Köln's Schokoladenmuseum / Cologne's Chocolate Museum

The top photo is of the right part of the building 

and the bottom photo is of the left.

The Schokoladenmuseum dates back to 1993, and it sits on an odd sort of pier on the Rhine in an interesting two-part building with lovely views of the bridges and the eastern section of the city. In 2006 the museum partnered with Lindt, and now there's a Lindt chocolate fountain and an entire mini-production line making tiny Lindt milk chocolate bars, a great way for children and adults to see the chocolate-making process up close. Despite the corporate presence, there's also mention of the less savory aspects of cacao growing and the weird history of chocolate advertising, as well as displays about a whole assortment of non-Lindt chocolate companies, like Milka and Kinder. I'd expected less when I saw a big Lindt sign on the building, and I ended up pleasantly surprised.

This museum more or less thought of everything. The first level is particularly kid-oriented in terms of the way the displays were designed, with short eye-level peep holes, buttons that light up countries on a map, and facts hidden behind tiny doors, but really they're a way of making the chocolate business interesting, and frankly there's plenty that would cause kids' and many adults' eyes to glaze over. If you're really interested in chocolate, though...



...you can see old books on trade laws (R)


...and big blocks of text about cacao farmers' compensation (L)






...quality testing of cacao beans (R)


or how the beans are traded on commodities exchanges. 


(You can also peruse the website, which gives a brief overview of what's in the museum.) This is all a bit dry, but there's actually a lot of info floating around this first chunk of the museum, more than I've seen anywhere else. 

Tired of reading? Head into the tropical greenhouse, which simulates the environment in which cacao beans are grown.

The rest of the first level and much (all?) of the second is the production line and chocolate fountain, which are surrounded by plexiglass (including employees!) so that visitors can see every part of the machines.

Chocolate squirting into molds.

Molds vibrating chocolate into shape.

It can't all be machine-made, apparently.

A separate line working on truffles--see them rolling down on the left? 

The coating blorps intermittently from that contraption in the center, 

and the coated truffles move on the conveyor into a cooling box (off-camera).

Chocolate fountain, with views. 

The Deutzer Bridge, as seen from the window of the Schokoladenmuseum.

Upstairs is a large exhibit that starts with the history of chocolate consumption, what you already know about ancient South Americans but also the early western chocolate-drinkers, with their fancy serving sets and chocolate parties. 









Then come rooms and rooms on European chocolate production and advertising. 

Pre-Photoshop airbrushing was weird, too.

A couple of my favorite exhibits were an old Stollwerck commercial (I think this kid was too thin until his parents gave him Stollwerck chocolate to drink?)...

...and the history of the Sarotti Mohr (i.e. Moor), a logo that is obviously problematic. He used to look like this, more or less, until the current owners finally bowed to pressure in 2004 and changed him to a stylized magician. (The company website is here, and is full of annoying Flash and music.)

Take-home on Köln's Schokoladenmuseum? If you're into chocolate and anywhere near Cologne, it's worth it to see a whole chocolate museum that goes deeper than you'd think. FYI, the only free samples you'll get are the little Lindt bars at the ticket counter and a wafer dipped in chocolate from the fountain, but if you want more, you can fill up at the museum gift shop or café. Also, you're at a chocolate museum, which means so is everybody else, from American families to local high schoolers on field trips. 

If you aren't able to make that big trip to Europe, just look at the website and think about how fascinating chocolate is, from history to farming, processing, and marketing. It's simultaneously luxury item and treat of the masses, a lesson in world trade that touches every continent (I bet even Antarctic workers pack candy bars in their luggage) and every age, a product that can cause suffering and joy. Amazing!

Lindt Creation 70% Pure Chocolate

5.3oz (150g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, butterfat, cocoa powder, soya lecithin, vanilla extract

11g sugar/45g serving (24.4% by wt.)

Last week I gave Lindt its first review on this blog, and it was a poor one. At the end I noted that I wasn’t writing Lindt off entirely, and this week I wanted to make good on that promise by reviewing an entirely different sort of bar, the Creation line’s mousse-filled Pure Chocolate. (The other two Creation bars are Cherry & Chili and Orange, which layer a fruit syrup on top of the same mousse.) I’ve bought this bar several times before and enjoyed it as an alternative to a solid bar, and though I usually find it for about $5, it’s less than $1 per ounce, which I consider reasonable for decent chocolate.

Incidentally, the large bar is divided into only 10 squares, and I don’t always want that much chocolate at once. Fortunately the mousse is fairly solid, so I break the squares into smaller pieces inside the packaging and fish them out to eat at my leisure. (By contrast, the syrup-filled bars are gooey and messy. Since quickly scarfing a whole square isn’t always pleasant or cost-effective, I don’t buy them often.) Eating angular shards is actually even nicer, because the denser outer layers often separate from the creamier inner one, which highlights the fun difference in textures. As for the flavor, it's fairly uniform but well balanced, creamy and mild but unmistakably dark, and just tart enough to be interesting. I wouldn’t call it complex or especially deep, but it has some edge, and a lingering finish that doesn’t turn bitter.

Conclusion: Lindt Creation 70% Pure Chocolate is a bit different but not so silly as to be merely novel. It's a good twist on the plain bar.


Update 08/10: I've been looking for the Creation line for months but haven't seen it on store shelves and it's no longer listed on Lindt's website. They do list other dark truffle-filled bars, none dark enough to qualify for this blog. Shame--I write one positive review of Lindt and they discontinue the product!

Lindt Excellence 90% Cocoa Supreme Dark

3.5oz (100g) bar

Ingredients: Chocolate, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, natural bourbon vanilla beans

3g sugar/40g serving (7.5% by wt.)

I put off writing this review mostly because I had computer trouble, but also because I knew I eventually had to write about Lindt’s 90% cacao bar. Unlike some of the bars I’ve reviewed it’s widely available, and it’s been sitting in The Chocolate Basket for ages, so I couldn’t ignore it. I bought it when I was eating even less sugar than I am now; in fact, I was so thrilled to find such a dark bar that I went ahead and bought two. I nibbled at one a bit but didn’t like it, so it just sat there, and now the unopened one taunts me, an unpalatable reminder of my hubris and consumerism and desperation. It’s safe to say that I’ve become biased: I hate this bar.

I’ve tried 99% and 100% cacao bars, and they usually have some bitter or sour taste. This has neither, which sounds good except I’m not sure what’s left. It’s all fruit, or deep wine flavors, but without the sweetness or perfume (caramel or citrus or what have you) or tannins or anything else but Dark. It’s a vacuum of flavor, a sucking, sinking feeling. Eating it doesn’t make me wince or gag, just scowl—from cheerleader to scold in one lingering bite. Oh, and it’s a bit chalky.


Conclusion: Yuck.

I don’t want to be down on Lindt, makers of everyone’s favorite drugstore luxury, the Lindor Truffle. I’ll be happy to try their other products. I’m just not sure what to do with the rest of this one…