Every September, York comes alive. The York Food & Drink Festival is one of the finest food festivals in the country — a celebration of the city's extraordinary culinary heritage, its producers, its makers, and the people who bring it all to the table. For us at York Cocoa Works, it is one of the most important moments in our year. Not just because of the workshops, the tastings, and the visitors who join us — but because of the 1,000 local school children who walk through our doors.
This is what the festival means to us.
A Thousand Children and the Story of Chocolate
Each year during the York Food & Drink Festival, we deliver our schools education programme to over 1,000 local children. It is, without question, one of the things we are most proud of.
The programme takes children on a journey that begins long before chocolate — with the cacao tree, the tropical farms where it grows, the communities who harvest and ferment the beans, and the extraordinary journey those beans make before they arrive at our manufactory in York. We talk about origin: about what it means that cacao grows only in a narrow band around the equator, about the farmers in Guatemala, the Solomon Islands, and beyond who tend the trees and shape the flavour of everything we make.
We talk about York's own chocolate heritage — about Mary Tuke's shop on Walmgate in 1725, about the Rowntree and Terry factories that once filled the city's air with chocolate, about the generations of York families whose lives were shaped by the chocolate industry. For many of these children, this is their city's story — and often one they've never heard told in this way before.
And then we make chocolate. Each child leaves having created their own chocolate treat — hands in the process, understanding in their heads, and (we hope) a lifelong curiosity about where their food comes from and how it's made.
Why This Matters
We believe that understanding food — really understanding it, from the soil to the shelf — is one of the most important things we can give young people. In a world where chocolate is ubiquitous and its origins are almost entirely invisible, giving children a direct connection to the story behind it feels genuinely important.
The questions children ask are always the best ones. Where does the cacao tree grow? Why does chocolate taste different depending on where it comes from? How do you get from a bean to a bar? Why did York become the chocolate capital of the world? These are the questions that drive everything we do — and hearing them asked with fresh curiosity every September reminds us why we do it.
The schools programme is also a direct expression of the values that York's chocolate industry was built on. The Rowntree family — driven by Quaker principles of social responsibility — invested in education, healthcare, and community as part of their business model. We see our schools programme as part of that same tradition: chocolate making as a force for education, connection, and community, not just commerce.
The Taste Trail: York's City-Wide Celebration
Alongside the schools programme, York Cocoa Works is proud to be part of the festival's city-wide Taste Trail — a programme that takes visitors on a journey through York's finest food and drink producers, restaurants, and makers.
During the festival, we open our doors to a full programme of tastings and workshops for visitors. Whether you're joining us for a Manufactory Tasting Journey — following the bean-to-bar process from roasted nib to finished chocolate — or booking onto one of our chocolate making workshops to craft your own bar or truffles, the festival is one of the best times of year to experience everything York Cocoa Works has to offer.
The Taste Trail also connects us with the wider story of York as a food city — a place with a culinary heritage as rich and layered as its chocolate history. From the medieval market that first brought cocoa beans to the city's traders, to the world-class restaurants and producers operating here today, York's relationship with exceptional food runs deep.
Join Us This September
If you're planning a visit to York during the Food & Drink Festival, we'd love to see you. Our workshop programme fills up quickly during festival week, so we'd recommend booking ahead. Whether you're a first-time visitor or a returning Chocolate Lovers Club member, there will be something new to taste, learn, and take home.
And if you're a teacher or school coordinator in the York area interested in bringing your class to York Cocoa Works — during the festival or at any other time of year — our Schools Educational Workshops programme runs throughout the year. We'd be delighted to hear from you.
The festival reminds us every year of what we're here for: to share the story of chocolate — its origins, its heritage, its craft — with as many people as possible. One thousand school children at a time if necessary.
Book your place on our festival workshops via our Chocolate Workshops page, explore the York Food & Drink Festival Chocolate Bar Making experience, or join the Chocolate Lovers Club to hear about festival events first.
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