The Potions Experience at The Potions Cauldron, York

The Potions Cauldron York

The O'Hallorans

The OHallorans

We’re made up of Lyndsey, John and Erin, who all love a new adventure. We try to get away as much as possible, especially during school holidays and variety is a must for us. That means staying anywhere from a luxury hotel to a hostel and it’s not often we go to the same place twice. 

If you’re looking for something fun and a bit different to do on a weekend in York then a visit to The Potions Cauldron might be just the thing for you.

Where is The Potions Cauldron?

Located in central York, The Potions Cauldron can be found at 9 3/4 Shambles, just down the road from the York Ghost Merchants.

The train station is only a 10-15 minute walk away and there are also bus stops and car parks close by. Shambles is quite a narrow road and there is no parking outside. 

What is The Potions Cauldron?

The Potions Cauldron is a magical shop, an apothecary of sorts, selling potions and vials for all ages! The shop sells all sorts from Unicorn Essence, Serpent’s Venom, Tears of a Wizard and Basilisk Blood, just to name a few things. 

As well as the shop, The Potions Cauldron also offers potions experiences.

Skull and potions glass

Booking The Potions Experience

There are two different potion experiences available and they are available to book online via The Potions Cauldron’s website. 

The 25-minute experience is open to everyone. Tickets are available for under 11s, over 11s and adults, all for £5.99 each (correct as of September 2022). Adults can choose to upgrade to add an alcoholic shot in their experience for a ticket costing £7.99.

A 50-minute experience is also available for adults only. The cost of tickets for this experience is £19.99 per person. 

York is a very busy city and it’s advisable to book in advance to ensure you can do the potions experience at the time of your choosing. 

The Potions Experience 

I booked The Potions Experience for a Harry Potter mad friend for her 30th birthday during a weekend away. I had no idea what to expect beforehand though of it any of us would actually enjoy it. 

When its time for your slot, you are led through the very tiny shop (it’s a tight squeeze in there) through to a back room. This immediately made us feel a bit special and like we were getting to see something secret. We sat on benches, surrounded by spooky-looking pictures on the walls and our potion’s master gave us a brief history of magic in York and what we would be doing.

Photo props at The Potions Cauldron

The experience has a great interactive element to it, as you’ll need to choose a couple of things such as ingredients for your potion. These have different elements and can do different things so be sure to choose wisely. When the potions master went to get everything we needed, we were left in the room with some cool photo props so be sure to make the most of these while you can.

There are some really fun surprise elements to the Potions Experience and I don’t want to spoil them for anyone who hasn’t been before. Expect the unexpected! 

Potions on a tray

When the potions master returns, it’s time to make your potion. This doesn’t actually take very long at all and is over quite quickly, which was a bit of a shame. However, in only 25 minutes you can’t really expect it to be too complicated. The potion itself though, for me anyway, was actually delicious. I think this might depend on your ingredients but mine was orange flavoured so I was really happy. 

Overall, for the price, I can’t really complain. It’s not the most amazing of experiences as they go but it was enjoyable and we laughed most of the way through it. I already know that it will be something Erin would enjoy should we find ourselves in York. 

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