Craving chocolate? No need to feel guilty. Just head for the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, where chocoholics of all ages are welcome to indulge in a sensual delight. The Amazing Chocolate Tree, the Gardens’ new summer walk-through exhibition, makes Theobroma cacao or “food of the gods” something to rave about—crave it or not.
What’s to know about cacao (pronounced kah KOW)? Take the multi-sense-ational tour and find out. There are experiences for all ages and learning styles. Just follow your nose as the stations call to you with delicious sights, signs, and smells.
If you want more structure, just follow the guided tour included in the handout at the door. All 12 displays are neatly summarized and keyed on a map with Chocolate Challenge questions to peak your curiosity.
The giant timeline, a floor to ceiling storyboard of chocolate history, is an immediate attention-grabber. You’ll learn that the Aztecs first knew cacao as a bitter ceremonial drink and used the beans for trading. After the Spanish conquest, cacao became Spain’s well-kept secret (for 100 years); it was then revealed to France and, finally, the world.
“The Story of Chocolate,” a 15-minute movie, is just the right length. We see the backbone of today’s cacao industry is in tropical rainforests, where farmers harvest oval shaped pods by machete, watching for the moment the pod turns from orange to bright yellow to cut it from the tree. These small farms are responsible for 95 percent of global production; sustainable cultivation practices under the rainforest canopy, we learn, keep the natural biome alive. It’s comforting to know, too, that the World Cacao Foundation promotes biodiversity in lieu of larger factory-type plantations.
The movie also shows how the beans are ground into chocolate liquor, which is then separated into cacao butter and powder. But it’s even better to see this action in person at the kid-sized Chocolate Factory, where busy little hands can roast, winnow, grind, mix and mold while inhaling the aroma, a sensory marvel.
Dove is the national sponsor of this family-friendly exhibit, which is spread throughout the Gardens, including the large tropical conservatory, where kids are invited to hunt for five live cacao trees. Emily, a little 5-year old found several on her own, while these reporters were on the beat.
“She had fun looking for them” said Jackie Fitsimmons her grandma.
But the favorite spot for kids, and perhaps adults, too, is the Bean Scene, where visitors step inside a giant 20-foot cacao pod. Inside are four containers, each with a different product made from various tropical plants. Challenge: Pick up a container, sniff it, and see if you can identify what it is: Coffee perhaps? Or maybe Vanilla?
Brothers Austin, 5 and Nathan, 7, said they loved “smelling all the good stuff” in the Bean Scene and “eating the chocolate afterwards,” referring to the Dove chocolate treats that awaited them in the gift shop. (“You need to get your ticket stamped for it first at the Chocolate Factory,” cautioned Nathan.)
Another highlight is a tree made entirely of chocolate, 75 pounds of it, created by Scott Hunter, executive pastry chef of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.
Last stop: the Flower Dome, an outdoor stand-alone multimedia experience of the cacao flower, which is approximately the size of a dime, being fertilized by the pin head-sized midge fly. Sitting in the dark, listening to another tale of biodiversity, you can’t help but admire the gift of the rainforest to the world.
Also, if you have a chocolate lover in your life, be sure to hit the special chocolate display in the gift shop, so you can stock up for future present-giving occasions. What chocoholic wouldn’t love a dark brown long sleeved t-shirt with the word “chocolate” scribed in different languages? Or the individually-wrapped chocolates custom-made for the Meijer Gardens by MaryAnn’s Chocolates of Grand Rapids?
The café, too, is featuring special chocolate desserts “made fresh every day.” And, if nothing else, you’ll come away with some fun chocolate facts, such the Swiss consume 22.4 pounds of chocolate per person per year. That’s double the American appetite. It takes 12 beans to make a candy bar. And the Tootsie Roll was invented in 1898.
People are always looking for excuses to eat chocolate. But perhaps this exhibit can do the opposite: Use chocolate as an excuse to do something really nice for yourself: Visit the Meijer Gardens. After viewing the exhibit, keep going. Walk around and explore the sculpture park if you haven’t done so recently. (Finding Rodin’s “The Thinker” is a bit of a challenge, but worth the hike.)
Strolling the 125-acre park is a real treat – and it won’t go to your hips, either. In the meantime, see if you can guess what the only place is in the U.S. where the cacao tree grows. (Hint: Think tropical island.)
The Amazing Chocolate Tree exhibit runs through September 3, 2007.
Photographs courtesy of Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park