Brugge's Choco-Story Museum
Tells the Tales of Chocolate

My son and I visited the Choco-Story Chocolate Museum on a recent trip to Brugge to attend the bi-annual Choco-Late Chocolate Festival.

Known for its Venice-like canals, winding cobble-stoned streets and medieval architecture, Brugge displays a knack for mixing old with new in the modern museum. Choco-Story is a short walk from the bustling town square on Sint-Jansplein in a four-story 15th-century renovated building. Underwritten by Belgian chocolate producer Belcolade, this chocolate museum does it right.

Choco-Story Highlights Include:
* An incredible exhibit about the mysterious and ancient cultures of the Mayans and Aztecs, who first experimented with chocolate by making a bitter drink of it.
* A detailed exhibit explaining the cocoa tree and its fruit, the cocoa bean.
* A room full of chocolate-making machinery, complete with a display of white chocolate swans.
* An interesting exhibit displaying the composition of white, milk and dark chocolate.
* Bringing a European twist to the museum is a large collection of chocolate kettles, pewter pots, ceramic or porcelain 'chocolatiers' and chocolate cups. Apparently drinking 'hot chocolate' was a serious past time.
* Another 'pop chocolate' collection contains a vast number of tins used for chocolates including a large collection of Belgian royal tins as well as other tins, signs and chocolate molds.
* A chocolate workshop where a master chocolatier explains the process, makes chocolates before your eyes and offers complimentary samples.

The exhibits are aesthetically beautiful, well-lit, in modern cases and relevant. Clearly, this is the chocolate museum to beat.

Brought To You By Belcolade
It's obvious that Belcolade left its imprint on this museum. And why not? What's good for Belcolade is good for the chocolate industry and what's good for the chocolate industry is good for Brugge. We think the partnership between Belcolade and Choco-Story is a marriage made in heaven.

Which brings us to the only thing we don't care for about the museum: its use of a 'Chocolate Fairy' to guide you through the museum. You see her on promotional materials but unless she is supposed to be a Mayan or Aztec goddess, we're not sure what she has to do with chocolate. We think perhaps using a young Mayan or Aztec man or woman to act as a legendary tour guide is more believable than a fairy. But...that's just our opinion.

We find so much right about this museum that commenting on a misplaced fairy seems hardly worth it.

We Recommend
If you visit Brugge, do your best to visit the Choco-Story Chocolate Museum. If you like chocolate, you'll love this museum and come away more knowledgeable and informed about Belgiums love affair with the black gold. You'll be so inpsired about chocolate that you'll be searching for a Brugge chocolate shop before leaving this enchanting little city nestled in the northwest of Belgium.

Hours:
Open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Closed: 24, 25, 31 of December and 01 of January

Admission:
6,00 euros for adults
5,00 euros for groups, students and those 65+
4,00 euros for children 6-12

Address:
Wijnzakstraat2 (Sint-Jansplein)
B-8000 Brugge

Contact:
Telphone: 050.61.22.37
Website: www.choco-story.be
E-mail: info@choco-story.be