„Let us create a chocolate bar that fits into every pocket without breaking, but with regular weight!,“ suggested Clara Ritter in 1932 to the rest of her family of chocolate producers. Although the chocolate company had already been founded in 1912, it was the characteristic square chocolate bar, which they named “Ritter Sport,” that brought success. We went to their Ritter Sport museum in Berlin.
Colourful Chocolate squares at Ritter Sport
Today you can buy the colourfully packaged chocolate squares in 103 countries, almost all over the world. At the Gendarmenmarkt in the centre of Berlin the company has set up their „Colorful ChocoWorld,“ basically a shop containing a small exhibition and restaurant.
„Even as you enter the ChocoWorld there’s an irresistibly tempting aroma of chocolate,“ promises the homepage. But when we entered, someone was smoking a joint in the vicinity, and the smell smothered anything else.
Inside, as expected, there is a LOT of chocolate you can buy. Besides the 100 gram bars in every colour and taste, there are smaller and bigger and VERY BIG chocolate bars on offer. Usually they sell two or three test versions and seasonal varieties in this shop that may or may not make it into the regular product line. We rather liked the shop decoration, as did most kids as far as we could see: a tower of giant chocolate bars piled up to the ceiling. In spite of the overwhelming choice we did not buy any of the Ritter Sport chocolate bars though, because actually we do not like the Ritter Sport chocolate that much.
Make your own chocolate
But we did try the shop’s speciality and much-advertised fun activity. It’s not all that active, in fact: For 3.90 €, visitors can choose between milk chocolate and dark chocolate and add three ingredients of their own choice to create their own chocolate bar variety. We decided for sugar gold stars, hazelnuts and cocoa nibs. You can watch the shop assistant pouring the melted chocolate in the square mould and add your chosen ingredients. The bar then goes into the fridge and is ready for pick-up 30 minutes later – packaged in a printed paper box, to our disappointment, rather than shrink-wrapped in the brand’s signature foil.
After a quick walk through the chocolate exhibition (nothing special if you have seen chocolate museums like the one in Cologne) we ended our visit in the also quite colourful restaurant. Unsurprisingly, they specialise in chocolate dishes and drinks: We had some chocolate cake with melted chocolate core and vanilla ice cream, which was sumptuous and quite tasty, and a marzipan cocoa made with melted marzipan chocolate. There would also have been chocolate fondue.
Altogether it’s a very sweet experience, but probably more fun if you have kids to bring.
Ritter Sport Museum
Colorful ChocoWorld Berlin
Französische Str 24
10117 Berlin
More chocolate travel and chocolate museums
If you are a chocolate lover you may want to go to Belgium, famous for its chocolate, but also other sweets – and perfectly vegetarian (French) fries. More sporty? Then we recommend a cycling trip in Austria along the River Drau: in just one day, you can stop for several chocolate tastings!
Have you been to a chocolate museum anywhere in the world? Was it a sweet experience?
If you are in Berlin you could also try a self-guided audio tour through Berlin center. Read here about our experience!
NB: We had no sponsoring for this post about the World of Ritter Sport Chocolate Museum in Berlin.
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I haven’t been to a chocolate museum before. It seems interesting. I also have only made my own chocolate with those candy melts from the store, so making real chocolate would be an experience even if it only required adding a few ingredients.
Dear Donna, visiting a chocolate museum and learning about the process from the chocolate bean to the product is fun! The Ritter Sport chocolate is very famous and also unique in Europe. So it was also quite interesting to learn a bit about the history of the company.
We would never pass by a place that celebrates chocolate. So will have to put the Ritter Sport Museum on our plans if we get to Berlin. That aroma of chocolate in the air might make it hard to leave. We would certainly want to make our own bars with dark chocolate. Finishing with a chocolate dish in the restaurant sounds perfect to us chocoholics
Dear Linda, I think you would love it! It is really fun and you can let out the inner child!
I grew up eating only Ritter Sport, the popular German chocolate. So, I would definitely want to go to the museum- and maybe head straight to the restaurant to try some of the creations. Good to know the one to seek out is in Koln, if given a choice between the 2 cities. Vielen dank.
Dear Renee, the museum in Cologne is a chocolate museum not affiliated with any chocolate company. So it really tries to give an unbalanced overview over the chocolate making industry.