Tour of Chicago chocolate shops satisfies anyone's sweet tooth

When you were a kid, did you ever dream of taking a tour of Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory? Well, you can now turn that dream, at least the chocolate part, into a reality by taking a Chicago Chocolate Tour.

While there aren't any oompa loompas or gobstoppers, there are tasty samples from some of the top chocolate shops in Chicago.

Our chocolate tour through the Loop started off with everyone getting a piece of chocolate and a taste of cocoa beans at the historic Bank of America building. We spent some time getting to know everyone and the tour guides before heading off to our next destination.

Leonidas, the most traditional stop on the list, is the Belgian chocolate shop where we were offered a whisky truffle and a lingot lait, a vanilla bean filled candy that tasted a lot like a spoon of creme brulee wrapped in chocolate.

Besides stimulating your tongue, the tour includes a little brain candy. Our guides shared the history of the Belgian praline (which a noble's pastry chef made accidentally and served because he didn't have time to craft anything else) along with the history of the bank building and its economy-themed murals.

Chicago Chocolate Tours was founded by Valerie Beck, a graduate of Harvard Law. Beck worked as a lawyer in Europe and regularly traveled to satisfy her own sweet tooth. Eventually she decided to try turning her passion into a career, moving back to her native Chicago and starting up the tours in 2005.

Since then, the enterprise has grown to include eight tour guides who lead around private and regularly scheduled groups. Tours average about 10 to 15 people, but they've served 45 lawyers and a pack of 60 fourth graders, just adding on guides to account for the numbers.

There are three different tour options available, pairing chocolate with different themes. The most popular is also the original route, which takes visitors through the Gold Coast to visit chocolate shops while passing tourist sites, including the Old Chicago Water Tower and John Hancock building. A trip through Andersonville focuses on local independent and women-owned shops, while the newest tour travels through the Loop giving you chocolate with a taste of architecture.

When Chicago Chocolate Tours started to grow beyond just trips around the city Valerie Beck led for friends and colleagues, the tour founder decided to make a sign so people could find the group at the beginning or if they got lost in the city crowds.

But when I took the trip through the Loop, I discovered the sign also had the effect of eliciting envious stares and chatter wherever we went. It's that near universal love of chocolate and the incredible variety of sweets destinations in Chicago that have made Beck's trips such a hit.

Beck's unscientific method of picking destinations involves going wherever she likes the chocolate and the people are nice. The result is a mix that goes well beyond the standard truffle shop to explore the different ways chocolate is used. We sipped chocolate coffee paired with brownies at Argo Tea and gawked at the "wall of chocolate" at Bretzels, an organic cafe that also sells 227 bars of chocolate from around the world.

Managers and owners at the stops have free rein to pick out what pieces to share with their visitors, and the Bretzels manager, James, was enthusiastically cracking open bars to fit the tastes of our group, offering up chocolate with chili to a fan of sweets with a kick, dark chocolate with mint and a bar with macadamia nuts and lime for a citrus twist. The customization produced a lot of blissful faces. He also pointed out some of the odder items in his collection, such as chocolate mixed with bacon or wasabi, which several of us wound up buying to share with friends.

Just about when I was vowing that any further sweets would go in my bag instead of my mouth, we hit Lavazza, a small cafe where we were served chocolate chip gelato covered with still more chocolate. The shaved chocolate in the frozen treat was so good that I kept taking a bite, pushing my cup away and then pulling it back for another taste until it was done.

The tours serve three main groups: lawyers, bachelorette parties and then a more eclectic mix of chocolate lovers.

While tourists often like getting a fun way to learn about the city's history and architecture, anyone can appreciate the chance to find sweet spots they might never have been to and learn some fun facts about chocolate, which included that the Chinese invented ice cream 5,000 years ago by sending slaves running up mountains for ice, which they mixed with milk, and that Aztecs thought drinking chocolate brought them closer to the gods.

The tour might not give you a religious experience, but it will make you full and give you plenty of opportunities to pick up favorites to share or just savor later.

Chicago Chocolate Tours

Info: (312) 929-2939, chicagochocolatetours.com

Tour times

Loop route: 12:45 p.m. Fridays (meet at 231 S. LaSalle St.)

Andersonville route: Saturdays at 10:45 a.m. (meet at 5247 N. Clark St.

Mag Mile route: Saturdays at 3:45 p.m. (meet at 900 N. Michigan Ave.)

Gold Coast route: Sundays at 1:45 p.m. (meet at 900 N. Michigan Ave.)

Tickets: $40

Too tired to walk? You can also book seated tastings for private social or office gatherings.

Gifts: You can buy tour gift certificates, gift baskets/goody bags or the chocolate of the month club.