Let's Start From The Beginning

On our first day in St. Augustine, we did the one thing my son wanted to do more than anything else.  We went on a tour of a local chocolate factory.  The Whetstone Chocolate Factory actually started as an ice cream shop.  The owners, Henry and Esther Whetstone, made their own ice cream and had a shop on historic St. George's Street.  Mrs. Whetstone came up with a fudge recipe that became extremely popular, and from there they moved on to make quality chocolates.  We got to see and experience the production first hand.

You can't have a chocolate factory without Lucy ;-).  She was the fun start of our tour.

Our tour guide was Josh.  He explained all the intricacies of chocolates, the difference between white, milk and dark chocolates, and gave us all samples to try.  We were in chocolate heaven!

We were taken inside the factory to see the chocolates as they were poured in molds and later wrapped.  Whetstones was a very large facility at one time, making chocolates for Nestle's, Hershey's and M&M Mars.  Today they are a small factory, producing chocolates for their stores in St. Augustine and for mail order.

We got to try the Mint Crunch shells as they came off the line.  Oh My Word! They are divine!

Not only did we purchase chocolates after the tour, we went back before leaving St. Augustine to buy some more!  I'm savoring a piece per day so it'll last; I'm sure once I'm done I'll have to order some more.  My son E surprised me by buying the darkest chocolate they sell - 72% dark!  It's too bitter for me but he loves it.  Both my boys prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate.  Their sister, on the other hand, bought a bag of white chocolate, which her brothers say isn't real chocolate (it is; it has 0% cocoa powder but it's made with cocoa butter so it's still chocolate).  As for me, I'm happy as long as it has the word "chocolate" in it!

Tickets for this tour, which lasts a little over an hour, are $8 for adults and $5.50 for kids ages 5-17, so we were able to get a discounted ticket for my 13 year old son.  We also received a $2 off coupon for our purchase of chocolates, which we gladly used.

This was a sweet way to kick off our tour of St. Augustine, but much more was in store!  Stay tuned!