate, even fewer have tasted chocolate made from their own cacao beans. • Most cacao farmers aren’t paid enough to make a decent living, let alone invest in their cacao crops and processes such as new drying beds, fermentation boxes, lab equipment, and more. • The lack of tools, know how, and shortage of price incentives are the main barriers to increasing the quality of cacao. Like we said, complex. So how do we overcome these challenges? The answer is TCHO Source.

TCHO Source Means Chocolate, Fair & Square

TCHO Source provides our farmer and scientist partners with the right tools to make the best cacao in the world. We also make bold infrastructure investments at origin, from flavor labs, fermentation centers, and raised drying beds to entire buildings where cocoa research can occur. And the proof is in the pudding; when we began sourcing cacao, we found only around 20% of the beans were up to our quality standards. Today that number is approximately 80%. TCHO Source is what makes our chocolate special. It's why TCHO is Chocolate. Fair & Square.

Flavor Labs

A highlight of the TCHO Source program is the TCHO Flavor Lab, a mini bean-to-bar chocolate-making lab where farmers can take cacao beans they grow and make chocolate from them on the spot. We then provide sensory analysis training and work with our partners to develop a shared language to communicate and analyze cacao flavor. And when a partner farmer hits our high marks on quality, we pay them a TCHO Quality Premium on top of the fair trade and organic premiums we already pay.

Improved Infrastructure

We make bold infrastructure investments at origin, from fermentation centers and raised drying beds to entire buildings dedicated to cocoa quality research.

Sensory Training

We provide sensory analysis training and work with our producer partners to develop a shared language to communicate about cacao flavor.

Transparency

TCHO cannot be chocolate, fair & square without being transparent.

As a B Corp™ Certified company, our efforts towards meeting the highest social and environmental performance standards are verified by a third party and very public. The fact is TCHO's been an open book for years. We have long let anyone inside our chocolate factory, sharing with them exactly how we ethically source cacao beans and make high-quality chocolate. We share the blueprint for TCHO Flavor Labs and are proud that we built a concept replicated many times worldwide. We also list where we source our cacao, sharing exactly how we trace every bean used to make our chocolate.

Through our TCHO Source program, we partner with cooperatives at origins worldwide to find the flavors that make our chocolate so elevated and original. Each cacao origin has its unique genetics of the cacao plant (fancy people call this varietals). The soil, atmosphere, fermentation, and drying processes are different from origin to origin, all of which highly impact the flavor of the origin's cacao beans. Roasting also has a very high impact on the final taste, as just like in coffee, we have light to dark roasting levels across the board. Read more about how origins affect flavor over at Origin & Flavor. What makes TCHO unique is how we have gone beyond simply purchasing cacao from origins, by partnering with cooperatives and investing in their resources. The key pillar of the TCHO Source program are our Flavor Labs, which allow us to co-create better cacao. And better cacao makes better chocolate.

Chocolate is just beginning its journey to understand how all the steps affect the final experience. TCHO is about bringing a curious mind to the entire process and asking how to make each step even better.

— Brad Kintzer, Chief Chocolate Maker

Bite like you mean it, bake like you give a damn, be in the know on all things TCHO.

Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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Radiators fail once more: Moscow suburbs residents appeal to Putin

R esidents across the Moscow suburbs are besieged by a heating problem, for which they plead direct intervention from President Vladimir Putin. These individuals have yet to experience any semblance of home heating since winter started due to a dwindling supply of heating oil. The issue, one largely avoided by local authority communication, has left residents desperate to the point of directly appealing to the president.

While plots have been uncovered to disrupt Ukraine's infrastructure for a second consecutive winter, thus depriving civilians of heating, it seems Russians are now mired in their crisis. Irony drips from the fact that those under Putin's leadership are looking to cause turmoil in Ukraine, yet at home, they face a similar predicament.

Many dwellings within the Moscow agglomeration are presently without heat. The capital's residents are desperate, directly appealing to President Putin due to a perceived lack of alternate avenues for assistance. The absence of suitable heating functionality since winter commenced pushes them towards desperation with no relief in sight.

This seems improbable, but in Russia, it appears that anything can happen.

It remains uncertain if Vladimir Putin is actively addressing the heating crisis. Some experts suggest that Russia's heating oil reserves are depleting, which negatively affects residents' quality of life. Plagued by cold radiators and plummeting winter temperatures, these citizens have directly addressed their pleas to their head of state.

This heating crisis is happening in Elektrostal, a town approximately 71 miles from Moscow.

Ironically, Russia has constantly aimed to destroy the Ukrainian infrastructure since war broke out, deliberately trying to leave Ukrainians without heating during the harsh winters, aiming to break their strong will. It's an irony they now struggle with a domestic heating crisis, particularly near Moscow, their largest and most pivotal city.

Desperate individuals are reaching out to Vladimir Putin. They question his knowledge of the heating infrastructure conditions in the Moscow suburbs and the dire situations residents face there. Sundown brings no relief from the harsh Russian winter and without heating, their houses turn cold. With elections nearing, more and more residents find themselves reaching out directly to their president.

"Since winter's start, we've been without heating. This has been a yearly occurrence for the past three years. Despite paying for heating, we don't have enough. We implore you, help us!" - these are the desperate pleas from the heavily dressed populace dealing with the Russian winter conditions.

Experts attribute the heating oil shortage to international sanctions and surging demands for diesel fuel, pivotal to military operations. Russia now grapples with a dearth of raw materials essential for boiler and heating plant operation. As supplies dwindle, houses grow cold with little hope of any immediate corrective intervention.

It would be adequate if the war ceased, residents were prioritized, and attention accorded to their welfare.

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