Chocolala Chocolate Museum facts for kids
| Chocolala Šokolaadimuuseum | |
Exterior view of the Building
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| Established | June 1, 2018 |
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| Location | Suur-Karja 20, Tallinn, Estonia |
| Type | Specialty museum |
| Founder | Kristi Lehtis |
The Chocolala Chocolate Museum (Estonian: Chocolala Šokolaadimuuseum) is a special museum all about the history of chocolate making in Estonia. It is located in the beautiful Tallinn Old Town, close to Freedom Square, Tallinn.
Contents
Discovering Chocolate History
The Chocolala Chocolate Museum first opened its doors on June 1, 2018. It was founded by Kristi Lehtis, who is a well-known Estonian chocolate maker and collector of chocolate art. The main goal of the museum is to teach visitors about the long history of Estonian chocolate and its traditions, which date all the way back to 1806.
The Museum Building
The museum is found in an old, historic building at Suur-Karja Street 20. This building was constructed between 1899 and 1900. It was designed by architects Rudolf von Engelhardt and Nikolai Thamm Junior for the German Club in Tallinn.
The building has rooms arranged around a central courtyard. The main hall faces Suur-Karja street. Over the years, the building was updated several times, in 1922, 1928, and 1938. At different times, it housed the Krediit Bank and the main Post Office. There was even a bowling alley in the basement!
Today, the building holds many business offices. The Chocolala Chocolate Museum is located in the basement, in what used to be a bank vault.
What You Can See
The museum has about 1,500 items on display in a space of 150 square meters. These items include:
- Old chocolate boxes
- Wrappings
- Molds for chocolate and marzipan
You can also watch old movies from the 1930s and 1950s that show how Estonian chocolate was made. The museum also displays unique art pieces by Estonian artists. These include:
- A large chocolate sculpture inspired by a work from Simson von Seakyl
- A dress made entirely from chocolate wrappers
- A wall painting of the Mayan God Quetzalcoatl
- A real cocoa tree
A Sweet History of Tallinn
Tallinn has been making sweets for over 200 years! A group of sugar bakers, who made cakes, chocolate, marmalade, and marzipan, existed as early as the 18th century. Marzipan was especially popular in Tallinn since the Middle Ages. It was even sold at the Town council pharmacy of Tallinn to help with sad feelings or to make your brain work better!
The 19th Century Sweet Start
In 1806, a Swiss-trained sugar baker named Lorenz Cawiezel bought a house in Tallinn and opened a confectionery shop. This shop was located where the famous Café Maiasmokk is today. Later, in 1864, Georg Stude bought the property and made the shop even bigger. His new chocolate and marzipan sweets became very famous, even reaching the Tsar's court in Saint Petersburg!
The Golden Age of Estonian Sweets (1900–1940)
The time when Estonia was an independent republic (1918–1940) was a "golden age" for Estonian confectioners. The local sweet-making industry grew very fast in the mid-1920s. Even though it slowed down during the economic crisis of 1929–1933, it quickly recovered. This was because new rules made it cheaper to import raw ingredients for sweets and more expensive to import finished sweets. This helped Estonian companies become very good at making their own candies.
About ten big sweet factories were active in Tallinn during the 1920s and 1930s. Kawe, Ginovker, Brandmann, and Klausson were the largest. Smaller companies like G. Stude, Riola, Efekt, Endla, Eelis, and Soliid were also strong competitors. In 1937, Kawe made 1,416 tonnes of sweets, Ginovker made 573 tonnes, and Brandmann made 483 tonnes. In total, the sweet industry produced over 3,000 tonnes of sweets in 1937!
Kawe: A Sweet Success Story
Kawe was started by two brothers, Karl and Kolla Wellner, from Sangaste, Estonia. They had owned a chocolate factory in St. Petersburg before the 1917 Russian Revolution. They began their business in Tallinn at 62 Müürivahe Street, first making chocolates, then adding caramel, marmalade, and other candies. Because they had so much experience, they made high-quality sweets that were popular both in Estonia and in other countries. They started exporting their products in 1925.
To stay competitive, Kawe kept growing and modernizing. They built new buildings, updated their equipment, and opened new shops in Tallinn, Tartu, and other Estonian towns. As they exported more, they opened trade offices in cities like London, New York, Stockholm, and Paris. Kawe sweets were especially popular in Sweden, England, and the USA. By the late 1930s, Kawe employed almost 500 people and made 43% of all Estonian sweets.
Ginovker: From Small to Big
The Ginovkers' family business, first called Orjol, began in Tallinn in 1906. It started as a small workshop with just a few workers. By the early 1920s, it had grown into a large business. They also started making biscuits and cookies. From 1929, they produced chocolate sweets under the name Chocolate and Biscuit Confectionery Ginovker & Ko. By the early 1930s, Ginovker was the main biscuit maker in Estonia, with many different kinds of products. Their most famous sweets were toffees and caramel candies called Vähjad (Crawfish) and Barbarissi-segu (Barberry mix). Candy jars filled with liqueur, peppermint, and fruit drops were also popular. Their biscuits came in tea, milk, cocoa, and chocolate flavors. Ginovkers' products were sent to Europe, South-Asia, the Middle East, and other places. The company employed 250 people.
Brandmann: Innovation in Sweets
August Brandmann's Confectionery started in 1901 with only four workers. It quickly became successful, winning the Grand Prix at an international exhibition in Rome in 1913. In 1933, the company moved to a new location. In 1936, August's son, Elmar, took over. Elmar, who was educated in Britain, made Brandmann one of the most creative Estonian chocolate makers. Brandmann's Confectionery was the first company in Estonia to produce cocoa powder and cocoa butter. By the end of 1939, the business employed 165 people.
Klausson: A Prize-Winning Confectionery
Rudolf Klausson's Confectionery was established in 1920. By 1930, they offered over 30 kinds of fruit drops, lozenges, chocolate, and biscuits. In 1927, they also started making coffee. That same year, Klausson's Confectionery won the gold medal at the Tallinn fair.
Riola: Exporting Sweets Worldwide
Robert Weinreich founded Riola (originally called Chocolate Confectionery Gloria) in 1922. After some changes, AS Robert Holst & Ko took over Riola. The company's best period was in 1937/38 when it bought a large building at 150 Pärnu Road. The factory had modern equipment and employed 124 people. Riola made fruit drops, lozenges, caramel, dragée, and chocolate bars and sweets. A large part of their production, especially caramel, was exported to the US, South America, Canada, Africa, India, Palestine, and several European countries.
The Sweet Market (1918–1940)
As more companies started making sweets, advertising and design became very important. Shops became attractive with their beautifully designed chocolate bars and boxes of all shapes and sizes. Colorful jars of sweet-smelling caramel were arranged in spiral rows. The atmosphere in these shops was truly special.
The main shops of these companies were modern, with shiny display cases and glass shelves. In 1936, Kawe opened a new shop on Freedom Square, Tallinn. Meta Kelgo, who was the Estonian beauty queen of 1929, worked there as a shop assistant!
The luxurious Stude shop, which is now the Maiasmokk Café, kept its original design. It was made even more special by the unique designs of the chocolate boxes and painted marzipan figures.
Product design was very important. The designs on chocolate boxes, bars, and advertisements show us the fashions, tastes, and changing styles of the past. You can see how styles changed from the fancy Art Nouveau to the sleek Art Deco, which suited the city life of that time.
People of all ages loved sweets. So, the designs on the sweets covered many different topics. Younger kids could find fairy-tale characters. Older kids might see popular film stars like Shirley Temple or pictures related to current news, like the Canadian quintuplets. Along with traditional Estonian heroes, modern Art Deco men and women were also shown. The topics were well-planned, like Brandmann's series "Vilsandi Birds" or "People's Candy." There were also funny series like "Ermos lazybones" or Brandmann's "Max and Moorits," "Society," and "European People." World events were also reflected; for example, Brandmann made a chocolate bar for the 1940 Helsinki Olympic Games, which were canceled because of World War II. Sweets had fun names like Princess, Ballerina, Mermaid, Cabaret, Boxing, Lazybones, Sultan, Haiti, Hummingbird, Max and Moorits, Youth, Kiss-kiss, Netti, Maie, Gita, Eve, and Crawfish.
The Soviet Era (1940–1991)
In 1940, all the existing sweet-making businesses in Estonia became government-owned.
Five companies—Efekt, Eelis, Endla, Soliid, and Ermos—were combined with Kawe. This combined company continued to be called Kawe until 1948. On April 1, 1948, the company was renamed the Kalev Confectionery Factory.
Also, Riola, Stude, and Brandmann were merged into a new sweet company called Karamell. In 1958, a new company called Uus Kalev, which had opened a year earlier, took over Karamell.
Finally, in 1962, Uus Kalev and Kalev merged to become what is now known as the Kalev confectionery factory. During the Soviet period, Kalev made sweets for Estonia and for the entire former Soviet Union.
Museum Support
The Chocolala Chocolate Museum is a private non-profit organization. It gets help from the City of Tallinn's museums, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, the Estonian national archives, and from private collectors and people who love chocolate history. Admission to the museum is free!
Gallery
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A dress composed with chocolate wrappings entirely
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A large chocolate Sculpture inspired by a work of Simson von Seakyl
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Quetzacoatl wall painting
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Molds, boxes and ads
See also
- Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design
