In cooperation with parents, class 2-1 organised a visit to the Museum of Chocolate. The students had a wonderful experience; they enjoyed themselves, learned new things, tasted different kinds of chocolate, made their own chocolates and, in the end, received diplomas. To say that they were fascinated by this visit and the museum ambience would be an understatement. 

Savremena’s students paid a visit to Dorćol’s extraordinary Museum of Chocolate, full of educational content, chocolate specialties and secret recipes.

Chocolate has been held in high regard from antiquity, and the second-graders used this opportunity to familiarise themselves with the entire history of this magical delicacy, its beginnings in human use, its early days in Europe, its debut in our country; the way it’s made, the way it is consumed; its healing properties… Simply put, all about chocolate.

We have discovered the secret recipe for perfect chocolate, but we are going to keep the secret 🙂

As cocoa was discovered in South America, the first room of the Museum of Chocolate that the students visited was decorated as a virgin forest. This is where the students saw what cocoa fruit, the basis for chocolate, looks like.

The next room of the Museum of Chocolate is dedicated to cocoa’s arrival to Europe, so the room is decorated according to that period, with a number of artefacts. This room contains tools that were used for processing cocoa and making chocolate in the early days.

The story of cocoa’s arrival to Europe made a great impression on students. They were awed by the interesting legends they heard. Listening eagerly, they absorbed every word and learned that Europeans’ first experience with cocoa from South America took place during the fourth and last journey of Christopher Columbus to the New World. He arrived to Nicaragua in 1502, and noticed that the natives were using unusual grains as currency. Not knowing much about it, he brought it to Europe.

As Europeans kept coming to the New World in greater numbers, Spanish priests increased their interaction with the natives, who showed them how the grains were processed and used by Aztecs and Mayans in a drink that had great religious significance to them.

The secret of these recipes spread to Belgium and England, and these countries came up with new recipes and started implementing their original ideas for making chocolate. Belgian chocolate remains the epitome of sweet delight to this day; expressions of love in 17th-century Europe often included a gift of chocolate. And so they do today.

Then it was time for the story about chocolate in our parts. The students learned about the famed Yugoslav chocolate “Olga” from Dorćol, and the history of the famous Soko Štark – of course, including the origin story of choco-bananas.

To wrap up their expedition, the students put on chef’s hats and stepped into the culinary atelier. This is where they seized the opportunity to make chocolate of their own, carefully following the custodian’s instructions. It was quite a challenge – modeling chocolate and getting your fingers inside the exquisite Belgian coating, all the while refraining from eating it – because chocolate must not be consumed until chocolate models are done.

And then, sadly, in the sweetest possible manner, this sweet adventure came to its end, but we are sure that Savremena’s students will keep returning to the Museum of Chocolate.