Chocolate and Kölsch

Friday was a day for chocolate and Kölsch! Apparently, Germany consumes more chocolate than any other country in Europe, both per capita and in total, and there is a large chocolate museum in Cologne. We met up with Karl R and Emma to visit it. The museum, which is run jointly by the city and the Swiss chocolate company, Lindt, has exhibits covering all aspects of chocolate (except for one my sister, Patsy, brought up later in the day) and had a complete production line for small chocolate bars. The visit was interesting, and, since they gave out samples, tasty!

Later, my sister Patsy and her husband Steve arrived by train. We all had dinner at the oldest brewery in Cologne, the Früh. Karl and Leslie Ruth had kölsch, a Cologne beer which must be brewed within sight of the Dom (cathedral) to be called Kölsch, and comes in small, 0.2 liter (6.7 oz) glasses. Kölsch, like many German beers is available alcohol free (this comes in larger bottles)..

We reported on our visit to the chocolate museum and Patsy asked whether the museum mentioned that chocolate had cadmium and lead in it! Who knew? We said the museum did not, but did have an extensive exhibit on other issues such as child labor, poverty, and how little the people at the bottom of the chocolate making process get out of chocolate, and what companies such as Lindt are doing to combat this. But, nothing about cadmium and lead.

It looks like there are limits to how much social consciousness the museum felt it could exhibit. But, we still love chocolate and will continue to eat it in moderation!

We then returned to our hotel to rest up for Saturday, the Big Day!Read more