Best Destination Cities for People Who Take their Love of Chocolate Seriously

Sav Maive September 8, 2022

Chocolate is wonderful on its own, but this luxurious treat also has the superpower to enhance the flavor of other foods like strawberries, bacon, pretzels, and coffee.

But where are the best cities to give in to your chocolate cravings?

Lawn Love ranked 190 of the biggest U.S. cities to determine the Best Cities for Chocolate Lovers.

We looked for cities with abundant chocolate factories and high-quality shops selling chocolate, including chocolatiers, dessert shops, and patisseries. We also considered chocolate-themed entertainment like museums, tours, theme parks, and events.

Melt into International Chocolate Day on Sept. 13 with our city rankings and analysis below.

City rankings

See how each city fared in our ranking:

Note: For presentation purposes, not all ties for some metrics are displayed in the above infographic.

The meltdown: Key insights

Big-city bonbons

Large cities offer plenty of spots for residents (and tourists alike) to find quality sweets.

New York takes the crown of the chocolate empire at No. 1 overall and in the Access category. The city is swimming in chocolate delicacies, being home to over 100 chocolate shops and the most chocolate manufacturers in the country. NYC also has hundreds more coffee shops and bakeries than any other city, so you don’t need to walk far for a chocolatey surprise.

Las Vegas, at No. 3, is its own Chocolate Sin City, far outnumbering the competition in dessert shops, candy shops, and ice cream shops. Chicago (No. 7) follows closely behind, with the second-highest number of chocolate stores and bakeries.

Meanwhile, smaller cities like Sioux Falls, South Dakota (No. 190), Columbus, Georgia (No. 189), and Mesquite, Texas (No. 188) gave a bittersweet performance overall, with scarce options for their small-town chocolate lovers.

Local tips:

New York: Find the Big Apple’s most treasured handmade chocolate and cookies at Jacques Torres Chocolate. Jacques Torres (aka Mr. Chocolate) is an award-winning pastry chef and chocolatier and one of the hosts of “Nailed It!” on Netflix.

Chicago: Vosges Haut Chocolate specializes in truffles and bars, selling dairy- and gluten-free options, and featuring exotic flavors like turmeric ginger, cheddar apple, and banana coconut.
Las Vegas: The home to Ethel M Chocolates also has M&M’s and Hershey’s stores on opposite sides of Las Vegas Boulevard, and there’s a Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop at the LINQ. Just think: Walking along the Strip will help you burn off that sugar rush.

Willy Wonka’s West

While California is better known for its health-food trends, the Golden State has a golden ticket in Access to delicious chocolate.

Indulgent San Francisco (No. 2) is home to industry icon Ghirardelli, in addition to a number of smaller artisans and manufacturers. Head down the coast to SoCal cities Los Angeles (No. 5) and San Diego (No. 9), where you’ll find plenty of patisseries, candy stores, and dessert shops to satisfy your cocoa-flavored cravings.

On the northern end of the West Coast, cities like Seattle (No. 6) and Portland (No. 14) also impress with many high-quality chocolate shops and bakeries, coffee shops, and dessert shops.

Local tips:

San Francisco: For top-notch taste, Dandelion Chocolate focuses on small-batch bean-to-bar production. This company strives to highlight the unique flavor coming from each region’s cocoa beans by using only two ingredients, cocoa beans and sugar.
Los Angeles: Letterpress Chocolate grew out of a small apartment into one of LA’s beloved stops for craft chocolate. They specialize in dark chocolate but also offer white chocolate, flavored bars, and sugar-free chocolate.
Seattle: Located in historic Pike Place Market, Indi Chocolate is a great spot to grab a chocolate treat or learn how to make it yourself in one of their chocolate-making classes. You can also find unique gifts like chocolate soap and lotion.

Charming confections

We can’t talk about the Best Cities for Chocolate Lovers without mentioning The Sweetest Place on Earth: Hershey, Pennsylvania (No. 4).

Founded by the nation’s most familiar chocolate company, Hershey’s, this town is best known for its chocolatey genesis. Hershey might not have a variety of tasty chocolate shops to choose from, but it’s the perfect place to go if you’re looking for the ultimate chocolate-based entertainment.

If you’re just searching for a good bite of chocolate, you might unexpectedly find it in small cities, such as Des Moines, Iowa (No. 19), Pomona, California (No. 26), and Garden Grove, California (No. 16). Des Moines earns the No. 1 spot in Establishment Quality, with the two Cali suburbs falling closely behind.

Local tips:

Des Moines: Buy candy by the pound, find chocolate-covered treats, and customize a handcrafted chocolate bar with your business’ logo at Beaverdale Confections.
Pomona: Grab a chocolate concha at Ponce’s Bakery, Pomona’s favorite panaderia selling authentic Mexican cakes and sweet bread.

Behind the ranking

For each of the 200 biggest U.S. cities, we gathered publicly available data on the factors listed in the table below. We replaced the smallest city in our sample with Hershey, Pennsylvania, considering it is a popular tourist destination for chocolate lovers.

We then grouped the factors into three categories: Access, Establishment Quality, and Entertainment.

Next, we calculated weighted scores for each city in each category.

Finally, we averaged the scores for each metro across all categories. We eliminated 10 cities lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a total sample size of 190 cities.

The city that earned the highest average score was ranked “Best” (No. 1), while the city with the lowest was ranked “Worst” (No. 190). (Note: The “Worst” among individual factors may not be No. 190 due to ties.)

Sources

Chocolate Affairs Magazine, Factory Tours USA, Kompass, TripAdvisor, Wikipedia, and Yelp

Final thoughts: From Xocolatl to chocolate

Chocolate has been around for ages.

Originally, Mesoamerican civilizations used fruit from the cacao bush for making an alcoholic drink. Chocolate was even a popular drink in colonial America (but it’s not like the hot cocoa we enjoy today).

Today, creative artisans find ways to bring new life to this age-old food, such as the chocolate sculptures made by famed pastry chef Amaury Guichon, from Netflix’s “School of Chocolate.”

If you’re a chocolate connoisseur, make sure to add these iconic chocolate cities to your bucket list:

Detroit, Michigan: If chocolate revs your engine, check out Bon Bon Bon in Motor City. This chocolate shop delights in experimenting with unique bonbon flavors, such as Hot Cheeto and Black Truffle.

Kansas City, Missouri: The Heart of America is the hometown of both Russell Stover Candies and Christopher Elbow Chocolates. Founder Christopher Elbow went from working in country clubs to esteemed kitchens across the country. He now sells handcrafted chocolate bars, bonbons, toffee, and other sweets.

Orlando, Florida: Disney might have a rival for the title of “Happiest Place on Earth” — the World of Chocolate Museum and Cafe. Tour through the history of chocolate, and admire intricate chocolate sculptures before trying award-winning chocolate from around the globe. Afterward, pair your chocolate with coffee or wine in the museum cafe.

Portland, Oregon: Starting out in a home kitchen in 2010, Woodblock Chocolate is now one of Rose City’s most popular chocolate shops. Their bars feature hints of distinctive notes and flavors, like cherry, olive, lemon, and black pepper. Pair together their signature chocolate with wine in the Bons Amis tasting room.
San Antonio, Texas: Texas loves food trucks, and Alamo City’s favorite confectionary began as one (aka a “chocolate trolley”). Now, Chocollazo has a brick-and-mortar location where they sell seasonal, fun-shaped chocolates and truffles, such as game controllers, Star Wars characters, and skulls.