Imhoff-Stollwerck Chocolate Museum, Cologne

1 more image

This is a great place to take the children. The first part of the museum shows artifacts and posters explaining how and where cocoa beans are grown and processed. Then you go through the actual factory where chocolate is made and packaged. There is a chocolate fountain, free samples, and of course a shop on the way out.

The web site is in German only, but the explanations inside the museum are also in English.

4 more images

I visited Cologne's Chocolate Museum during my visit to the city in July 2006.

Having read that it was similar to "Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory", I expected to be lavished with free chocolate samples. Alas, the only samples were a small chocolate and a wafer dipped in the "chocolate fountain".

The first part of the exhibit provides various information about cocoa (where it is grown, how it is cultivated, what different types are used for making different chocolates...) and there is a temperature controlled tropical greenhouse containing cocoa plants.

Next was a special exhibit, coinciding with Germany hosting the World Cup, showing chocolate bar wrappers, tins and advertisements from around the world which incorporate football team logos and players into their designs.

The museum then opens up into a large production area where you can see the chocolates being produced. These range from small individual chocolates on a conveyor belt to chocolates shaped as bunnies or Father Christmases or footballs using special moulds. Children can design their own pralines to take home with them.

One of the highlights in this part of the museum is the "chocolate fountain" - runny chocolate being produced in a small fountain - but it isn't nearly as impressive as it sounds!

Upstairs, the museum provides a detailed history of chocolate from its beginnings as a luxury drink for society's elite through to its commercialisation as a popular product for the masses. This part of the museum isn't as much fun as watching (and smelling) the chocolates being produced, but it does provide an extensive selection of exhibits. For example, there are displays of crockery from the early days of chocolate production in Central America, there are walls full of chocolate advertisement posters from years gone by and there are biographies of key figures in chocolate's history.

There is a chocolate shop and a cafe on site.

Photography is permitted throughout the museum.

Great on a day out with the children or if you like me are a bit of a chocoholic :))) The museum includes what they call the world's largest chocolate fountain - a claim I have seen in Scarborough too so who knows, but it is rather impressive and you get to taste the chocolate. There is also a little "rain forest" in the part that shows you how the cocoa beans are produced! If you like old posters and chocolate mechanics, you shouldn't miss the exhibitions on the second floor either.

1 more image

One place I couldnt avoid visiting because of my 2 chocoholic daughters was the Imhoff-Stollwerck Chocolate Museum...and am I glad they dragged me along! Many lessons learnt here today, so we´re never too old to learn something new, and after walking the tour of this amazing factory I now know where that chocolate bar originated from. From seeing how coca beans are grown, theres even a mini tropical forest that you can wander thru, to how they are refined and eventually how they come out the other end ready for the wrapper! At the far end of the factory stands a huge molten chocolate fountain where a young lady invites you to dip a sponge finger into this liquid heaven. Up to the next floor to the museum where there are many old chocolate vending machines, posters, factory equipment and a small early 1900s shop. Back to the ground floor and into the modern shop where you can buy all the chocolate you want. It was quite difiicult to get my daughters to leave! This is a great place to visit for all the family and not just the kids. open Tues-Fri 10am-18.00. Sat/Sun & Hols 11am-19.00. Entrance 6euros

A visit to Cologne is not complete without a trip to the chocolate factory/museum. It is quite interesting and the smell is divine.

You can wander around and look at the machinery (where chocolate is actually produced), learn about the history of chocolate production, sample the gloopy liquid chocolate on wafers (which is what's happening in this photo) and finally, spend a small fortune in the chocolate shop, try to resist this as it really is expensive and you can buy the same stuff elsewhere. A few bars of chocolate and a couple of postcards came to 10.70E.

A tiny glass-enclosed *botanical* garden with pond, lillies and cocoa trees is also on the premises and it's extremely warm in there on a hot day!

At the end of your trip there is a small cafe with terrace overlooking the Rhein where you can have a lovely drink in the sunshine.

Please see the website for details of prices and opening times. Our visit was part of an organised group tour. Oh and it is closed on Mondays.

4 more images

We went to visit the chocolate museum one morning - it was great for those of us who love chocolate (seriously, I've never understood people who don't like chocolate...). The first part of the tour shows the history of chocolate and how it was used in the olden days.

Later, we saw some machines that were in the process of making and shaping chocolates, and some workers (oompa-loompas? hehehe...) pouring melted chocolate into molds shaped like the Cologne Cathedral. We also saw the chocolate tree/fountain and enjoyed the free samples - some of the oompa-loompas were dipping wafers into the chocolate fountain and giving them out, and I ate 3. I am now convinced that the cocoa bean was the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden...

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Willy Wonka, but we did enjoy some good world-famous German chocolate! Then, when we finished our tour we bought some at the gift shop.

The museum lies on a former-island which is now connected to the City-centre by a Bridge.

The museum-building is in the shape of a big ferry-boat and it is a must to visit. It traces the history of chocolate, from slavery to modern industrial production and includes the chance to taste this sweet brown delicacy fresh from a fantastic liquid chocolate fountain.

It also show modern production methods of various chocolate products. And ofcourse there is a shop where you can buy souvenirs . . . and a refectory!

When I visited in May 2005, there was a Chocolate Art exhibition on as well.

Looking like a huge ship, the Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum stands anchored at the entrance to former Rhine harbour. Better known as the Chocolate museum it is worth a short walk along the Rhine to see the museum displays covering all aspects of chocolate, the highlight being the chocolate spring, from which visitors can sample the sweet product.

The building combines parts of the old Customs Office dating from the 19th Century with a modern glass annex.

We wanted only to visit the museum cafeteria but unfortunately it was closed due to some event that was organized there at that time. So we ended just visiting the museum shop where I had to restrict myself only to couple of kilos of different tastes of chocolate ;)