Top 10 favorite chocolate shops in Paris in 2023

The best Chocolate makers in France work tirelessly to perfect their craft from an early age. Some of the best chefs today are from “bean to bar,” meaning that they work directly with plantations around the world and take care of every detail in the process, from harvesting to the roasting of the cocoa beans, which makes for outstanding quality in their unique French chocolates.

In our Exclusive Pastries and Chocolate Experience, you will learn the history of French pastries and chocolates and the art of tasting these delicacies by visiting 7 well-mixed artisanal shops guided by your ex-pastry chef’s private tour guide. The guide will also give you the best chocolates to enjoy while tasting premium French wines.

We are talking about haute-couture chocolates, which should be treated and tasted accordingly. Remember to always keep your chocolates between 61 et 64°F without any humidity. Take them out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature so you can appreciate their complex flavors and aromas.

If you can only visit ONE chocolate shop in Paris, waste no time, this is it! Patrick Roger is a rockstar, artist, and best craftsman chocolate maker in France – MOF in 2000, aka the title every French food-industry professional dreams of.

Everything inside his shop is fabulous, from the modern elegance of the decor with black and green colors showing off his minimalist approach to the meticulous sourcing of his cocoa beans and ingredients for fillings such as almonds from Provence, honey and herbs from his private garden, oranges from Corsica Island, etc.

His choice of flavors is contemporary, creative, and unique, like lemongrass, Sichuan peppercorn, lime caramel, vinegar-raisin, etc. His creations’ firmness, richness, and flavor combinations are beyond expectations. Once you try these perfect French chocolates, you will reconsider indulging in any other chocolate.

We highly suggest tasting one of his single-origin chocolate tablets packaged in a sleek metallic black/green box such as Venezuela 75%. Additionally, his lemongrass ganache(melted chocolate with infused cream) and our all-time favorite, the half-demi-sphere planets, made with a skinny layer of chocolate and filled with liquid caramel, are not to be missed! 

Jacques Genin is self-taught and considered one of the best chocolate melters, “fondeur en chocolate,” in the world.

His two shops are elegant and magnificent, always adorned with a fresh bouquet. The look is a mix of modern and old; you will feel like walking into a jewelry store.

The packaging is ultra chic yet helpful in protecting your delicacies from melting down. It comes in 4 different sizes. Everything in the shop is sold per kilo, so you can choose 1 or 1000 sweets.

He makes the softest caramels in 12 different flavors: salted butter, mango passion, and chocolate reign in our podium. Their texture, freshness of flavors, and nuttiness have no rival.

We also come here to taste the fresh mint dark chocolate ganache and his fruit & vegetable “pate des fruits” or fruit jellies. Our favorite flavors are beetroot, rhubarb, and strawberry when in season. Make sure to stop here on your chocolate & pastries tour in Paris.

Another of our favorite “from bean to bar” chocolate makers, who masters every stage of the creation of his chocolates. Chef Patrice first served as an official ice cream maker at Buckingham palace in the UK before opening his first shop in 1986.

His packaging is colorful and gorgeous, making it a fantastic travel gift. Everything is homemade using all organic sugar cane and pure cocoa roasted on-site using restored machines from the last century.

The uniqueness of this shop is the chocolate mousse bar. He wants to recreate the experience of picking ice cream flavors as a child but with chocolate mousse instead.

We love his single-origin chocolate mousse, 100% pure cacao Rio Caribe of Venezuela. It is surprisingly not bitter at all, its aftertaste is intense and a bit earthy, and it is dense in chocolate yet light and airy.

Take advantage of his well thought out free-tasting sample bar where you can fine-tune your taste buds. Consider the rare RIO Caribe 100% Venezuela and the Chuao dark chocolate tablets. This sought after chef has created a shop found on almost all of the best food and wine tours in Paris and is a staple of all chocolate and pastry tours in Paris, so do not miss out.

We must include this Belgian from bean to bar chocolatier chef because, after all, Paris is a cosmopolitan city; therefore, take advantage of the opportunity to visit his shop and taste his extremely well-executed & delicious sweet delights. Definitely an option if you are looking to explore the culinary culture of Paris.

Pierre Marcolini excels at making chocolates and has an eye for detail by presenting his delicious creations in elegant packaging: minimalistic yet luxurious, just like his shops. Welcome to the shop of an haute-couture chocolate maker. We love his Carré² Chocolat – Madagascar – 72%; the cacao in this bar originates in the Sambirano Valley in Madagascar. The Trinitario beans used in making it have incredible aromatics with a strong scent of roasted nuts, spices, vanilla, a slight fruit acidity, and lots of delicious roasted cacao earthiness.

Emiko Sano, 3rd generation chocolatière, and Sho Kimura, le pâtissier, will welcome you to this Japanese-French boutique in a hidden street of the Saint Paul neighborhood of Paris.

This artisanal shop and on-site workshop have a distinctive personality combined with the quality of its products. Not only are their chocolates and pastries impressively delicious with impeccable aesthetics, but their service is precise and friendly, making this shop an all-in-one feature of most chocolate & pastries tours of Paris.

The chocolates are distinguished by their original covers: white dots, golden rectangles, pink flowers, and stylized bamboo. Voilà the most delicious discovery in 2022.

Our favorite chocolates are Yuzu with honey from the Savoie region, the miso chocolate is surprisingly good, and the praliné au sesame makes our taste buds sing. On the pastry side, we love the “Cérémonie” made with Matcha tea, Genmaicha, and vanilla, which is so well balanced, and the staple “three chocolates”: crunchy and spicy, with a delicious speculoos kicks to it.

The shop was created in 1800 by the former pharmacist to King Louis XVI, monsieur Debauve who firmly believed chocolate had health benefits, and his nephew Gallais who traveled around South America to create one of the first maps of cocoa plantations in history.

This historical chocolate shop feels like entering another era with its stunning decor. The staff is super friendly and stylish with their gloved hands, articulately describing all the delicacies and placing them in a small tray as we choose.

We love tasting the pistoles (flavored thin disks of chocolate) created for the last queen Marie Antoinette as a remedy for her constant headaches; whether this is accurate or not, tasting different cocoa percentages allow us to calibrate our palates and discover what our favorite cocoa percentage is for future purchases. We also love the milk chocolate almond crunches “croquamandes” crafted for Napoleon I. Believe it or not, D&G was the first chocolatier to mix pieces of almonds with chocolate. This shop gives you the distinct and unique opportunity to dive into French history and explore the culinary culture of Paris.

Another of our favorite shops in Paris combining classic French pastries and incorporating novel Asian ingredients in Chef Aoki’s, Tokyo-born, sleek pâtisserie few steps away from the gorgeous Luxembourg gardens.

We find Japanese pastries are usually lighter and well-balanced; they are never overly sweet or heavy such as the “chou” filled with mâtcha cream is to die for, the perfect bite-size, and sweet enough to fill your day with joy.

We are big fans of his macarons; he excels in making them, and the eye-popping rows of rectangular “bonbons maquillage” in glossy colors reminiscent of a high-end cosmetics counter are so subtle and delicious.

LBCF is an ultra-high-end pastry & chocolate shop. The Parisian palace service is impeccable, like going to a 3-star Michelin restaurant; you have to do it once and treasure such sweet memory for the rest of your life.

There is a beautiful luminous mix of chic and modern with its soft-toned oak wood from floor to ceiling, contrasted by contemporary marble countertops and silver service platters drawn from the hotel’s archive from its opening in 1925.

Since you decide to come here, push it all the way and let the sommelier pair your sweet pastry with a glass of off-dry Champagne; what the heck, you only live once! Plus it is an art to understand the technique of pairing Champagne with food. The hotel’s famous croissants and pains-au-chocolat are also exquisite. We were impressed to taste what they call their  ‘living bread,’ crafted from heritage wheat grains, milled fresh each day in the hotel basement, do not miss it!

Michel Cluizel chocolate shop is a family business created in 1948. They work with pure cocoa butter, bourbon vanilla pods, and little sugar in the composition of their chocolates.

Their cocoa beans are slowly roasted, releasing the aroma magnified by traditional recipes. In addition, they guarantee the absence of soy or added flavoring.

Their ganaches (infused cream and melted chocolate) are an exquisite interplay of flavors and textures. Our favorite is from “Los Anconès” plantation, a rich ganache with 70% dark chocolate, and “Le Robinson” Praliné with coconut is super tasty, crunchy, and melting in your mouth.

We also have a weakness for the chocolate tablet from the “el Jardín” plantation made out of  75% dark chocolate.

The 78% Praline Spread made with the best nuts is dangerously delicious!

Another exceptional “from bean to bar” French chocolate shop, relatively new to the Parisian chocolate scene, in the already established Paul Bert street.

Chef chocolatier Julien Dechenaud works with cacao beans coming from selected plantations. All of their cacao beans are processed in their artisanal workshop near Paris and worked out to highlight their origins’ flavors.

The service here is super friendly. They also host chocolate tastings and master classes; check out their website.

We particularly love the “fruit mendiant” 70% – a thin disc of dark chocolate with a mix of various nuts on top. Additionally, the dark 75% chocolate tablet from Ghana has surprisingly delicious notes of banana and slight acidity.

We highly suggest tasting the box of 20 chocolate ganaches to savor Chef Julien Dechenaud’s range of creative flavors, including  Yuzu, Timut Pepper, Tonka bean, and savory ones.