Chocxo Bean To Bar Chocolatier

Great place! The tour is educational and you get to taste the cacao at different stages of the process. But by far the most «worth it» part of the tour is when you get to taste the liquid chocolate, get your goodie bag (6 little squares of different types) and get 3 free chocolates to taste from the display!
My group actually got 4 each because we got to taste the extra eggnog one since it was end of season.
I purchased some chocolates for my mother because I know she will love them.
Overall I had a great time. Definitely recommend if you are thinking of special activities to do that are out of the ordinary!

I booked a chocolate tour for my alumni group and we had an amazing time! For $ 40/​person, we all got a private tour and did a chocolate bark making activity. The tour of their bean to bar chocolate process which was super informative and the best part was that we got to do a tasting in the tour and at the end we got to pick 3 chocolates/​truffles from their chocolate bar. After our tour, we got to go into the back and made our own chocolate bark which was pretty much putting toppings on some liquid chocolate, letting it chill in the freezer and then breaking it into bark. We got to take a pound of it home and it came with very pretty packaging. I loved how they let us bring food and wine in and decorate the facility. The staff was extremely accommodating. Definitely recommend this for groups!

Delicious chocolates and great customer service! Can’t wait to try the cacao coffee bar in Costa Mesa!

Editing my entire review, because I wrote the review for the Costa Mesa location here.
My boyfriend and I came here for the chocolate factory tour for $ 14 ea on a Saturday afternoon. It was a group of about 15 of us, and the store itself wasn’t busy at all.
***warning, spoilers about the tour below*** (if you care)
They had us put on these protective coats just for show. I know it was just for show because our tour guide never wore one… And we all went into the factory together lol. Like ok was this necessary? But anyway. The first part of the tour is just basic knowledge of how the cacao bean is picked, dried, roasted, shipped, and then melted etc. I was worried that was going to be it, and I would’ve got upset bc that was NOT worth my money. But then we actually got to go in and see the factory. Nothing was on obviously, but we just got to see the machines and they were briefly described. At the end of the tour each person receives a goody bag with some chocolate squares. You also get to sit at the bar and sample any 3 chocolates. That was by far the best part and what you’re really paying for.
Their chocolates are beautifully decorated, and they were each so good. The most interesting one was the spicy peanut butter. I know sounds weird. But it was surprisingly good! The others were pretty basic chocolates, vanilla flavored, salted caramel, etc. all yummy though!
Overall, a cool experience. It was a cute little date for my boyfriend and I. I’d recommend if you’re looking for something to do that’s out of the ordinary.

This place has the best chocolates but THE WORST staff!!! I just don’t understand people what is the attitude for…

Want to get buzzed on chocolate? ChocXO has the chocolate buzz everywhere: their people, their factory tour, and of course, their chocolate.
Sasha was our tour guide. She was more than a guide, almost as if she had reached into the dark, complex, heart of the Cocoa God and escaped with its secrets. She surprised and explained, letting our group taste raw cocoa fruit pulp (very fruity and citrusy), crush roasted cocoa beans, eat cocoa nibs, and finally sample hot, dark, chocolate ready to be molded. The demonstrations and tastings led to a tour of the factory. Huge roasters, tiny grinders, stainless plumbing, sifters and more. None really match, and some of the equipment is not even meant to process cocoa (ask why the roaster is red…). Mismatched, maybe, but each machine is chosen for its ability to make a European quality chcolate, explained Sasha. A grinder intended to crush chemicals makes a smoother cocoa and sugar mixture, leading to silky smooth melting chocolate.
Please remember that their Irvine facillity is a chocolate factory, not a candy factory. That means ChocXO’s pure chocolate is made here, then send to other artisans to be made into truffles and molded into bars. At the end of our tour, we were given gift bags of pure chocolate samplers, and then treated to a sampling of truffles. All were excellent. Be sure to sample their unique truffle flavors, among which are apple jack brandy and peanut butter, jelly, with chile (Great!). Their store sold all that we tasted and more. There are one-​of-​a-​kind gifts here that are impossible to get at any other chocolatier: A Mason jar freshly filled with hot, flowing, 70% Peruvian and Dominican chocolate, for example.

I am definitely a fan! I’d been wanting to visit the Chocxo’s chocolate factory for awhile, and today they celebrated their 1^st Anniversary and were having some festivities from 12p — 2p. I missed Santa’s visit, but was able to still get some free hot chocolate with whipped cream and it was delicious!
There is plenty of parking, the store is a lot smaller than I thought it would be for a chocolate factory. There weren’t a lot of people there when I visited, I didn’t get to do the tour, but I’ve been to an actual cocoa co-​operative, and am well aware of the how cacao pods are harvested. Seeing the process sectionalized on the one of the inside walls, brought back so many good memories of my trip to the Dominican Republic to learn more about the process. I just had an overwhelming sense of joy and peace.
There were samples of their chocolates and holiday chocolates, free hot chocolate and little goody bags of a variety of chocolate squares. The two ladies who were there serving the customers were really nice, pleasant, helpful and friendly. It was definitely a pleasant experience.
If you don’t know the process of chocolate from harvesting to the actual bar, I highly recommend this factory, it’s also an awesome opportunity to learn about fair trade and why it’s so important to buy fair trade, ethically sourced/​made products. It’s a fun excursion.

We came here for a tour. The kids enjoy it. Very informative. We enjoy the samples and goodie bags. I also recommend their hot chocolate mix they have. Overall very satisfied with the quality of service and their quality of product.

Love this awesome factory location for chocolate lovers. Great flavors amazing great energy. Super fun learning how real chocolate is made.

I always love watching «How It’s Made» and other factory types of shows. Though it was over 20 years ago, I have fond memories touring the Coors factory in Golden, CO as well as Celestial Seasonings and the Denver Mint. I also remember being able to «tour» the taco bell sauce packaging company one day as a helper. Now that I am a «grown up», I have wanted to find places like that locally where I can see how things are made, so I was really excited when my sister invited me to go with her and my two nieces!
After receiving our aprons, our tour guide (Sasha, IIRC) had us meet at tour stop number 1 where we saw a replica of the cacao tree and learned about the history of chocolate. She did a great job going over all of the information for each of the stops and answering any questions that we had. During each of the stops we were able to taste «chocolate» in each of the different stages from the pulp of the cacao pod to the cacao nibs to chocolate liqueur to a finished product. I
I am actually not a real big fan of chocolate. I don’t crave chocolate nor do I feel much value in buying candy bars. However, I must say that this tour and many of the chocolates are definitely worth it!
All of the staff members that we met were very friendly. The factory is kept clean, the staff members are professional yet down to earth and make you feel like family when you ask rather off the wall outside the tour types of questions, haha.
Also, CAUTION! Be careful drinking/​tasting their single origin dark chocolate from the wall and comparing it to the «blend» You may never want to eat any chocolate other than «single origin» again.
TL;DR
It’s worth the money (coming from a pretty frugal person who doesn’t really care for sweets)
Great experience — good for all ages (6 and up)
You get a little goody bag of chocolates and three samples from their bar! (the coconut ginger thing was delicious — gave the others to my wife)
The OCD inside of me was quite pleased seeing the attention to detail in the chocolate and the presentation.

Where do I begin to express how much I love this place? For $ 7 you can do a nice little tour where they explain their chocolate making process. Then you get to taste two yummy types of chocolate and get a lovely little goodie bag of yummy chocolate pieces. The tours are at 4pm usually but on the weekends they have 11am ones too I think. You can usually sign up once you get to the location, but it’s a little easier to do make your reservation ahead of time just in case they get full or a lot of walk-​ins show up.
Their chocolate really is like no other. Sees, Hersheys, Godiva… forget all of those. This is the real deal. The chocolate bar has all kinds of fun truffles too like Maple Whiskey, Birthday Cake White Chocolate and it’s all good. Rich, creamy, indulgent… the list of adjectives could go on and on. With all that considered, their prices are totally reasonable and they even have cute coffee/​tea tumblers with their name on it for only $ 4.95. Just an awesome, unique thing to do on a weekend in the OC. It’s a little hard to find because it’s back in a non-​descript industrial area where all the buildings look the same but it’s basically off of Tesla and Irvine Ctr Drive so once you get to that intersection, you’ll turn right on Tesla if you’re coming from the South and left if you’re coming from the North and it’s right there on the corner (you can see their name on the side of the building). There’s plenty of parking too.
I’ll definitely be back for the holiday season to get some holiday gifts and peppermint bark!

What a great idea… a chocolate factory tour!
Located in an industrial area of Irvine, this store is open from 10 – 6, Tuesday through Saturday, for chocolate sales. They also have tours by reservation only which can be arranged online. We checked their website and purchased tickets for their factory tour. When we walked through the door we were surprised to see Unilocaler Kelley U. sitting there waiting to take part in the same tour.
Our tour had 20 people in it which were a few too many but I think someone showed up with several more people than they had made reservations for and were accommodated rather than being turned away. A smaller number would have been a more comfortable fit.
We all learned the process of chocolate making in great detail. Sasha, our guide, was a wealth of perky chocolate knowledge. She was very energetic and entertaining. During the educational presentation we tasted cocao beans, cocoa nibs and a couple types of liquid chocolate. After putting on a lab coat and hair net you also get to walk amongst the machinery that transform the beans into delicious chocolate.
At the end of the tour you receive some complimentary chocolates. Every chocolate I tried was incredibly delicious. Curious about some of the other offerings, I also purchased three chocolate bars before we left; they were pricey but top quality.
I would definitely recommend this as a fun and different experience especially if you are someone who likes chocolate.

Who would know that there is a bean to bar chocolate factory in Irvine?! I have been to Chocxo Coffee and Cacao in Lake Forest to purchase coffee and chocolate and was told of the chocolate factory in Irvine where you can take a tour. One of my friends had recently taken the tour with her kids and recommended it to me, also. I was surprised and delighted to see my Unilocal bud, Timmy S and his wife and friend walk in the store/​factory as they were booked on the same tour as us.
I took my chocolate-​loving friend, Robyn, as a belated birthday present to the full factory tour. We were gasping in awe at the beautiful chocolate bar situated in the middle of the retail store.
This is where the confectionery chocolates are beautifully displayed for purchase.
There is also their chocolate in bar form available for sale.

There are two types of tours available, a full factory tour that is one hour and a 20 minute chocolate education tour. Tours are only offered on certain days of the month, so check out schedule online at
where you can also book. I would highly recommended paying the extra money for the full factory tour. The price is $ 20 for adults with a reduction in ticket price to $ 17 each if you book for four or more people. Children under 12 are $ 10 and for safety regulations, they do not allow children under 6 into the actual factory area. The full factory tour includes guided tour with shots of liquid chocolate :), a chocolate goodie bag and then choice of three chocolate confectioneries from their chocolate bar. I chose coffee toffee chocolate bark, Grand Marnier truffle and Bananas Foster as my three confectionery choices.
were so good with Bananas Foster being my favorite. I was moaning eating that one as I love chocolate and bananas together, so yummy!
For the factory part of the tour you are required to hire a hair net and protective jacket to enter the factory part of the tour. Robyn was very thrilled about the hair net part and took several selfies of us ;)
You are educated from the whole process of bean to bar. They give you a sample of a cocoa nib to sample which is literally 80% cacao.
Sasha, our tour guide, was fabulous.
We learned so much from her and she made the tour very interesting and entertaining. To see the machines up close that process the cacao from bean to chocolate was very interesting.

The city of Irvine holds a lot of great food finds, this one being a very unique one. I will be back to the chocolate bar for more goodies soon!

We just got back from a wonderful tour of Chocxo in Irvine today, and I felt compelled to rush over to my computer to write my review. Thursday @ 4pm during the summer when the kids are on vacation — I expected there to be a lot of people on the tour, but there wasn’t. There were 7 of us on the tour, and 5 of those people belonged to my group. So where was everyone else? You guys are all missing out if you haven’t already gone in to check out this awesome and very educational chocolate tour.
We booked our 20-​minute educational tour the day before using the online system on their website. It cost us $ 7 per person regardless of age. Well worth the money and time! The woman who was our guide (I wish I got her name…) was absolutely amazing and undeniably very knowledgeable. You can definitely tell she loved her job and was enjoying all the questions (and, boy, did we have a lot!) we had for her. She answered all our questions with great enthusiasm. The tour was supposed to be 20 mins, but definitely went over and wasn’t rushed. It was such a positive experience, we all learned so much and felt so welcomed.
Their hand-​crafted chocolates are beautiful. The liquid chocolate that you get to sample at the end of the tour in tiny paper cups are delicious. Our kids kept going back for more chocolate samples, while we bought some lovely chocolate truffles. I can’t wait to try the chocolate shop in Foothill Ranch. They don’t sell their chocolate drinks at this Irvine factory location. You have to go to one of their shops, since the Irvine location is their HQ.
The place is a bit tricky to find, and my GPS sent me to Scientific and Irvine Center Drive when we really should have turned onto Tesla from Irvine Center Drive.
Try it! What a terrific field trip for the kids… Awesome experience, clean factory, top-​notch and knowledgeable staff… 5-​stars! :)

I have purchased individual chocolates here and gone on the factory tour. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable.
The factory tour is really cool, I would definitely recommend it if you love chocolate!

Okay so this is the only chocolate factory in Orange County that offers tours. Started by a long time chocolatier this place is an excellent place to spend an afternoon. The tour can be booked on their web site and costs $ 20. Here is what you get.
A walk through the process of making chocolate from harvesting the cacao tree to the finished product. At each step the chocolate maker explains e process and you get to sample each part of the process.
First, when the seed is harvested there is a pulp that is very sweet that surrounds the bean inside the fruit. You get to taste the pulp.
Then the beans are dried, roasted and crushed and you get to taste that.
Then the crushed bean is mixed with some sweetener and you get to taste that.
You get to see the processing machines too and it’s a great, quick and fun tour.
Finally, you get to my favorite part. You take a small cup and place it under a spout coming out of the wall, push a button and a small plop of liquid chocolate pours out. And you can do this as often as you want or need to.
You also get to pick three truffles to taste and a goodie bag with more chocolate is given. They have lots of other types of chocolates so please try the bark.

The Willy Wonka series of movies are one of my favorite of all time so I was delighted to learn that there was an actual chocolate factory right near by and that I could take a tour of it without having to hunt around for a golden ticket! Woohoo!
Chocxo is the real deal. They take the chocolate bean and turn it into chocolate and then make lots of wonderful things like hot chocolate, coffee, chocolate candies. you name it and it’s all wonderful and fresh because it’s straight from the source. You can taste the quality and finesse in each bite.
Behind the scenes, you can see how it’s all made and even get a chance to make your own chocolate. My favorite, aside from all the wonderful chocolate, was the rich and decadent hot chocolate. I’ve never had hot chocolate that was so wonderful and amazing. I was completely blown away.
If you love chocolate as much as I do, or you’re just curious how it all works, definitely check it out.

Not to sound snobby, but I don’t consider milk chocolate to be real chocolate since the first ingredient is sugar, I consider it be candy. Unfortunately, this is most of what is offered for sale. My overall opinion is, it was fun to visit once, but I don’t think I’d go back very often. It seems more like a tourist attraction than a real chocolate factory.
Very nice facility, however, there is not much to see if you take the self guided tour. Just looks like a bunch of machines behind a glass window, I couldn’t tell if any of them were on. Though, the chocolate shots at the end of the tour were delicious for sure.
The folks working there were very nice, they were very generous with the samples of bark and willing to chat & make recommendations.
I ended up getting a few pieces of chocolate (cherry truffle, salted caramel), a bar of 70% dark chocolate and a dark chocolate covered Oreo. It was just OK, I hated the Cherry Truffle, it tasted like cough syrup. The bark samples were pretty good, the chocolate covering the Oreo was oxidized, but they replaced it immediately when I showed it to them (the replacements were unfortunately oxidized as well), the caramels were good. We haven’t eaten the chocolate bar yet but I don’t expect it to be better than my favorite dark chocolate bar of all time (Alter Eco Blackout).
Overall I was disappointed that they only offered a 70% dark and a milk chocolate. I was also disappointed that both had soy lecithin as an ingredient. There are many chocolate products out there that use no stabilizers…
As it stands currently, there wasn’t much there to tempt me back on a regular basis. In comparison to the TCHO factory in SF, this place doesn’t seem as serious/​authentic, not to mention the chocolates (taste, mouth feel and variety) need work.

Must Order: Milk Chocolate Peanuts & Pretzel bark, Crispy Praline truffle, Salted Caramel truffle, chocolate covered Oreo, and well just about everything
I’ve been talking up this place to my sister in law and when we finally found a day we could go, we all came straight over after our massive sushi lunch. When we drove up it seemed closed but as my husband turned the corner, Sasha (?) was enthusiastically waving him in.
When I first walked in, I was jumping with joy with the beautiful counter display and viewing area of their chocolate making process. Since we were the only ones there, we got very special attention and practically a private tour!
We loved learning about the chocolate process which is a lot like coffee. Then we drooled over the display and selected a few to purchase with samples of their bark. Because of the samples I’m now addicted to their peanut & pretzel bark.
Because of various regulations this location unfortunately did not have their coffee and cocoa bar but may consider offering events like a Valentine’s Day bark making party with BYOB.
It also seems like a great place for a ladies get together. I’m looking forward to coming back soon!

Who knew that the footsteps to (chocolate) heaven will be tucked away in Irvine? It’s a sensory delight: from the rich smell of cocoa that wafts the store, to the tasting machine where you can do shots of chocolate that comes out of a spigot, freshly made. It’s pretty cool. Technically you can stick your mouth under and chug, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Also I’m 99.9% sure Chocxo would not allow that.
They have self guided tours where you can walk-​though and view the process from when the farm the cocoa beans, to when the chocolate is made. While this tour is behind glass, they do also offer guided tours at 2pm where, for a fee, you can venture into the factory and see and taste each «step». I believe it is $ 20 per person, with a discount of $ 3 if you come in a group of four.
The cool thing about Chocxo is that everything is organic and sustainable, which is always a nice bonus. They have liquor-​infused truffles, chocolate bark (my favorite), chocolate covered Oreos, and many more. For the dark chocolate fan, you will be pleased to see that they have many different options with 70% cocoa, and for those who aren’t, there are many milk chocolate options as well. The milk chocolate cinnamon bun is amazing!
Anyway, this is a very interesting place to check out. I’m not sure how crowded it could get, but I went during a lunch hour on a weekday, so it was pretty quiet and my co-​workers and I received some pretty personalized attention from the girls there. Sasha you are so helpful! Thanks for making our visit awesome!