Choco-Story, The Chocolate Museum

Choco-Story, The Chocolate Museum in Bruges, Belgium, immerses visitors in the 5,500-year history of chocolate, from ancient civilizations to modern times, featuring interactive exhibits and live demonstrations.

Planning your visit

Bruges is a small city with an extraordinary density of chocolate shops — over fifty in a historic centre you can walk across in twenty minutes — and Choco-Story is the largest of the museums serving that trade.

The exhibition covers 5,500 years of cacao: the Mesoamerican ritual drink, the Spanish adaptation with sugar, the aristocratic chocolate houses of seventeenth-century Europe, the nineteenth-century industrial breakthroughs including Van Houten's press and conching, and the Belgian tradition.

The collection includes an unusual holding of chocolate-related objects — pots, cups, moulds and advertising — and a chocolate sculpture gallery.

Live demonstrations of praline-making run regularly with tasting included.

The museum sits in a fifteenth-century building in the centre.

Bruges is heavily visited and the centre crowded, so early or late slots are calmer.

Bookable options include audio-guided visits with tastings. Current availability is shown below.