Chocolate: The Exhibition

This exhibit is now closed. See current exhibits.

Chocolate engages your senses and reveals aspects of this sumptuous sweet that you’ve never thought about before.

Guests had the chance to explore the plant, the products, and the culture of chocolate through the lenses of science, history, and popular culture.

Highlights of the Exhibition      

Tropical Rainforest. Enter a lush, tropical rainforest and examine a replica of a cacao tree with its seed pods, the source of chocolate. Learn about the complex ecosystem that supports the healthy growth of this remarkable plant.

The Ancient Maya. See how scientists traced the origins of chocolate consumption to the ancient Maya, who are the first people known to turn the bitter seeds into a spicy drink for use in royal and religious ceremonies.

The Aztec. Explore an interactive Aztec marketplace, where valuable cacao seeds were used as money, to learn the purchasing power of a handful of beans.

Chocolate Comes to Europe. The Spanish conquest of the Americas introduced chocolate to Europe. Learn what happened when chocolate first met sugar. See how the wealthiest consumers satisfied their chocolate cravings.

Chocolate Manufacturing. Take a look at the sweet side of the Industrial Revolution—the steady stream of new inventions and creative advertising that brought chocolate bars to the masses.

Chocolate as a Global Commodity. Who grows cacao? Which country consumes the most chocolate? Explore the relationship between cacao production and trade across the world. Trace its ups and downs in the world market, and see how cacao is grown by farmers today.

Utah is the home of America's oldest known chocolate

Utah has a long love affair with chocolate.  New research suggests Ancestral Puebloan people living in a village near Blanding, Utah were consuming chocolate as early as 750 AD. Don’t miss the chance to see pottery with the earliest evidence of chocolate discovered in the United States.