Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolate Museum)

The Schokoladenmuseum occupies a glass-and-steel building on a small peninsula at Am Schokoladenmuseum 1a in Cologne's Rheinauhafen, on the south edge of the Altstadt in North Rhine-Westphalia. Opened in 1993, the museum follows chocolate from its origins with Mesoamerican cultures through European court fashion to modern industrial production. The route begins in a tropical greenhouse with living cacao trees, then moves through displays on the plant, harvesting and the history of drinking and eating chocolate, with historic machines, packaging and advertising. The centrepiece is a working miniature production line where visitors watch bars being moulded, cooled and wrapped, and a chocolate fountain where staff dip wafers for guests to taste. A café with views over the Rhine and a large shop fill the upper floors. The visit usually takes between 90 minutes and two and a half hours, and families with children tend to stay longest. Crowds build quickly on weekends, school holidays and wet days, when the narrow production-line area can become congested; weekday mornings right at opening are the calmest. The riverside setting gives good photo opportunities, with the Rhine and the Rheinauhafen cranes visible from the terrace and the outer promenade, and the exterior of the ship-like building photographs well from the harbour edge. The museum opens daily at 10:00AM and closes at 6:00PM, with last admission an hour before closing. It is reached on foot in about 15 minutes along the river from Heumarkt. Visitors should confirm adult and child fares, which vary between weekdays and weekends, at schokoladenmuseum.de, and consider booking timed tickets for busy periods.