The Chocolate Museum

  In our never ending endeavor to find attractions that are not on the usual tourism radar, we visited "Choco-Story; the Chocolate Museum". Located just a block away from Le Grand Place, this museum presents the history of chocolate, its introduction into Europe, as well as the process of turning raw cocoa beans into edible treats.

  Throughout Central and South America, the Aztecs, Olmecs, and Maya's began cultivating cocoa trees thousands of years ago. They used the cocoa beans for currency and a bitter beverage. Columbus introduced cocoa into Europe after his fourth voyage to America in 1502. By 1528, Spain had fallen in love with this new treat. Anne of Austria, daughter of Phillipe of Spain, introduced chocolate to France after her marriage to Louis XIII in 1615. By 1635, chocolate was introduced into Belgium. The law in Belgium is that their chocolate has to be made with 100% cocoa butter, and that makes theirs unique.

  Today, 70% of the world's 3.5 million tons of cocoa production comes from West Africa.

The lobby of the museum and the Roman numerals over the fireplace reads "1943"..

Part of the museum experience is learning how various chocolate candies are made.

Filling the chocolate shells with cream.

Some of the old machines used in making chocolate.

In many of the cocoa plantations throughout the world (such as the Ivory Coast or Venezuela) the beans have to be transported to processing plants by canoes.

An old advertisement.

Antique chocolate pitchers.