ChocoMuseo Cusco

ChocoMuseo is a chocolate museum and café on the second floor of a building on Calle Garcilaso overlooking Plaza Regocijo, one block from the Plaza de Armas. It promotes cocoa products and sustainable cocoa harvests, and it is a family-friendly stop in central Cusco, combining a café, a shop and hands-on workshops in one place.

The café side is a good place for a warming drink on a cold afternoon. The menu has included coffee, cocoa tea, an iced mocha frappé and a hot chocolate you prepare yourself at the table, along with handmade truffles in local flavours such as lúcuma. The shop sells chocolate bars and other cocoa-based products, which make easy gifts to take home. Seats by the balconies look over Plaza Regocijo, the square that was once part of the great Inca ceremonial space.

The main draw for many visitors is the Bean to Bar Workshop. It is a two-hour hands-on session that takes you through the whole process, from the cacao tree to the finished chocolate, while explaining the history of chocolate from the Maya through the Spanish conquest to the Industrial Revolution. You prepare and taste drinks similar to those the Maya and the conquistadors drank, then mould your own chocolates, choosing from more than a dozen flavourings; they are ready to collect an hour after the session ends.

Workshops run every day at 08:30, 11:00, 13:30 and 16:00, for groups of up to 12, in English or Spanish, and children under 12 pay a reduced rate. The meeting point is either Plaza Regocijo or the Twelve-Angled Stone, the famous diorite block in the Inca wall of the Archbishop's Palace, depending on arrangements with the company, so confirm when you book. Workshops need to be booked in advance, and current prices are published on the company's website.

ChocoMuseo suits families with children, couples and anyone looking for a rainy-day activity or a break from ruins and churches. A workshop fits easily into a morning or afternoon in the centre, and the café is a pleasant pause between Qorikancha, the Cathedral and Chicha or other restaurants on Plaza Regocijo.