The chocolate fountain
A fountain in the middle of the hall where staff dip wafers and hand them out — the thing everyone remembers.
Photo: Arminia, cropped by Elya, — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0 · CEphoto, Uwe Aranas — CC BY-SA 3.0 · CEphoto, Uwe Aranas — CC BY-SA 3.0
Yes — one of the surer family choices in Cologne: the route is short and clear, the fountain and the production line hold attention, and it makes sense without much reading. Only the historical sections drag for small children, so move through those briskly.
Yes — the fountain sample is included, normally a dipped wafer for each visitor. Hands-on workshops and making your own bar are extras, booked ahead and paid separately.
Put it after the cathedral and the old town: the walk along the Rhine takes ten minutes, and the modern Rheinauhafen quarter around it has cafés and some striking architecture. Half a day covers cathedral, museum and riverside together.
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The Cologne Chocolate Museum is a glass building on a small peninsula reaching into the Rhine, its pointed shape meant to suggest a moored ship. The chocolate maker Hans Imhoff created it in 1993, and it has become one of the most visited museums in Germany — not because it is the largest, but because it explains an industry everybody knows and almost nobody understands. The route starts with cacao itself: a hot, humid tropical greenhouse with living cacao trees, their pods growing straight out of the trunks, then the history of the drink among the Maya and Aztecs, when it was bitter, sacred and a currency at once. After that comes a real miniature production line running in front of you, turning out small chocolates that are wrapped and sold in the shop, and then sections on trade, farming and labour on today's cacao plantations. Its most famous feature is the chocolate fountain in the middle of the hall, where a member of staff dips wafers in warm chocolate and hands them to visitors. Then there is the setting: the terrace looks out over the Rhine and the cathedral towers, and it is a ten-minute walk along the river from the old town.
A fountain in the middle of the hall where staff dip wafers and hand them out — the thing everyone remembers.
A hot, humid room of living cacao trees with pods growing straight from the trunks — a surprise to anyone who has never seen one.
A working factory behind glass, making small chocolates that are wrapped in front of you and sold in the shop.
A view of the river and the cathedral towers from the tip of the peninsula — free, and open to café customers too.
Am Schokoladenmuseum 1a, 50678 Köln