My visit to Choco-story museum

[Lior]

Well I am usually over in the pastry forum but I figured this was the proper place to post my photos of the choco-story chocolate museum..

Here is the museum in Bruges, Belgium, which is a lovely place, and known as the Venezia of Belgium.

This is an ancient metate, used for grinding roasted cacao beans into a paste, which was then made into a frothy often spicy drink for the royalty of the mesoamerican natives, such as the Maya and Aztecs.

another metate, probably an ornament

A statue of a Mayan woman grinding cacoa beans

An ancient piggy bank holding cacao beans, a form of currency for the Maya

A cocoa pot. Air blown through the pipe creates froth or foam in the cocoa

stage 1 and 2 for making the drink

stage 3:

stage 4 and 5. A Belgium girl,Youlin, spent the day learning about the history of their nation's love for chocolate. Stage 4 consists of pouring the drink back and forth froma height to create more froth. Stage 5 consists of using a molinillo to create even more froth!

Chocolate drink became very popular in Europe

Her service for drinking chocolate

more chocolate pots

Hope you enjoyed!!

[Kerry Beal]

Thanks Lior, I enjoyed the report. I have a better understanding now of why chocolate pots are so popular on e-bay. I stumbled across them by accident - they come up with the molds frequently - and command some pretty high prices.

[feedmec00kies]

I was actually just there 2 weeks ago or so! Although honestly, my boyfriend and I didn't have the patience to read through all the historical information at the time... we kinda just skipped to the modern day chocolate making and the demonstration

[Lior]

Well if modern day chocolate making is what interests you, comeon over for a free demo and tasting!! I spent at least 2 hours there as I am fascinated by history-esp chocolate!! My site will be up soon and more pics. How funny that you were just there!!!! Isn't Bruges lovely?

[JTravel]

We were there in June and enjoyed the city so much, and I really liked the museum. We have traveled in Central America, bought locally ground and formed disks for hot chocolate etc. It was all pulled together in that museum.....wordy yes, but well done.

They offer a "Chocolate Walk" in addition to the admission to the museum. For a few dollars more you get a nice booklet with a map and write-ups of the participating chocolate shops. You get a couple of coupons with each book which entitle you to "a taste", of the shop's choice . We were forced to walk all around the city, that's a good thing, discovering where the shops were and what their speciality was. One woman spent a lot of time with us, telling how her mother still makes the candies in her kitchen. She also looked through the booklet and told us what other shops were suitable. Said she didn't want us to get less than the BEST. This in a city where the poorest would probably be way better than we usually have. One shop, The Chocolate Line, offered a sniffing pipe and a powdered chocolate to sniff. We passed on it, but read later that it was a great experince.

There is a famous small square (Van Ekyk?) where a canal ends now. This was the entrance to the city for the boats loaded with cacoa nibs....great wealth on board. The square is surrounded by wonderful big houses, the local merchants wanted those arriving to know they would be dealing with people of substance.

Brugge, a city not to be missed!

[Lior]

Yes!! Chocolate Line was nice! And yes, Bruges is lovely! I remember Markt and Burg squares perhaps I missed the one you mentioned 0ooof!