D.C. Metro Chocolate Tours

Chocolate confections sweeten D.C. tours

The best part about Washington's new chocolate-tasting tour is how much of the city you'll cover: You'll walk enough to feel guilt-free about all the indulgence.

The uptown tour, one of two D.C. Metro Chocolate Tours that began this fall, makes six stops throughout the 14th Street, U Street and Adams Morgan neighborhoods. Along the way, you'll sample chocolate in a variety of forms - including truffles, mousse and cupcakes - and get to know more about the people and the craft behind the sweets.

The tour begins on 14th Street NW at Artfully Chocolate Kingsbury Confections (ACKC), where you can grab a truffle of your choice: Champagne, lavender pistachio, Black Forest and Irish creme are just some of the decadent options. Next comes CakeLove for a sampling of cupcakes, a chocolate mousse cake at Bistro La Bonne, more truffles at Locolat, ice cream with sticky rice at Hana Japanese Market and a variety of confections at Biagio, a chocolate importer.

David Goldstein, who founded the tours in Boston, decided to bring them here when his daughter moved to the District to attend George Washington University. He likes to have guides begin tours by asking everyone in the group their names, where they're from and their favorite kind of chocolate.

"It's a fun thing that connects a lot of people," says Goldstein, who plans to add two tours and open a chocolate school in Washington this spring. "It's a great way to bring people together."

-- Kristen Boghosian (January 6, 2011)

Who's it for? Says Goldstein, "women and the men they bring with them."

What to know before you go: Come ready with questions about chocolate, as you'll meet several experts on the subject happy to answer them. Go on the second Saturday of each month, and you'll get a bonus wine-tasting and sampling when the tour stops at Biagio.