The Chocolate Museum

Always wanted to know the history of chocolate? Visit the Chocolate museum in Bruges, Belgium. The entrance fee is: 6 euro. www.choco-story.be

History

The maya priests offert cocoa-beans to the gods. They believed that blood was one of the most important sacrifices. Squashed cocoa-beans were mixed with blood or coloured red with achiote.

Lots of ancient stuff is exibit. There is a Goblet with three feet from Costa Rica (one of my favourite countries) ca 200 AD, Plaque with sculpted image of Quetzalcoatl (snake) from Mexico, mayan tray etc..

There is information about the different cocoa-beans. I never knew there were different beans, but there is the Criollo: beautiful red, aromatic beans from Mexico, Madagascar, Venezuela and Equator. Or Forastero: less nobele but a strong one, with a bitter taste. 80% of the chocolate worldwide is made of this bean, which grows in Brazil, Malaysia and West-Africa. Trinitario is a mix between Criollo and Forastero. It originate in Trinidad that is why the bean is named Trinitario. The quality of this bean is excellent.

You can see how bon bons are made and even taste one. Before you enter the production room, there is an exhibition of beautiful chocolate statues made by a Russian.

I’m very fond of chocolate and I really like this museum. It is also an interesting museum for children. The discriptions of the stuff they exibit are in Dutch, French and English. They even had moulds of my favourite chocolate shop: Neuhaus. Neuhaus sells great bon bons and has stores all over the world: Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.