Chocolate Workshop in Puerto Vallarta: Make & Taste Cacao

Craft chocolate from bean to bar with farmers in a rural Mexican village

A chocolate-making workshop at Planeta Cacao, a cacao garden in rural El Tondoroque near Puerto Vallarta, where you spend 90 minutes learning the craft from cultivation through grinding, tasting cacao drinks and mesoamerican cookies as you work. The guide teaches in English or Spanish, and children from age 5 are welcome. You leave with handmade chocolate you made yourself.

The Experience

Planeta Cacao sits in the rural area of El Tondoroque, Bahía de Banderas in Nayarit, about 15 minutes from Puerto Vallarta and 5 from Nuevo Vallarta or Bucerias. The garden is built around cacao history on Mexico's Pacific coast — the crop has grown in the Bay of Banderas for more than a thousand years. You start by learning how the tree works, its cultural uses and the nutritional profile of cacao as a superfood, then move into the workshop itself.

The chocolate-making takes up the core of the 90 minutes. You work through the actual process: how cacao is cultivated, harvested, fermented, dried and ground into the base for chocolate. The kitchen is set up for hands-on work, and you taste a cacao and corn drink inspired by mesoamerican ancestor traditions as you go. By the end you've made chocolate by hand and tasted it fresh, plus you take home the batch you created. The workshop also includes traditional mesoamerican cacao cookies.

The site has an exhibition area of old utensils and a traditional mud kitchen you can see, plus a chocolate store selling homemade products. The whole space is wheelchair accessible, and public transportation options are nearby if you're not driving. A live guide leads the workshop in either English or Spanish, and the garden welcomes children from age 5 onward — infants can come too if they sit on an adult's lap.

What’s included

• Cacao beverage (a traditional cacao and corn drink).
• handmade chocolate you create during the workshop.
• mesoamerican cacao cookies.
• live guide in English or Spanish.
• access to the cacao garden and exhibition area.

Good to know

Wheelchair accessibleAccessible transportStroller friendlyPets welcomePublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Planeta Cacao

Is this one for you?The workshop includes the hands-on chocolate-making itself — you're not watching a demonstration but working through the craft from bean to finished bar — which means you leave with something you made and the knowledge of how it came together, not just a taste and a story.

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Top questions

How long does the chocolate workshop actually take?

The workshop runs 90 minutes total, including the history lesson, the hands-on chocolate-making and the tastings of cacao drinks and cookies.

What exactly do I make and take home from this workshop?

You make handcraft chocolate by hand during the session and take home the batch you created, plus you taste traditional mesoamerican cacao cookies as part of the experience.

Is this workshop suitable for children, and how young can they be?

Children are welcome from age 5 onward. Infants younger than that can attend if they sit on an adult's lap, though they won't participate in the hands-on work.

What is the cacao garden actually like, and what else is there besides the workshop?

Planeta Cacao is a working cacao garden designed to teach cacao history on the Pacific coast. Beyond the workshop, there's an exhibition area of old utensils, a traditional mud kitchen you can view, and a chocolate store selling homemade products.

How far is Planeta Cacao from Puerto Vallarta, and how do I get there?

The garden is located in rural El Tondoroque, about 15 minutes from Puerto Vallarta and 5 minutes from Nuevo Vallarta or Bucerias. Public transportation options are available nearby if you don't have your own transport.