Chocolate Museum Audio Guide

Chocolate Museum: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to the Chocolate Museum

   Welcome to the Chocolate Museum in Cologne, a place where a very ordinary treat turns out to have an extraordinary biography. The museum stands in the Rheinauhafen, the old harbor district on the Rhine, and it has been one of the city's best-known landmarks since it opened in 1993. Inside, you follow a journey through the 5,000-year cultural history of cocoa and chocolate, spread over three floors. It begins in ancient America and ends with the sweet temptations of our own time. Along the way you meet a tropical greenhouse, a working glass chocolate factory, a golden fountain, and a collection of historic objects from all over the world. Over the next few sections we will look at the man behind the idea, the building that houses it, the story of cocoa itself, and the machinery and tastes that bring it to life. Take a deep breath, because chocolate is already in the air.

2. 02

   A Dream with a Fountain

   Every museum starts with an obsession, and this one began with Hans Imhoff, who lived from 1922 to 2007. He was a passionate chocolate manufacturer, and he dreamed of a chocolate museum with a fountain in which chocolate would bubble up without ever stopping. In 1972 he took over the Stollwerck factory in Cologne's Südstadt district, a name with deep roots in the city's chocolate-making tradition. Imhoff used that time to research the cultural and industrial history of chocolate. He built up his collection and kept expanding it. Then, in 1992, his wife, Gerburg Klara Imhoff, found the best possible home for it: the old main customs office in the Rheinauhafen. Just one year later, the museum opened, and Cologne had a new landmark. The story kept moving. The museum is operated by Schokoladenmuseum Köln GmbH. Lindt and Sprüngli joined the original partners in 2006, and the museum took its current name in 2017. Today the dream fountain is real: it stands about 3 meters tall, and it is filled with 200 kilograms of Lindt chocolate.

3. 03

   From Sacred Drink to Everyday Treat

   The exhibition begins long before Cologne existed in its present form. In the museum's treasure chamber you step into pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the world of the Olmecs, the Maya and the Aztecs. For them, cocoa was a drink of the gods, and at times over the centuries it even served as currency. The Aztecs called the food chocolatl, and that word still echoes in ours. The European chapter starts later. Christopher Columbus was probably the first European to encounter cocoa, in 1502, though he paid it no further attention. By the end of the 16th century, chocolate had become a popular drink among immigrant missionaries and settlers. From Mesoamerica, it began what the museum calls its triumphal march around the world. The next part of the story is about price. Chocolate developed into a luxury treat, and then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, it slowly became more affordable through industrialization and colonization. Two historical store fittings show how elaborately decorated the packaging for cocoa and chocolate products once was. Look at them closely and you can see how much effort went into making a simple bar feel special.

4. 04

   Tropical House, Machines and Glass Factory

   Now follow the path of the cocoa itself. The route starts at a large cocoa tree model and leads through a tropical house that rises 10 meters high, where you can walk among the plants. From there you trace the cocoa from the harvest to the great stock exchanges of world trade, and on to transport and the chocolate factory. The factory is part of the show. In a glass chocolate factory and a chocolate atelier, you can watch chocolate products being made industrially, and also individually by hand. There is a miniature production line, and historical industrial machinery stands among the exhibits to show how the process once worked. The collection also includes porcelain and silver from the 18th and 19th centuries, a reminder that chocolate was once served with ceremony. In total, the collection comprises around 2,500 objects. And because this museum is by no means all talk, there are plenty of chances to taste along the way.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you go, remember where you are: the old main customs office, in the Rheinauhafen, right beside the Rhine. A building once tied to the movement of goods now tells the story of one of the most traded and most loved foods in the world, and that feels fitting. If you would like to linger, the museum has an attached chocolate-themed café for a leisurely hour, and the river setting also makes it a popular backdrop for events. As you wander, try to spot the thread that runs from a drink of the gods to a packaged treat in a decorated shop, and notice where in the exhibition the story changes from luxury to everyday pleasure. Then pause once more at the golden fountain and consider how long one man's dream took to flow.