Schokoladenmuseum Dresden, Chocolate museum in Dresden, Germany.

The Schokoladenmuseum Dresden is a museum about chocolate making in the city, showing the entire journey from cocoa beans to finished products. Interactive displays and live demonstrations explain each step of this process.

Dresden began industrial cocoa processing around 1823, when Jordan & Timaeus opened the city's oldest chocolate factory; that firm invented milk chocolate in 1839. By 1910 Dresden led German chocolate production, with 26 chocolate and sugar factories employing over 4,000 people. The businessman Ivo Schaffer privately founded and financed this museum, which opened in April 2019.

The museum's name recalls Dresden's own chocolate history: Jordan & Timaeus, founded in 1823, is considered the city's oldest chocolate factory and is credited with inventing milk chocolate in 1839. Exhibits feature packaging of the Dominostein, created in 1936 by Dresden chocolatier Herbert Wendler, and of the Tell-Apfel, invented by the Dresden firm Hartwig & Vogel.

The museum is privately run and sits directly opposite the Dresdner Residenzschloss, so it is easily reached on foot from the old town centre. The exhibition is laid out in two parts: the first covers the history of Dresden chocolate production, the second follows the cocoa bean through fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding, rolling and conching. Allow time for both sections.

At the CAMONDAS tasting counter, visitors can compare historical chocolate recipes with modern products. This shows how taste and manufacturing have evolved over 150 years.