Lindt Museum in Zurich: Home of the Finest Chocolate Culture

If you’d like a piece of this happiness for yourself, head to the small Swiss community of Kilchberg on the western shore of Lake Zurich. Back in 1899, this was where Messrs Lindt and Sprüngli joined forces to create a chocolate empire that still drives chocolate lovers across the world wild with joy. The company’s long history, which turned Swiss chocolate into a cultural asset for the nation, reached its zenith in 2020 with the opening of a museum, the like of which you won’t find anywhere else in the world. Zurich undoubtedly has many sights worth seeing, but the Lindt Home of Chocolate in particular has been a non-negotiable on the bucket list of many a visitor to Switzerland ever since it opened. And even locals love to drop by and grab a square of chocolate – or quite possibly two – when they can.

Every year, the Lindt Museum near Zurich plays host to around half a million visitors. The design for the building, which was erected right next to the original chocolate factory, was drawn up by Swiss architects Christ & Gantenbein. From the outside, it looks distinctly hidden away, but this is far from the first impression you get when you walk into the building itself: flooded with light, its stylish blend of glass and concrete creates an airy atmosphere that lends the museum’s theme of chocolate a surprising touch of elegance.

Even in the entrance area, you’ll be enveloped by a feeling of minimalism and finesse, while your gaze will inevitably be drawn to the liquid chocolate in the incredible 9-metre-high chocolate fountain. This fascinating centrepiece somehow manages to have no less than 1.4 tonnes of the brown gold flowing downwards from a seemingly weightless whisk.

As soon as you’ve had your fill of the impressive building itself – and the largest chocolate fountain in Switzerland – head on a tour of the museum. There are lots of different sections where you’ll be able to find out more about the history of chocolate, how it’s made and its significance both then and now.

The most important ingredient in chocolate production is the cocoa bean. At the Lindt Museum near Zurich, you can trace its journey right back to its origins in Ghana and get a glimpse into the lives of the cocoa farmers there. Find out what they look out for when harvesting the sweet fruit and how the beans are processed afterwards. Did you know that in countries where the cocoa tree grows, children love to suck the beans from the fruit like sweets? That’s because the 20 to 60 beans hidden in every fruit are encased in a sweet pulp. It’s facts like these that will make your journey through the origins of chocolate an entertaining and educational experience.

In the next section of the Lindt Home of Chocolate, you’ll journey back in time to Central America to the heart of the Olmec and Maya civilisations. They were using cocoa in their ceremonies and making it into a drink thousands of years before Christ. Back then, however, cocoa had little to do with the sweet chocolate we know today – it was exceptionally bitter and would probably only appeal to a select few even now. With a lot of sugar and honey added to it, however, it became an exotic treat in the royal courts of Europe in the 18th century and was highly coveted. You’ll learn all this and more at each of the interactive stations of the exhibition, which will tell you how the bitter drink of yesteryear became the sweet temptation we know today.

Following your excursion to the Central America of the Neolithic period, you’ll be whisked back to the Europe of the 19th century, when Rodolphe Lindt made chocolate socially acceptable far beyond the Swiss borders with his invention of the conching machine in 1879. In this part of the exhibition in the Lindt Museum near Zurich, you’ll come face to face with the creative inventor, who has been brought back to life as a 3D projection. But it wasn’t just Lindt who started the triumphant march of chocolate from Switzerland to the rest of the world; two men called Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé also played their part by introducing the first Swiss milk chocolate to the market in 1875. After that, there was no stopping it. Switzerland became the undisputed 'Land of Chocolate' and is still regarded as the home of the popular cocoa product today.

Don’t worry – before the tour continues to production, you’ll get some sustenance to keep up your strength, and in a very special round shape no less. Lindor truffles have been around since 1969, when Lindt & Sprüngli launched them on the market as a Christmas speciality. The disappointment when these seasonal products in their festive red wrapper disappeared was so great that the chocolate pioneers soon reintroduced the little round temptation back onto the shelves. There are currently 10 varieties available, but the Maîtres Chocolatiers have around 45 Lindor flavours up their sleeves and are constantly working on new creations. Why not sample all of them at the Lindt Museum near Zurich while you’re there? The question is – how many of them can you actually eat?

Now you’ve had a chance to get your blood sugar back up, it’s time to go behind the scenes of the chocolate making itself. Find out how Lindt makes its chocolate so creamy, how the beans are selected, ground and roasted, and how the aromas and flavours only fully develop in the conch invented by Rodolphe Lindt. Nuts, fruits and spices provide the sophisticated interplay of textures that make the various Lindt products so special.

At the end of the tour, you’ll end up in the research facility, where you’ll learn how the Maîtres Chocolatiers in the Lindt Museum near Zurich develop new recipes and refine the established manufacturing processes. How do they get the filling into the chocolate? What gives it its typical shape? And how does a machine wrap the all-important protective film around these exquisite treats? Get ready to learn all about these aspects in the last section of the exhibition.

It’s not just the exhibition itself and the huge Lindt shop that attract thousands of visitors every year, but also the wide range of courses and events that take place regularly in the Lindt Museum near Zurich. The chocolate courses where you can learn to create your own masterpieces are usually the ones that sell out the most quickly. Why not test your creativity and make a bar, pralines or an Easter bunny? There are virtually no limits to what you can create here! And it’s worth knowing that Lindt also keeps up with the latest trends – so if you’re a Schoggi fan who loves the Dubai chocolate craze, there’s a course here just for you on how to create your own Dubai chocolate. Or if you fancy something a bit more sophisticated, let the Maîtres Chocolatiers give you an introduction to the perfect chocolate and wine pairings. And if you’re coming as a group, you can of course book these events at the Lindt Home of Chocolate exclusively for your group.

Thus declared the former Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer, and he may just be right. So why not take some time to try this exquisite medicine for yourself at the Lindt Museum near Zurich? And if you're enjoying a journey through the Land of Chocolate, don't forget to check out our handy guide to the perfect weekend in Geneva.

• Schokoladenplatz 1, 8802 Kilchberg, Switzerland
• Open 10am–7pm daily
• Admission CHF 17 for adults, children 7 and under are free of charge. Due to the high demand for tickets, it's a good idea to book tickets online before you go
• Bus: line 165 from Bürkliplatz to the Lindt & Sprüngli stop. Boat: 3731 from Bürkliplatz to the Kilchberg ZH stop. Train: S8 or S24 to Kilchberg ZH. Please note that car parking spaces are limited and you will have to pay for parking, so the best way to get to the museum is by public transport