Chocolate in the museum: new chocolate vault opens in lower Manhattan

Cacao beans are native to the Americas. Farmers grow them all over Central America and in some parts of Mexico, where these beans are turned into the comforting Mexican hot cacao drinks and countless desserts. Jacques Torres, the professional chocolatier behind the niche museum, has tourists in line for a tour of the new museum. For $10 to $15, visitors can go over the history of chocolate, from tree, to beans, to bars, and into drink mugs and bon-bon packaging. The museum operates daily, just like a any other museum.

Making sweets with Mr. Chocolate

The Choco-Story New York is located at 350 Hudson Street. It is also where Mr. Chocolate, what Jacques is famously known for, and his team will teach the art of chocolate making through classes. The museum is 5000 sq. feet long, displaying all sorts of tools and kitchen equipment used in the cultivation and processing of cacao beans. For the museum in SoHo, Torres worked together with Eddy Van Belle, who founded all four chocolate museums around the world. Eddy had previously set up Choco-Story in Belgium, France, and Mexico.

A whole bunch of cacao

According to Eater, chocolate museums are found all over the planet. From the Hershey Story in Hershey, Pennsylvania, to the chocolate museum in Canada, and the ones Eddy had founded.

With Choco-Story New York, visitors can taste various dishes and sweets, including the Mayan hot chocolate from the ancient Mayan cuisine, traditionally made truffles, and all types of chocolates, from milk, dark, white, to both blends and single origin. The Choco-Story in lower Manhattan has been open to visitors since March 7.

Some yummy facts

• Technically, white chocolate is not chocolate because it does not contain any cocoa solid or cocoa liquor.

• Some people develop food intolerance or food allergy in reaction to the ingredients found in chocolate-based dishes.

• One cacao tree produces about 2,500 beans that come from a part called the pod.

• Americans collectively eat 100 pounds of chocolate every second.