Written by Nikki Solano

Nikki is the CEO of Pura Vida! eh? Inc. (Costa Rica Discounts), and the author of the guidebooks Moon Costa Rica (2019, 2021, 2023, and 2025 editions) and Moon Best of Costa Rica (2022 edition) from Moon Travel Guides. Together with her Costa Rican husband, Ricky, she operates the Costa Rica Travel Blog, created the online community DIY Costa Rica, built the Costa Rica Destination Tool, oversees the brand-new (summer 2023) Costa Rica Travel Shop, and designed the Costa Rica Trip Planning 101 E-Course. Also, Nikki wrote the Costa Rica cover feature for Wanderlust Magazine's sustainability-focused Travel Green List issue, showcased Costa Rica destinations and experiences on Rick Steves' Monday Night Travel show and podcast/radio show, and served as the Costa Rica Destination Editor for Essentialist, a luxury travel brand. Want to show your appreciation for her free article below? Thank Nikki here. ❤️️

Our sister site Pura Vida! eh? Inc. has chocolate tour discounts. Con mucho gusto (you’re welcome) and pura vida!

Chocolate tours in Costa Rica

I have a love-hate relationship with chocolate; as much as I enjoy consuming it, I loathe its astonishingly high sugar content. Fortunately for me (and especially for my pancreas), Costa Rica chocolate tours have taught me that chocolate isn’t naturally sweet, and that it’s possible to ingest chocolate without simultaneously ingesting copious amounts of sugar.

Where to experience chocolate tours in Costa Rica

If you’re a chocolate-lover like me, don’t miss an opportunity to take a chocolate tour during your trip to Costa Rica. Chocolate tours take place in destinations around the country, the most popular ones operating in the Puerto Viejo de Talamanca and Cahuita areas on the Caribbean coast, and in La Fortuna in the northern inland region. Lesser known chocolate tours run in the Jaco, Manuel Antonio, Uvita, Puerto Jimenez, Conchal, Bijagua, Monteverde, and Sarapiqui areas, among others, so no matter where you’re headed, an education in chocolate isn’t out of reach.

One of our favorite off-the-beaten-path chocolate tours in Costa Rica is the Choco Tour Costa Rica, which operates near the community of San Mateo, about an hour’s drive west of San Jose or an hour’s drive north of Jaco. Years ago, we met Alejandro, the owner and operator of the tour, and as an internationally-trained chef, Alejandro is the ideal person to bring you into the world of chocolate. Not only does he know everything about chocolate, but also he has a deep love for the delicacy, a love that’s particularly noticeable through his use of language. His chocolate tour doesn’t just teach people about chocolate, it indulges the senses, he explains. Furthermore, participation in his chocolate tour isn’t merely eye-opening, it’s a full gastronomical immersion, he declares. If you’re in search of someone who loves creating and talking about chocolate as much as you love eating it, Alejandro is your guy.

Choco Tour Costa Rica: Chocolate production from plant to plate

Do you know that chocolate begins as a slimy seed encased in a white, sweet, and fibrous coating, tucked away in a yellow, bumpy, gourd-resembling fruit referred to as a pod? And that, rather shockingly, chocolate in its original state (cacao) is a vibrant shade of purple? If you have no idea what chocolate actually is, where it comes from, and how it’s produced, I bet you’ll find any one of Costa Rica’s chocolate tours completely mind-blowing. What’s more, if you want to learn about chocolate’s indigenous roots, understand how various types of chocolate are formed, and try your hand at making chocolate, the Choco Tour Costa Rica may be the best chocolate tour in Costa Rica for you.

The Choco Tour Costa Rica experience, not unlike most chocolate tours in Costa Rica, takes participants on a step-by-step, hands-on journey through the process of chocolate-making from the plant to the plate. Without giving away every interesting detail and spoiling surprises during the tour, here’s a rundown of what you’ll learn and experience during Alejandro’s Choco Tour Costa Rica chocolate tour:

• What cacao pods look and feel like
• What cacao seeds look, feel, and taste like
• What cacao beans are, what cacao nibs are, and how cacao nibs taste
• How chocolate differs from cacao and what the terms “pure chocolate,” “white chocolate,” “dark chocolate,” “cacao powder,” and “cocoa butter” mean
• Which forms of chocolate are good for our bodies given their antioxidant properties, which forms of chocolate are comprised primarily of sugar, and which forms of chocolate aren’t even chocolate at all (spoiler alert: we’re looking at you, “white chocolate”)
• How chocolate percentages (50%, 70%, 90%, etc.) are calculated and achieved, and what they really mean
• How the food industry at large is responsible for misinformation regarding chocolate
• What chocolate water (i.e., the liquid that cacao seeds soak in prior to fermentation) looks and tastes like
• How to construct your own chocolate bonbon (crafted on-site during the tour) using a variety of add-ins, including sprinkles, pepper flakes, nuts, fruits, and coconut
• The origins of chocolate, including how Spain, a variety of Caribbean nations, and various regions of Costa Rica played unique roles throughout chocolate’s history
• How cacao was processed and consumed many years ago and how cacao tastes when indigenous production methods are used

The best tour souvenir: A mindful approach toward chocolate

In addition to a haul of chocolate bars, our biggest takeaways from participating in the Choco Tour Costa Rica were two life-changing lessons: that cacao nibs are the key to guilt-free chocolate binges (yes, guilt-free chocolate binges are a real thing, hooray!) and how the food industry, for the most part, isn’t being honest with consumers, at least with respect to chocolate. Thanks to this chocolate tour, we’re now much more mindful chocolate consumers, choosing particular types of chocolate over others to consume and electing to look past the marketing ploys that have long sold chocolate to the masses. In its short 90-minute duration, the Choco Tour Costa Rica showed us the good and bad sides of chocolate, and our mind and bodies are forever changed for the better. Won’t you treat yourself to the same?

Map of the Choco Tour Costa Rica

How to incorporate this off-the-beaten-path chocolate tour into your trip

The Choco Tour Costa Rica can be reached via a slight detour off either Highway 1 or Highway 3, two of Costa Rica’s most-traveled highways. (Don’t miss our related blog post Costa Rica Highway Conditions By Route for more information about Costa Rica highways.) If you’ll have a rental car for your trip to Costa Rica, consider slipping the chocolate tour into your travel itinerary on the day you travel any one of these routes:

• From San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport to Monteverde
• From San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport to a destination in Guanacaste (Tamarindo, Flamingo, Coco, Papagayo, etc.)
• From San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport to a destination on the Nicoya Peninsula (Nosara, Samara, Santa Teresa, Montezuma, etc.)
• From San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport to a destination on the central Pacific coast (Jaco, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Uvita, etc.), assuming you intend to reach that destination via Highway 34, not Highway 2
• From Monteverde to San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport
• From a destination in Guanacaste (Tamarindo, Flamingo, Coco, Papagayo, etc.) to San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport
• From a destination on the Nicoya Peninsula (Nosara, Samara, Santa Teresa, Montezuma, etc.) to San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport
• From a destination on the central Pacific coast (Jaco, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Uvita, etc.) to San Jose, Alajuela, or the SJO Airport, assuming you intend to depart from the destination via Highway 34, not Highway 2

QUESTION TO COMMENT ON: Have you participated in the Choco Tour Costa Rica chocolate tour? Will you, too, never view chocolate the same way again?

Pura vida!

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