History of the museum
In almost eight years since the opening of the first museum "Chocolate" in Volgograd (it began its work on October 1, 2016), five more have opened: in Voronezh, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov and Kazan. The Voronezh branch, which will be discussed further, opened in 2018. Konstantin Alexandrovich Ektov is the owner and founder of all the Chocolatushka museums. At the moment, the museum has a chocolate factory, a playground for celebrations and a school for young chocolatiers.
The main exhibitions of the museum
The museum has chocolate paintings depicting beloved Disney characters, for example, Beauty and the Beast. But the artists did not ignore the domestic heroes either — there are works depicting characters from Pushkin's fairy tales, the cartoon "Holidays in Prostokvashino", etc.
Most of the exhibits are devoted to the history of chocolate creation: portraits of Peter I and Catherine II made of chocolate, without which it is impossible to imagine the history of the city of Voronezh and the development of chocolate production in Russia. A collection of wrappers in which chocolate was packed at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, an exposition telling about the life of Indians and their cultivation of cocoa beans. These fruits are one of the main ingredients for making chocolate.
Perhaps the main feature of the museum is that all visitors who come to the museum sign up for a program that provides a lot of interactivity. Therefore, a tour of the "Chocolatushka" is not just a tour of the exhibits, but also a lot of fun, and often hands stained with chocolate, while incredibly happy.
Chocolate production process
- Cocoa beans are cleaned of dust, stones and other debris, and then they are sorted from impurities and unripe fruits and additional calibration performed by special machines.
- Now the beans are ready for roasting. They are fried at a temperature of 130-150 ° C. But the ideal frying temperature varies from variety to variety.
- Roasted beans are crushed and the thin husk is removed from them by a specially designed crushing machine. In it, cocoa beans are crushed to the state of cereals, and they are shipped to a melanger device for grinding. Unloading from there, the beans are in the state of grains of sand, and with the help of a mill they are crushed for the last time, after which they receive grated cocoa.
- Then the grated cocoa is squeezed with a hydraulic oil press to produce cocoa butter from it.
- In order for the chocolate to be a homogeneous mass, all the ingredients are loaded into a conch machine, where they are mixed for about three days. An hour before the end of the conch machine, vanillin and lecithin are added there.
- To give the desired shape, hardness and shine, chocolate is tempered by cooling to 23 ° C, and then heating to 27-32 ° C. The future chocolate is poured into a device in which it moves back and forth to stabilize the particles.
- When the chocolate mass is tempered, it is poured into plastic or metal heated molds and, if required by the recipe, additional ingredients are added. In the form, the mass will solidify and take the desired shape.
- All that remains is to pack the chocolate bars in foil or paper in a packaging machine or manually.
A lot of chocolate is produced in the "homeland" of the museum. The Voronezh Confectionery Factory is one of the largest and oldest in Russia — it produces 27 thousand tons of sweets per year, which is 0.68% of the production volume of sweets worldwide!
Workshops and educational programs
Within the framework of almost all educational programs of the museum, master classes on making chocolate, sweets and other sweets are held. The participants independently pour the chocolate into molds, decorate the candies, and then take the resulting sweets home.
At the beginning of the tour, the museum guests are told about the history of the creation of the product to which the selected program is dedicated, the basics of its production, accompanying everything with a colorful presentation. You will also be able to stretch your minds with the help of quizzes, get active by playing various games, or even watch a movie.
Special events and celebrations
Sometimes the museum hosts special events in honor of the holidays. For example, at Easter, workshops on painting and decorating cakes are held, where the hosts talk about the history and traditions of this holiday. And at the end of the master class, the guests taste different types of chocolate. There are also whole tasting evenings in the walls of the Chocolate House. The museum has a School for young chocolatiers, where you can acquire the skills of a pastry chef specializing in the preparation of chocolate and products made from it.
The museum also provides an opportunity to hold private and corporate events – to celebrate a child's birthday with the programs "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Chocolate Totem" and "Visiting a fairy tale" or to celebrate the new year with the New Year's program "Chocolate Bar".
Visit to the museum
You can come to the museum ONLY by choosing a program and making an appointment by phone, because employees prepare products and other necessary materials for each program in advance. The ticket price for each program is different.
It will be especially great to visit this museum on the eve of the holidays — New Year, February 23, March 8, Easter and so on — to get to special events that take place only a couple of weeks a year is always valuable and pleasant! In addition, special products appear in the souvenir shop during the holidays! They are perfect as a gift for family and friends.
Opening hours: Daily from 9:00 to 18:00, seven days a week.
The address of the museum: Kirova str., 24, Voronezh, Voronezh region, 394018
Official website: https://chokoladushka.ru/
Contacts: +7 (967) 309-57-17; +7 (963) 379-86-86
We hope that you will find information about the Chocolate Bar useful! Museums are a good way to relax usefully and learn a lot about the industry you are interested in. In this case, about your favorite sweets.
