The Butlers Chocolate Factory visitor experience reopened this summer and we headed along to see what it was like.
Incorporating history and of course, plenty of chocolate themed fun, the tour is an enjoyable one for all the family with an experience at the end that the kids will adore. The Butlers Chocolate Factory is located in Clonshaugh Business & Technology Park with plenty of parking available for visitors right outside.
When you first walk into the reception area, you'll have to check in and then, you will receive a white coat and hair net, transforming you into a factory worker for the 90 minute experience.
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Once everyone is checked in, it's time to head into a small movie room for a ten minute film presentation on all things chocolate. You'll learn about the discovery of this delicious treat which is traced all the way back to the Aztecs and the Mayans, its significance throughout the centuries and then how Butlers came to be.
This part is definitely more interesting for the adults, particularly history buffs as it offers a brief look at the Dublin of yesterday in the context of Butlers Chocolate.
After that, the enthusiastic tour guides give you a chocolate passport to fill out as you head into an exhibition room filled with interactive screens, facts, stories and even artefacts. After ample time to gawk at everything in there, a tour guide will then take you to where the magic happens, or at least above it.
As you walk out to a glass corridor over the factory floor, you get to see the production of the chocolate in action, from mixing wheels all the way to boxing, as well as the workers who will probably give you a friendly wave from below.
There, your guide will explain everything you're seeing, showing off the factory's impressively expensive machinery and what each section and worker is doing. Pictures and videos of this area are strictly forbidden, so we'll have to leave the working factory part of the tour to your imagination, but what comes next is very picture friendly.
We were then brought into an experience room where a bubbly young demonstrator was ready to take us through how Butlers makes some of its most popular products including hollow chocolate gifts.
This is the part the kids are really going to love, especially the ones who are lucky enough to be called up by the demonstrator to help put together a chocolate creation.
After that, everyone in the room got the chance to decorate their own chocolate elephant with a bowl of melted white chocolate and a small paint brunch. You're given about 20 or 30 minutes to complete this and once you're done, you can wrap up your creation and take it home with you.
After the tour, there is the opportunity to pick up one of Butlers' famous hot chocolates or delicious coffees in the onsite Butlers Chocolate Cafe.
Tours run from Tuesday until Friday every week at 10am and 1pm as well as Saturday at 12pm and 2.30pm. Both adults and kids tickets cost €16.95 and family tickets (of two adults and two children) can be bought for €58. Meanwhile seniors go for €15.25.
While the factory gives an interesting insight into the world of chocolate for adults, the tour is best enjoyed with kids as the fantastically energetic guides make the experience rather thrilling for the little ones.
The tour and experience can be booked at butlerschocolates.com.
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