International Chocolate Festival

Finally was able to go to this chocolate festival at the wonderful place that it is a Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

I went with my sister and her kids and we all enter for free thanks to the membership that I have.

It turns out that with the membership you can enter for free to most of the festivals in here.

They had many vendors. They had different stations for free so the kids can play and my nephews had a great time. The weather was perfect and the organization of everyone working here was awesome.
I definitely recommend did you guys get the membership because it's totally worth it just to be able to enter here and enjoy events like this.

the chocolate international festival was beautiful. indoors they had a lot of chocolate vendors from around the world. afterwards you went outside and they had vendors selling food drink of different types of vendors the day was sunny and happy was magnificent great event for the chocolate lovers and those who like fountain of chocolates

If you are expecting a real chocolate festival, this is not it.
The entire venue is full of vendors that have nothing to do with chocolate.
There is one small indoor space for chocolate that have about 7 or 9 small tables chocolate vendors, they have little time to explain about the chocolate they are selling, everything else is selling some chocolate sweetness that you can find at any store.
Very disappointed.
If you'd like to expend time in the beautiful garden with family and kids, then is good for you .

Year after year, I've wanted to go to the International Chocolate Festival. Year after year, something ALWAYS happens that prevents it. I forget when the festival is, I don't have the time or funds, I have alternate plans, an Oompa-Loompa knocked me out after they deemed that I was using them for slave labor - you get the idea.

Now we all know that the only plausible explanation for finally attending is that I, in a moment of glory, escaped the dreaded Oompa-Loompa. Bwahahaha!

Ahem. Anyway. We went on the last day of the festival. A Sunday. There weren't a lot of people, but then again, we hit this place up early. Admission per person for the event was $25.00. It gives you access to everything a chocoholic dreams of, as well as access to the exhibits at the museum itself. Hence, you definitely have options on things to do and that in itself is a marvelous thing.

Unfortunately, chocolate is not. Marvelous, you know? I know that sounds blasphemous, but despite the limited amount of vendors (folks, this DOES NOT compare to the Mango Festival at all), you will end up overdosing on chocolate.

They have a private room for the vendors. Makes total sense as this is Florida and it's hot, scorching hot, flamethrower hot, and we don't need an avalanche of chocolate all over the place. Room is cool, well organized, and filled with vendors. Mind you, there are vendors outside as well, but none of these vendors sell chocolate. Ended up gorging ourselves with Susilicious and Románicos that we bought, as well as sampling some new vendors: Exquisito with their DNA shirt comes to mind, plus Cao Chocolates that were featured at MDC.

Case and point: go at least once. Plan food accordingly after. Unless you somehow possess the sweet tooth that I don't have, this isn't an all day event. I much prefer the Mango Festival.

Hmm, I was honestly expecting something different. I feel like the concept is cute but they have to have better samples. It looked like a lot of rain had passed and there was a lot of mud. Lots of vendors with jerk chicken, Latin food, tacos, flan,
Hotdogs. The chocolate samples were almost shavings of chocolate. The beers from Wynwood brewery were amazing specially the chocolate one.

What saves my review is that the location (Fairchild) is beautiful. Even with the rain, the butterfly house and the orchids are just beautiful !

Definitely go visit Fairchild !

Let this be stated first; Fairchild gardens is a beautiful park with a little bit nature for everyone.

Now; the chocolate festival it's self was sub-par. The venue was almost empty and half the vendors had either left by 12pm or not even attending so there were a lot of empty stands. Now, it may have been because of the weather but if you had already purchased a ticket both parties are now committed. I'm sure it would have been a better experience otherwise but the vendors that did show up were okay. I expected more chocolate creations than what I saw

I'll definitely will shout out "Gringa Flan", which absolutely stunted me with their flan. Top 3 flans ever! One made with chocolate and one topped with roasted coconut flakes. Amazing!

Now they did give "free" chocolate and "free" beer out which was nice and the volunteers were very nice but the output and the events here were not anything I would go pay to do again.

I enjoyed the venue more than the festival by far.

I'm a chocolate fanatic and this wasn't what I was expecting. The event didn't really feel like it was so much about chocolate, it felt more like a farmers market. The food venders and the beer were great. I would definitely go to this "chocolate" theme farmers market again for the food not so much the chocolate.

Did you say Chocolate festival ? Thanks Yelp for the heads up! Who wouldn't want to go spend an afternoon in one of those most gorgeous parks in Miami? Starting from his chocolate is cultivated as finished with how it's enjoyed, this is the best $25 I've spent all month long. January in Miami is a great climate and meant to be enjoyed outdoors. After all, in June the weather isn't as cool so it's definitely a time to find explore. Artisanal booths with chocolates made in all shapes and sizes will lull you in as you enjoy this savory treat in many different forms. Sure, there's food and shopping options as well as you stroll along and look at what the booths have to offer. I personally thought the Honey stand was the cutest. They even had Garlic honey! How cool is that ? The live music was a great touch and the booths were perfectly placed with plenty of options to compliment the chocolate overload. Bring cash as plenty of booths don't accept plastic but there's an atm in site if need be. Definitely an event I'd come back to again. I love Fairchild and any event here is worth coming to.

Can't believe this is their 4th year and I just found out about it.
I Love chocolate, and I Love a nice day outside at a beautiful park. Got both at Fairchild Gardens' Chocolate Festival.

I went Saturday morning, which I think was the smartest thing to do. Met with some friends who arrived in the afternoon and they had to deal with traffic and parking. But that wasn't the reason I went early. I thought this festival would have been bigger, and that I would need all day to see it all. Not the case. There weren't as many booths/ vendors as I though, and they were all mostly at one same part of the park. Still I was able to taste some really good chocolate, popcorn, dessert wines. One of my favorite things was the "tasting plate" at one of the booths. My friends and I shared, it came with chocolate covered strawberry, brownie, chocolate covered biscotti, dark chocolate truffle, white chocolate pistachio bar, and a drink. The spicy Mayan hot chocolate was amazing. Definitely try it if you have the chance.

Other activities included: cooking demos, yoga sessions, live music. Walking around the park we found homemade soaps and body salts, and free massages! Right next to the water, away from all the people and vendors, this was the perfect way to end the day. Well, not exactly the end, had to get one more chocolate before I left.

Well worth the trip! Made the decision the night before with my honey and I'm glad we followed through (having to had made a bunch of other Sunday plans prior but made a quick 180 to squeeze this in the agenda). It's been years since I last explored Fairchild Botanical Gardens so altogether it made it a pleasant throwback along with it being our first time attending the International Chocolate Festival.
Lets just start off with the parking. As I recalled, having to arrive around noon there was no way we can get the on site parking at the garden and with the help of google maps, traffic deemed mostly heading southbound. The only way to really go about it if you're not an early bird is to park far and make the walk, luckily thanks to KC's hawk eyes, we found a spot at the near by parking lot off of Old Cutler which already seemed full as it is. There were officers managing traffic the whole day so if Old Cutler is your casual road, best you avoid it during these events.

We entered the garden through the gift shop to which the staff there were very accommodating to guide us to the actual event. There are several paths to take and most likely you'll always end up in picturesque places (so remember to pack your Nikon!). What made the most out of our experience was actually walking into as many tents as possible. At first arrival we took an educational tour through the American Heritage Chocolate and had one of the best shots of hot chocolate I've ever had. We even sampled a taste of the Cooking Demonstration by Chris Bulgarin, Delicious Catering Services of his Five Spice Chocolate Glazed Grilled Colossal Shrimp served on Black garlic Sesame Noodle Salad, it was scrumptious! Plenty of chocolates to sample as well inside one of the buildings (I forgot the name of it) and an amazing array of foods to eat in one sitting (YES)! We had bratwurst, conch fritters, corn with mole butter, and cinnamon horn roll (Mhmm! Those Hungarians we all know well!). We also ended picking up a chocolate covered honey comb to go.

After having our fill nothing beats a walk through Fairchild's green houses and off road paths. This was definitely a refresher to my prior knowledge of botany (Here's where you score some kudo points fellas. Haha I hope she doesn't read this particular review). To top it all off, there was an area of rabbits and educational care on our way out of the garden. Of course it had to be her favorite animal to where she attacked them, with love.

This festival was the perfect remedy to end the week with chocolate, food, and the green life we often fail to appreciate. We will definitely be coming to their 10th annual International Chocolate Festival. Until then we can't wait to return in July for the Mango Festival!