Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. You could do the same old lame thing you do every year and pick up a last-minute gift box of lame-o chocolates and a cheesy card for your sure-to-be-slightly disappointed sweetie. Or, you could take some advice from me, the sweet doctor of love, and book a ride on the Boston Chocolate Tour. Trust me, the choc-aholic in your life will be delighted. I know mine was.
On any given day, the orange and green Old Town Trolley Tour buses crisscross Boston and provide passengers with narrated tours of historic Beantown. On Saturdays in January through April, however, the topic turns to cacao beans when the trolley company offers its chocolate taste-a-rama.
The three-hour excursion stops at the Prudential Center’s Top of the Hub for a panoramic view of the city and a scrumptious dessert (featuring chocolate, of course), the Parker House for its famous Boston Cream Pie (topped with chocolate, naturally), and The Langham Hotel for its ultra-decadent chocolate bar (with enough tortes, cookies, bon-bons, and other treats to send the most seasoned dessert connoisseur into a diabetic coma).
While en route to the restaurants, the trolley conductor fills passengers in on the history of chocolate, with a special nod to some local tidbits. Who knew, for example, that the country’s first chocolate was manufactured in Dorchester, or that the nation’s first chocolate drink, hot fudge sundae, and Toll House cookie were all served in Massachusetts?
Boston Chocolate Tour
Saturdays in January through April
$80 per person
Reservations required.
617-269-7150
Photos: © Arthur Levine. Licensed to the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Arthur Levine, who has been living in and enjoying the Boston area his whole life, is the HUBa HUBa blogger for the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. He particularly takes pleasure in sharing his adventures and finds with others. He has written about his Boston and Massachusetts journeys for Boston.com, the Boston Herald, the Cape Cod Times, the Providence Journal, and other publications. Some of Arthur’s favorite things to do around the city include checking out a new dining spot during Restaurant Week, catching upcoming movies at the Boston Film Festival, going to Fenway Park (although he has yet to see the Red Sox win a game there), taking in a summer show at the Bank of America Pavilion or at the Hatch Shell, and listening in as native Bostonians jabber using their unique patois.
