A little while ago I took a day trip to Almonte, Ontario, a town just outside of Ottawa. You can read my full guide to this charming little town here! One of the reasons I wanted to visit was to go to Hummingbird Chocolate, a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. Hummingbird Chocolate is sold around stores in Ottawa but I knew they had more to offer at their store and factory in Almonte. One of the great things is that they offer tours every Saturday at 10:30am. It’s $5 and then you get 10% anything you buy in store after the tour. But you should reserve online in advance because only 12 people are allowed on the tour and it only runs once a week. Find all the info here. Now for some more info, a review and photos!

I’m not going to spoil anything from the tour except to say that it was really interesting! We got to try some very interesting things including roasted cacao beans and some chocolate that was in the process of being made. Going on the tour really gave me an appreciation for the work that goes into making chocolate and how specific it all is, really like an art form. Our tour guide was one of the chocolate makers and she was very knowledgeable, friendly and engaging. Below are some photos from our tour.

The cacao beans in bags shipped directly from farmers around the world and nibs sorted into containers.

Roasted cacao beans, one with the “skin” still on and the other that I got to taste.

Cacao beans

The chocolate being made, we got to taste this 100% dark chocolate as well as some milk chocolate.

The chocolate packages up to age a bit.

The chocolate being heated so that it can be turned into a beautiful bar rather than what you see on the left.

All packaged up in the store and ready to be eaten.

If you’re ever in Almonte I highly recommend visiting Hummingbird Chocolate and going on the tour, or even make a day trip out of it like we did!