Seeing, smelling, touching, tasting – a visit to one of Germany’s food museums is a feast for all senses and an adventure for the whole family. Both fun and educational, German food museums offer a tour through Germany’s culinary history that will tempt your taste buds.
Visitors of all ages can satisfy their sweet tooth in
Cologne’s Chocolate Museum, which showcases the 3000-year old history of the cocoa bean, from the Mayan’s chocolate “drink of the gods” to today's chocolate commercials. The museum features a greenhouse with cocoa trees and a mini-production unit, where you can find out how the cocoa bean becomes a chocolate bar. Highlight of the fun and informative exhibition is a 10-feet high chocolate fountain - don't leave without sampling a chocolate dipped waffle.
Germans take sausages very seriously, and Berlin even dedicated a museum to the world of the wurst. The Berlin Currywurst Museum examines the history and culture of Berlin’s signature snack, a fried sausage cut into slices and slathered with curry sauce. In the interactive exhibition, visitors learn about the currywurst’s original ingredients and recipes, and can view films and archival footage of the lady who invented the iconic treat after the Second World War.
Hamburg is one of the most important harbor cities in Europe, and among the many goods that arrive here daily are spices from all around the world. So it’s only fitting that the city has a great spice museum – the only one of its kind in the world. Set in an old storehouse close to the harbor, you can see, smell, and of course taste your way through 500 years of exotic spices while learning about their cultivation, processing, and packaging.
The Bread museum in Ulm, Bavaria, celebrates the 6000-year old culture and history of bread and bread making. Located in a historic storehouse from the 16th century, the museum explores the cultural and social aspects of bread (and hunger), displays various methods of bread making from the Stone Age to present day, and presents fascinating works of arts dedicated to bread, from Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali, to Man Ray
Munich’s Beer and Oktoberfest Museum focuses on Germany’s favorite drink and takes visitors on a journey through the history of beer– from the beer brewing pharaohs in Egypt, and the purity laws of the Bavarian monks, to Munich’s six state-of-the-art breweries. One section of the museum is dedicated to the history and culture of Oktoberfest, and there is also a cozy beer pub on the ground floor of the museum in case the exhibition made you thirsty.
