Schokoladenmusuem Koeln

The Imhoff Chocolate musuem.

     A group of twelve of us went to the Schokoladenmusuem of Cologne this weekend. I went for the chocolate fountain, but stayed for the awesome exhibit on production and for the information concerning cocoa commodity trading.  The museum was created by Hans Imhoff, who was the CEO of Stollwerkt chocolate company.  

     The museum told the history of chocolate, from it's time in South America until present.  The history focused on the people who were able to mass produce chocolate, its importance to European high society, and the different spice companies that fought to dominate the market.  Once the museum reached the 20th century, it focused mainly on Stollwerkt, Imhoff, and Lindt- who is the current museum partner.

     The cool part of the museum is the part where you walk though a miniature production facility.  Many of the pipes are clear glass and many of the machines have been modified so you can see the cocoa transform from bean, to butter, and finally chocolate.

The sign for this step in the process said the chocolate would actually taste terrible. To us, it looked like liquid gold.

mmmmm mix it up

The fountain. If you stand and look at it for long enough, you receive a wafer dipped in fresh chocolate.

Intricate solid chocolate molds. You could request for custom chocolate mixes and molds to be made for you.

This machine spun the molds around in order to make hollow molds.  The soccer balls were pretty awesome.