Life is Like a Box of Belgian Chocolate
You never know what you’re gonna get!
I write these lines with my 70% dark chocolate, which I let slowly melt in my mouth. A few weeks ago, I would have preferred the milky one and devoured it in a few bites, but after I visited the chocolate museum in Antwerp in December 2022, I couldn’t be the same as before (at least not yet:)).
My perspective on chocolate, which had always place in my life, changed phase by phase.
The first phase was like traveling toward to origin
I entered in Museum without any expectations other than eating chocolate. After getting the tickets we started to wait in front of a tightly enclosed double-leaf metal door, it was like we were preparing to embark on an adventure in Charlie’s Chocolate factory.
The door slowly opened and after letting us in, it closed behind us. With the light cut off, we(a small group of visitors) found ourselves in a dim room. A video was projected on the floor, we started to watch it from the bird’s eye by leaning against the bars placed in the center of the room in the form of a balcony.
A forest appeared first. Cocoa was born in the fruits of the trees in the forest. The fruits were collected by the African family. As we watched them, it was as if we were breathing the moist air in this forest near the equator together. They covered hundreds of wet beans that they extracted from the fruit. The family waited a few days for the beans to ferment. Then they carefully laid them out for an airing, protected the beans from the rain, selected the good ones among them with their hands, filled them in sacks, and carried them to the warehouses.
Ships carrying sacks from the remote small warehouse in Africa crossed the far seas. Eventually, the beans reached the port of Antwerp.
After monitoring the journey of the tiny cocoa bean in this room where the adventure began, through another opening door we went to the next room.
We were left there with a medium-sized leafy tree and the sounds of birds. The tree bloomed with the images projected on it, exotic fruits formed, and gradually they grew. As we watched this, our relationship with this shuttle-shaped fruit also grew, and it looked amazing to us.
While experiencing this admiration, the next room opened. When its door closed behind us, the huge machine mounted on the wall in front of us caught our attention. The gears, cylinders, and levers were set in motion. Combined with the images projected on it, this fairy-tale cycle began to separate the beans, roast them, mash them and extract the raw materials needed for the chocolate.
The second phase started with an imaginary tee break
When the time came, we are invited to the room which had stylishly prepared 5 o’clock tea tables in it. We sat on one of them. Little people, which are projected on the table, placed on our plates ice cream that was freshly sphered from the snow, chocolate sauce that was squeezed from the tanker, and raspberry decorations that were thrown with a spoon(used as a lever by this tiny person). Of course, there was no real ice cream on the plate but it was satisfying enough watching and dreaming.
After this sweet surprise, we entered the office of one of the enterprises in the 1900s, when cocoa beans were first eaten as chocolate.
On a long table stood the telephone, notebook, calculator, scale, and cash register that were used at that time, allowing several people to work side by side.
Raw or processed cacao beans were sold there. Cacao materials reached small shops, where they turned into delicious chocolates that could be made in limited numbers, reaching a very small number of buyers in their stylish packages.
The third phase was full of inspiration
In this large room, I’ve witnessed how over the past 100 years, innovations in the field and creative ideas to solve problems have brought chocolate to what we eat today.
For example, drop chocolate and bar-shaped chocolate, which are very common today, was method, that was found as a solution by the chocolate-makers who were once trying to cope with the difficulties of transporting in liquid form.
Guylian was once a small shop by the beach. He and his wife were selling chocolates they made by hand inspired by the sea to attract the attention of customers.
The Hearth of the Factory
After this section, we reached the heart of the “Chocolate Factory” through corridors decorated with funny photographs, colorful lighted word-arts, and rooms full of great chocolate sculptures.
In this room that adorned my dreams, various kinds of chocolates flowed from the fountains (automatic little machines, of course:)). We filled the spoon in our hands under the fountains and gulped up the hot chocolates.
I confess I’ve lined up a few times to get a taste of some of them more. I guess if this room was the first room, I would be eliminated in the first place, like Augustus Gloop in the novel :).
My sweet transformation
But I think my transformation started there. Every chocolate I tasted after experiencing the origin opened a path for me to feel the cocoa beans in their essence.
I realized that chocolate comes from an earth plant and that it is already whole, and delicious without the addition of marshmallows, caramels, wafers, and biscuits(they are still nice to have:)).
The piece I just threw in my mouth is finished now and I am happy that I can taste it very well. The taste of the plant in the essence of the chocolate I eat reaches me, through the door that opened on my palate, despite its long journey.
My son once told me about the chocolate meditation they did in yoga classes. They sat and focused on it, throwing a small piece of chocolate into their mouths and just waiting for it to melt without chewing. Now I can do it too:).
Reflections
If I visit such a museum for bread, tea, and coffee, would it be possible for me to experience them differently than I always do?
Likewise, can I find more meaning and taste in what is happening in my life already?
How happy you are if you are one of the lucky people who find meaning and taste in what is in your life already!
Sincerely
P.S. If you would like to visualize this experience better, you may watch the Museum’s introductory video(7.38 mins) at this link.
