Chocolate Museum

The most popular museum in the Rheinauhafen (Rheinau Harbour)

“You’ll like them. They’re your favourite kind,” says Vianne Rocher, alias Juliette Binoche, in the film Chocolat, seducing millions of film fans and generating torrents of serotonin for cineastes. The Chocolate Museum in Cologne offers about 4,000 tours for its 650,000 visitors a year, whose interest obviously increases when the visual experience is enriched by additional senses — that is, when they’re offered chocolate they can touch and try.

The Chocolate Museum in the heart of Cologne tickles not only its visitors’ palates but also their imagination by means of tastings, tours and other delights. Everything in this museum — images, exhibits, sounds, films and plenty of tasting opportunities — revolves around the food known to the Aztecs as chocolatl.

At this unique museum specializing in cultural history, visitors’ sweet dreams come true as they are lavishly entertained by the history of one of our world’s biggest temptations.

The Chocolate Museum in Cologne — what’s it all about?

How are cocoa beans transformed into chocolate? How does the technologically sophisticated industrial process of modern chocolate-making actually work? And what other aspects of chocolate are worth knowing and experiencing? To answer these questions, the museum offers tours, exhibitions, a miniature production line and, naturally, opportunities to taste all kinds of chocolaty treats on 4,000 square metres of exhibition area. If you’d like to end your visit with a leisurely hour at the attached chocolate-themed café, you won’t be disappointed.

The world of cocoa and chocolate in closeup

The Chocolate Museum offers the world’s most comprehensive exhibition of the history of cocoa, covering the entire spectrum of its 5,000 years of cultivation. The features include a diverse collection of historic items, a greenhouse you can walk through, the famous chocolate fountain containing 200 kilograms of chocolate — which flows down from a height of three metres — a collection of porcelain and silver from the 18th and 19th centuries, exhibits from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and various kinds of historical industrial machinery. The manufacture of chocolate products in the glassed-in chocolate factory and the chocolate atelier is a sensual experience.

Events and activities: weddings, gala events, corporate meetings, courses and guided tours for school classes

As an event venue, the Chocolate Museum regularly serves as a luxurious backdrop alongside the Rhine for private parties and activities of all kinds. These range from guided tours for school classes and teacher training to weddings, gala events, chocolate courses for children and adults, and special events for companies. The experienced event catering team of this special Cologne museum offers many ideas on how to create lasting memories for visitors both young and old.

About the history of the Chocolate Museum

The Chocolate Museum of Cologne, which is operated by Schokoladenmuseum Köln GmbH, received its current name in 2017 after Lindt & Sprüngli joined the original partners in 2006. It was previously known as the Imhoff Chocolate Museum or the Imhoff-Stollwerck Chocolate Museum after its founder, Hans Imhoff, who inaugurated the museum on 31 October 1993.

The concept behind this enterprise was initially viewed with scepticism. Many people doubted whether such a museum could succeed. But an event that attracted throngs of visitors cleared away these doubts. As an experiment, the renowned chocolate manufacturer Stollwerck organized an exhibition to commemorate the company’s 150th anniversary in 1998. The exhibition, which featured the now famous chocolate fountain, attracted five times more visitors than the organizer had expected. The construction of the museum was thereby assured. That’s one more reason not to miss a visit to the chocolate fountain, where it all began.