I went to Tony’s HQ!
I mentioned this in my chocolate related last post, but last week I hopped on a plane and took myself on a one-woman mission to visit the Tony’s HQ, Superstore, and café in Amsterdam. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to cram a lot into my 24-hour whistle-stop Tony’s tour of Amsterdam! The twins had a few days of nursery lined up, and my wonderful husband was fully on board with my trip, so I had nothing to worry about back at home.
I actually met up with my brother and his lovely new wife before any of the chocolate shenanigans – we had a wonderful breakfast together and then they both came with me on my crazy chocolate tour, which was unexpected but great! My brother splits his time between Canada and Amsterdam, so meeting up with him while he was there wasn’t as random as it might first sound.
Tonys’ HQ
The first stop after breakfast was Tony’s HQ – this is the shop located in the Westerpark. Walking through parts of the park to get to Tony’s was amazing as it was such a glorious spring day – if I hadn’t been on such a crazily tight schedule, it would have been the perfect spot to sit and soak up some sunshine.
Tony’s HQ itself is quite unassuming, and part of a big red brick building on the edge of the park. There’s a small shop area with a little office, and a café behind serving all the regular drinks you’d expect to find in a café, along with Tony’s chocolate milk! When I arrived, the whole area was quite quiet so I was able to have a really good browse of the fun Tony’s merchandise available, and could take my time admiring the floor to ceiling chocolate wall that’s installed at the back of the shop!
As it was so quiet, I was able to have a good chat with the lady behind the till. I explained that it was exciting to be in the Tony’s Amsterdam store, as there was lots on offer that we simply can’t get in the UK. She went through all of the delicious flavours of Tony’s on offer with me, and didn’t bat an eyelid when I proceeded to buy multiple bars of every single flavour that’s not available in the UK – she also mentioned that Tony’s HQ might be trying to expand the flavours that are available in the UK – woohoo!
Tony’s Chocolate Bar – the café
The next stop was the Tony’s café which was a bit of a walk away. We wandered over to the centre of the city, chatting as we went, and we arrived at the café before we knew it. I think the building was either an old bank, or a stock exchange building – either way, it felt really grand and it was a super cool place to sit and enjoy some Tony’s themed sustenance. My brother and sister-in-law found the whole experience a bit of a novelty, but as a serious Tony’s choco-fan I was absolutely in my element.
The decor of the café was everything I had ever hoped and dreamed of – there were chandeliers made of Tony’s chocolate bars, chocolate taps of running melted chocolate, a giant neon Tony’s sign, and tables designed to resemble the wrappers of Tony’s bars! The menu was equally as epic, and I ended up going for a ‘sweet burger’ for the sheer novelty value. As it happens, it was actually divine, although I’m not sure I could tell you what any of the components of it actually were!
The Superstore
The final stop on this chocolate-fuelled adventure was the Tony’s Superstore, which is conveniently located just next to the café. It’s in the basement of the building and would be really easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it! The main attractions here are another giant wall of chocolate, complete with levers to pull which will dispense samples to try, and the ability to make your own flavour of Tony’s to take home.
Clearly, I felt the need to make a bar of Tony’s. I used one of the conveniently set up iPads to choose my flavours and ended up making a bar of cinnamon latte themed Tony’s – white chocolate, coffee, and cinnamon! I needed to wait an hour for my bar to be created, so I went and enjoyed a boat ride – there are boat tours that take off from the bit of canal right next to the Tony’s Superstore so it was quite convenient! On my return to the shop, my bar was ready for collection and it took a lot of willpower not to just eat it straight away.
From here, I headed straight back to the airport with a bag completely chocca-block full of chocolate. I had never really appreciated just how heavy the bars are, but when you’ve got 26 bars in your backpack, it really hits you!
That was the end of my ridiculous chocolate themed adventure, and honestly, it was great. Next time I’m in Amsterdam, I would love to go back to the Tony’s Café to try another ridiculous item off the menu, and I would happily have another go at making a bespoke bar too. You can fully customize the label, complete with personalisation, so it would actually make a wonderful gift for any chocolate lover!