Chocs away! MAXINE GORDON celebrates Chocolate Week by embarking on a very sweet tour of York

YORK'S history is steeped in stories about the sweet stuff. The legacy of the Quaker dynasties of Terry's and Rowntree's lives on today. You can see, smell and taste it in the latest products rolling off the production line at Nestle, and in the finest, artisan hand-crafted treats being sold by specialist chocolatiers across the city. We've our own visitor attraction too: York's Chocolate Story, where you can find out about the city's confectionery past and eat some of the delicious stuff while you are at it.

Chocolate Week starts on Monday and chocoholics are in for a treat - or maybe a trick. Here's our top ten list of what's top of the chocs in York...

York Press:

1 York's Chocolate Story

King's Square

yorkschocolatestory.com

York's very own visitor attraction offers an all-you-need-to-know history of the city's chocolate making traditions and its great families. Find out the facts behind the city's most famous chocolate creations – the KitKat and the Chocolate Orange – and discover the origins of chocolate and how to make it. To mark Chocolate Week, its chocolatiers have made a giant Terry's Chocolate Orange to be won by anyone from York called Terry. Keep your eyes on social media to find out more. From Monday, visitors can take the Shock-olate trick-or-treat trial - spin the dial and either win a delicious chocolate or a disgusting one flavoured with Brussels sprouts, curry, mature cheddar or smokey bacon.

2 York Cocoa House

Blake Street

yorkcocoahouse.co.uk

A must-visit for chocoholics, where you can eat, drink and even make chocolate - and buy some to take home from a selection sourced from all over the world. The Cocoa House is the brainchild of self-confessed chocolate lover Sophie Jewett who also has big plans to return chocolate making to the former Terry's factory at Knavesmire. The Cocoa House will be hosting a Chocolate Supper Club on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7pm and an introduction to chocolate making event next Saturday at 11.30am.

3 Hotel Chocolat

Coney Street

hotelchocolat.com

Our appetite for luxury chocolate shows no signs of waning as Hotel Chocolat announced this week plans to open up on Stonegate. More of a boutique than a bog-standard shop, where a bar of chocolate won't leave much change from a four quid. A second store is about to open on Stonegate while gluttonous gourmands can visit the Hotel Chocolat cafe at John Lewis at Vangarde Shopping Park where menu choices include the everyday as well as the exotic. Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate anyone?

York Press:

4. LICC

Back Swinegate

liccyork.blogspot.co.uk

No-one likes a theme more than Dawn Argyle the creative connoisseur behind York's most colourful ice-cream parlour. At least a dozen chocolate ice-cream flavours will be on display over the coming week, including chocolate peanut, chocolate brownie, chocolate Oreo, chocolate orange, white chocolate with cranberry and chocolate banana.

5. Hotel Indigo

Walmgate

hotelindigoyork.co.uk

York's newest hotel has taken the city's confectionary heritage as part of the inspiration for its interior decor (Smarties cushions, jelly-mould lampshades and chocolate-bar-shaped wood panelling are just some of its design touches). For Chocolate Week, bar staff will be serving a new orange chocolate cocktail, Not Terry’s, it’s Mine!, a bitter sweet meld of vodka, orange liqueur and chocolate syrup - served with a segment of Terry's Chocolate Orange.

York Press:

6. Choc Affair

James Street

choc-affair.com

York's chocolate making manufacturing lives on in Choc Affair, which sells ethically-produced goods across the city and beyond. Linda Barrie set up the business in 2006, making a "hot chocolate on a stick" product from her kitchen in Naburn. Today, the company's HQ is in James Street, where a staff of 19 turn out around 2,000 items a day, getting through a tonne of chocolate a week. New for this year is a range of single-origin bars for chocolate connoisseurs, from cocoa estates in Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia.

7. Nestle

Formerly Rowntree's and famous for making us all associate having a break with having a KitKat (the Haxby Road site turns out six million of these biscuit bars a day.) It's thanks to Nestle that the smell of melting chocolate lingers in the air around the Groves area of the city- a great distraction when you are stuck in one of York's infamous traffic jams. Nestle is still an innovator too: it spent £3 million this year on the launch of the new Aero Mousse bar.

8. Terry's

It may be gone, but never forgotten, such is the iconic status of the Terry's factory and clock tower on the skyline of York. The factory by the racecourse closed in 2005 and plans are proposed for it to be turned into "care village". For an insight into how the Terrys lived, you can visit Noel Terry's former arts and crafts home, Goddards, on Tadcaster Road, now on owned by the National Trust. It will be running Chocolate Week events from Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 5pm, including trails, chocolate-box making, blindfold tastebuds challenges and talks (noon and 2pm on Wednesday and 2pm and 3pm on Saturday).

9. Bettys

St Helen's Square

Bettys.co.uk

This Yorkshire institution has been making the finest handmade chocolates for close to a century. Find out the secrets behind their success when Bettys chocolate specialist Kirsty Mitchison visits the York tearooms at St Helen's Square next Saturday from 11am to noon to share her expertise and samples of milk and dark chocolate with customers.

York Press:

10. Monk Bar Chocolatiers

The Shambles

monkbar.com

One of York's small, independent, companies that is keeping the art of chocolate making alive in the city. The chocolates are made on the premises. The exclusive selection includes Orange Peel (candied orange peel dipped in chocolate), Bucks Fizz Truffle (champagne and orange in dark chocolate) and Praline & Cashew (whole cashew encased in hazelnut praline, rolled in dark chocolate and caramelised hazelnuts). Yum!

York Press:

Chocolate cocktail

Hotel Indigo York in Walmgate is celebrating Chocolate Week with a cocktail inspired by the Terry's Chocolate Orange: Not Terry’s, it’s Mine.

This bitter sweet symphony of chocolate and orange uses Cointreau liqueur, vodka and orange juice, and is garnished with a twist of orange and dusting of dark chocolate. Don't forget to serve it with a segment of Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Dawn French would be impressed!

Recipe:

25ml Smirnoff vodka

15ml Cointreau

50ml chocolate syrup

15ml lemon juice

Orange zest

Glass: Martini glass

Preparation: Chill the martini glass with ice cubes while preparing the cocktail.

Method: Add the above ingredients into the shaker along with some orange zest. Add ice and shake well. Empty the glass of the ice and rim with a little Martini extra dry. Using the strainer, pour the drink into the glass.

Garnish: Orange zest Serve with one or more segments of Terry’s Chocolate Orange.