I had a fantastic and sweet time (literally) touring the Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last week!
A handful of bloggers and I were invited on the tasty adventure by Gilt City. We had a great time getting a behind-the-scenes look into what goes into making chocolate bars and learned a lot along the way!
(Jordann, Me, Diana, Alanna, Ashley, and Christine)
They’re currently selling tours of the factory with up to 60% off in credits to spend at the boutique! (Read more about this offer here. It’s a deal that only runs until 9/1!)
I knew that touring a chocolate factory would include a lot of delicious sampling, but I had no idea how much health-conscious thinking and planning went into the process at Mast. Two brothers (hence the name) founded the company that is now known for making gourmet chocolate with extreme attention to detail, incredible craftsmanship, and artisanal bean-to-bar flavors.
Upon our arrival, our group was warmly greeted by Pamela, the retail assistant manager. When everyone was ready to go – hairnets on – she and the general manager, Diana, kicked things off with the story behind the name and origin. I enjoyed seeing pictures of the brothers and finding out that they are actually chefs who fell in love with chocolate.
They had a goal of making it with as little ingredients as possible (six or less!), and our tour took us through every step of the process, starting with the chocolate cocoa plant itself. Have you ever seen a cocoa plant?
The center actually has a fruit-like taste, similar to lychee with a bitter, chocolate aftertaste. We were shown how they grind cocoa nibs, and it was interesting to hear that the inside of the shell houses 1/2 cocoa solid and 1/2 cocoa butter.
When it’s time to make the chocolate, it takes about 3-5 hours just to grind the cocoa nibs before anything else it added. The rest of the ingredients are added to these giant grinders next, and the whole process takes about 48 hours. After it’s done grinding, it’s transferred to a tin and solidifies from the outside in. This takes about a day!
(Each one of these blocks holds about 50 pounds of chocolate. Whoa!)
We were offered plenty of chocolate samples throughout the tour, and they were all so, so good. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite, but if I had to, it would be the flavors from the herbal line, specifically Lavender.
Surprisingly enough, Lavender is one of the best sellers, followed by Sage.
The entire tour took about an hour, and we finished things off with a sample of the chocolate beer. It’s non-alcoholic, and incredibly flavorful. I loved it!
I don’t know how I did it, but I only left with a goody bag that included a sample pack. I could have easily dropped a good chunk of change on some of those decadent flavors!
All of the bars come packaged in funky wrapping paper. I thought that was a neat touch, and I enjoyed photographing them!
Right now they are selling the 2016 collection, but the 2017 line is projected to launch early-fall. There are currently six dark, six milk, and six herbal flavors.
If you’re interested in trying a bar for yourself, Mast Chocolate is sold online, in Mast store locations (Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and London), Whole Foods, Shake Shack, and specialty stores. The tour was very informative (and yummy!), and I would love to come back and have Scott sample more flavors with me.
I’m sure we won’t be leaving as empty handed next time. 😉
Thanks so much for having us, Mast!
Questions of the Day
• Have you ever been on a factory tour?
• What is your favorite flavor of chocolate?
I’ve always been a sucker for mint chocolate. I didn’t try any on this tour, but I didn’t miss it, either. Sea salt or some kind of almond is a close second, and I’m a fan of anything involving caramel!
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary tour of Mast Chocolate Factory, thanks to Gilt City. While I was not compensated for this review, I was asked to share my my experience on the tour. As always, all thoughts and opinions remain my own.
![[in our elementary school era] 🚌😭
Skyler did great walking into KINDERGARTEN with a big smile on his face this morning. I, however, was a bit of a mess on our walk home. 🥹
It’s wild how fast these 5 years with him have gone … 7 since we moved to NYC and into our apartment, dreaming of the day our kids would someday go to the *awesome* school right down our block. 🏫
That day is today, and I still don’t believe it — feeling allll of the emotions and thanking God for placing us here and for being able to trust His timing through the journey. 🫶🏼 #hbshinnyc
SO proud of you, SK - you are going to rock your first year at your “big boy school” - WE LOVE YOU !! 🩵👑](https://lifeinleggings.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
OMG the cocoa plant is huge! I’ve never seen one before. I did seasonal work at a Cleveland chocolate factory called Malley’s. I just helped package and label shipments, but the workers in the factory always brought over the broken pieces of chocolate for us, which was a nice perk. But I like that the Mast chocolates have minimal ingredients, it’s shocking sometimes when you think you’re eating a healthy chocolate bar and you look at the ingredients and see a long list.
Patricia @ Sweet and Strong recently posted…New Workouts and Weekend Highlights
Right? It’s not what I expected to see at all! FUN that you used to work in a chocolate factory. That would be super dangerous for me! 😉
Oh my gosh I’ve never seen a cocoa plant and can say it’s nothing like I thought! What a fun tour, though! I would enjoy all the samplings 😉
heather @Lunging Through Life recently posted…August Best of the Blog
Right? It was so strange, but cool to see!
I’ve never seen a cocoa plant before, that is pretty cool! I would be all over that tour.
Kelly @ Kelly Runs For Food recently posted…Steak night = happy dog {WIAW}
I wouldn’t mind going back for more chocolate and fun facts! 😉
My husband and I toured the Celestial Seasonings plant and the Coors plant when we were in Colorado. We also toured a coffee roasting farm in Kona, HI. Being the nerdy engineer I am, I am always intrigued at the food making process. Fun Fact: My husband (also engineer) got a job offer from a company that made food processing equipment (think assembly lines, ovens, etc.).
That sounds so fun! Scott and I took a tour of the Anheuser-Busch factory last summer and loved it. That’s interesting to hear about the job offer – it seems like a great job!
I toured a perfume factory once in France and it was really interesting to see how the entire process of making perfume comes to life. Chocolate and coffee factory tours are definitely on my bucket list though.
Chocolate mint is my weakness too, even when I was a kid. However, chocolate with fruit is a close second. A friend and I make chocolate covered strawberries literally all the time.
Oh that sounds cool. I’ve never even thought about touring factories in the beauty industry. That would be so interesting to me! Also, YES to chocolate covered strawberries!
This sounds like a place I need to visit asap! I am a sucker for chocolate, especially dark chocolate 🙂
Dark chocolate somehow makes its way into our fridge on a regular basis. Whoops! 😉
What an awesome tour! I have never seen a cocoa plant…… Dark chocolate is my fav. The darker the better.
Love dark chocolate!
Quite jealous! I forgot about the hairnets until I saw the photo . I’ve been to the TCHO factory in San Fran. Highly recommend it.
Not sure whether to congratulate or pity you on your minor gift shop purchases . Thanks for sharing!
Good to know – if we’re ever out in San Fran I’ll have to remember that! Haha, I know … it shocks me too. I’ll be back!
So fun!
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It’s always so fascinating to see how much work goes into one of America’s favorite sweets, chocolate. Do you know if Mast chocolate is fair trade? I didn’t know it takes that long to prepare the cacao, and wow, that makes me appreciate chocolate much more now. I would love to try some of this. Maybe it will be in Safeway some day!
Emily Swanson (@Emily11949309) recently posted…Why I Don’t Take Body Transformation Photos
• Have you ever been on a factory tour? Yes, when I was young my grandmother took my sister and I to a Hershey’s plant in Modesto CA. I remember it to this day, it was so much fun!
• What is your favorite flavor of chocolate? Dark, Dark, Dark!!! + LOVE IT! 🙂
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Oh my gosh! Oh fun!! I think it would be so interesting to tour a factory like that! I don’t know if I’d have as much self control as you and only leave with a goody bag, though. That’s impressive!
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Now I’m craving that chocolate… LOL