Almost every city in Europe has a chocolate museum. But Cologne's is perhaps the most unusual. For one thing, the architecture of the building in which it is housed is extraordinary. The Cologne Chocolate Museum looks like a real ship sailing through the streets of civilisation. If you take your child to this extraordinary place, you can see with your own eyes the whole process of making chocolate, from growing the raw materials for the product to packaging the sweet delicacy in its final form.
The tour starts with a visit to the greenhouse where the cocoa beans are grown. The greenhouse has special conditions: a certain humidity and temperature at which tropical plants can grow. Every hour, the greenhouse is flooded with artificial rain, triggered by a special sensor system.
After an introduction to the intricacies of growing chocolate trees, you will be taken to a mini chocolate factory, the pride of the museum. Through large panoramic windows, visitors can follow the process of making this sweet, hot beverage from start to finish. Once the chocolate mass is ready, it is poured into different moulds and once the products have cooled, they are wrapped in colourful packaging.
Children enjoy watching the process of chocolate metamorphosis. About 400 kilos of chocolate are produced every day in the chocolate museum's mini factory! By the way, you can buy the goodies made in the museum laboratory in the local chocolate shop.
As well as seeing and tasting the process of making chocolate, the children are also given useful information. For example, they are introduced to the history of chocolate in all its interesting details. The exhibition includes unique old photographs, equipment used to harvest cocoa beans, the first machines used in chocolate factories and much more.
The centrepiece of this cultural institution is a three-metre-high chocolate fountain that constantly circulates around 200 kilograms of liquid sweetness. If you get a delicious wafer from a museum employee, you can use it to taste the flowing chocolate straight from the fountain basin.
As well as the traditional way to get to the Chocolate Museum, you can also take the special 'Chocolate Express'. It departs from Cologne Cathedral every thirty minutes. Not only is it a breeze to get to the end of the line, but you can also see the surrounding countryside as it winds its way through the majestic Rhine, the old town and the German Sports and Olympic Museum.
