Walking into the Chocolate Academy in east-end Montreal is like stepping into Willy Wonka’s factory. The air smells of icing sugar, the walls are lined with bags of cocoa beans from every corner of the Earth, and fanciful candy sculptures tower on the tabletops, daring your inner Augustus Gloop to break off a handful of chocolate and indulge on the sly.

In the Academy’s atelier, industrial-sized mixers churn night and day to keep vats of molten chocolate the perfect temperature and consistency, and the cupboards are stocked with a vast array of tools for moulding, shaping, filling and even painting chocolate. Amateur chocolatiers and master chefs alike gather here to learn from some of the greatest chocolate scientists in the world.

For chocolate is a science. Fail to accurately measure each ingredient and time each step, and the whole product suffers. It’s a lot of pain for one brief moment of sublime snacking pleasure, but done right, chocolate is a feast for all five senses.

The Academy — the only facility of its kind in the country — is the sweet centre of a burgeoning chocolate and pastry scene that should see Montreal ranked among the great dessert capitals of the world alongside Paris, Brussels and Zurich. Each February, the city plays host to a chocolate trade show that attracts upwards of 12,000 visitors over the course of three days, and luminaries of French pastry like Christophe Morel and Roland Del Monte have chosen to practice their art in Montreal.

Whether you like your chocolate pure and bitter as midnight coffee, poured warm and glistening over waffles, or mashed in between the two delicate halves of a macaron, Montreal has a chocolatier or pâtisserie to cater to your every craving. Here are five of the best places to indulge.

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