Tour de sweet: It’s love at first bite on Boston chocolate tour

By Kyle Sutton, The Daily News Tribune
GateHouse News Service
Thu Feb 07, 2008

On the 52nd floor of the Prudential Center, Jennifer Jocz indulged in a raspberry-filled white chocolate mousse with boyfriend Kah Yong Tan to celebrate his 26th birthday.

Not long after, Shaun DaCunha and Nicole Berry exchanged bites of a decadent Boston cream pie at the Omni Parker House to celebrate four years together.

Love was most certainly in the air aboard The One & Only Boston Chocolate Tour, where couples and sweet-toothed connoisseurs, about 30 in all, were taken on a three-hour trolley ride, stopping at landmarks throughout the city. Their mission? To sample the best chocolate in Beantown.

The tour ($75) will make two trips every Saturday through April 26 and is a sure-fire way to get sweet with a date for Valentine’s Day.

Patrons aboard Saturday’s trolley tour learned about chocolate history and fun facts from conductor Ted Galo, a self-dubbed professor at the Institute of Chocology who grew up in Hingham. Galo noted that the United States ranks 10th in the world in chocolate consumption.

‘‘It is your patriotic duty today to get us up a couple of spots,’’ said Galo, who has been running the tour since 2003.

The first stop of the day was at the Top of the Hub restaurant for a chocolate specialty by pastry chef Tommy Choi, who serves a different creation every week. As the trolley pulled up, they were greeted by a French chef who spoke in an accent as eccentric as his personality. Chef Magnifique, who is actually Evan O’Brien, entertainment and productions manager for Old Town Trolley, led the way to the top floor of the Prudential Center with the help of his trusty cooking device, Smiley the Spoon.

‘‘Never be afraid to be silly!’’ Chef Magnifique exclaimed as he had the group put their thumbs to their noses, wiggle their fingers and shout ‘‘Phooey!’’

Awaiting them at the top was a treat well worth the trip: an orange and white chocolate mousse with raspberry filling, topped with white chocolate sauce and served over an ornate piece of fried cookie dough.

Chuck and Jenna Landry of Hanson especially were enjoying it, as their trip on the chocolate tour was a Christmas gift from Stephen and Sharon Lincoln, also of Hanson. Both couples said they were looking forward to a day’s worth of sweets and operating under the motto ‘‘best friends share chocolate,’’ Jenna Landry said.

Next stop for the group was the Omni Parker House Hotel, where in 1855 a dabbling chef first thought to top a cream pie with a chocolate glaze. Tour-goers were able to try a slice of the now-historic Boston cream pie, and do so where John F. Kennedy proposed to Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and where Malcolm X, then Malcolm Little, worked as a busboy.

‘‘I try to find a little local stuff to make it slightly different every year,’’ Galo said. ‘‘I’ve kind of tweaked it around until I found places I liked.’’

Last but not least was undoubtedly the most hyped dessert of the day: a chocolate bar buffet at the Langham Hotel, home to more than 100 delectables. The feast, which runs from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturdays through June, features Sabayon mousse martinis and chocolate passion crunch tortes, with stations for preparing crepes, sugar-coated doughnuts and Cold Stone ice cream.

Dina Turrill of Quincy was the first to realize why the chocolate bar doesn’t run over the summer.

‘‘It’s the perfect time of year,’’ said Turrill, who was on the tour with her mother, Phyllis. ‘‘You don’t have to worry about bathing suit season.’’

By the end of three hours, the group returned to the trolley in a chocolate comatose, which Galo acknowledged by cuing the ‘‘Oompa Loompa’’ song over the speakers. Despite their fullness, all aboard the Boston chocolate tour were dubbed ‘‘fellow chocologists’’ by their resident professor, who already saw room for improvement on future tours.

‘‘Next year I’ll be making a fourth stop at the Boston pillow and mattress company,’’ Galo jested.