Butlers Chocolate Experience

We had a sort of "stay-cation" last August and wanting to make the most of our time off in Dublin we made a plan to do as much as we possibly could in our little city in one week. We found ourselves visiting places like The Dillon Garden and The Freemasons' Hall while eating in the likes of My Meat Wagon and checking out the tipples in The Wine Workshop on Lesson Street. All things we had never done before. One thing we decided to do early in the planning stages was to visit the Butler Chocolate Experience in Clonshaugh. 

The Butlers Chocolate Experience is located in the middle of the Clonshaugh Business Park off the the Oscar Traynor Road. 

I've always thought of Butlers as a luxury brand, a grown up chocolate, far from the likes of Chomps and Animals Bars! This, coupled with the fact that the Experience costs a whopping €13.50, we assumed the tour would be very adult orientated. Imagine our surprise when we showed up and there was a group of thirty under-fives joining us. We were the only unaccompanied adults!

Some of the less sophisticated equipment. No laser beams here! 

Rotating arms creating Easter eggs, chocolate santas and many more designs. 

In fairness to the tour leaders they handled the group fantastically even down to splitting the group up so that most of the adults were all together! We toured the factory looking at fancy machinery doing amazing things with chocolate and, of course, sampled a few chocolates too! We discovered the history of Butler's which turned out to be quite interesting! The best bits came at the end though! 

Meet Nellie... 

We got to decorate our own chocolate elephant! This is where the adults ruled. While the kids were happy to just slop decoration on the grown ups (well mainly me) painstakingly painted each crevice until it was absolutely perfect. Mine was obviously the best, I don't know why the tour guide wouldn't just admit it, I mean, it was the only elephant with a mohawk! 

My mohawk elephant! 

Nellie all wrapped up! 

Unless you're driving (or lucky enough to be brought by your creche) then getting to Butlers isn't the easiest. We got the bus from the city center followed by a fifteen minute walk. Was it worth it? I'm not really sure, €13.50 is a lot of money but we were there for two hours. I don't think I'd fancy bringing a bunch of kids at that price and to be honest, from my experience, it's not really an adult thing. I'm afraid I'm going to have to suggest that this is one for the serious chocoholics among you only.
Butlers Chocolate Experience
Clonshaugh Business Park
Dublin 17
016710599
Website