Nestlé, which sells 2,7 million chocolates a day worldwide, has chosen Mexico, the cradle of candy, to create a twenty-first century chocolate experience. El Reino del Chocolate, in Toluca on the outskirts of Mexico City, is an avant-garde building, designed by the young studio Rojkind Arquitectos, in which angles and minimalism prevail.
The entrance to this kingdom, far from looking like a palace, is an irregular trapezoid framed with white neons that leads to a spacious and abstract hall where the only decorative element are poufs. In this design castle, the introductory video to the visit is projected on a triple screen with a postmodern air. Although the history of cacao is about Mayans and Aztecs, the aesthetics of the enclosure is closer to video games and rap. The route, which takes more than an hour, has sections like The Asepsis Chamber: a white corridor like the ones in Star Wars, where the kids, wrapped in a haze of dry ice, have to put on gowns and shoe covers . There are also sections with black light or bright laser light effects.
This museum concept, more and more widespread among food companies, is that visits do not interrupt production, but at the same time leave with something learned and enjoy an interactive experience. To achieve this, the Nestlé tour is full of games and explanations of the type: "Every day we use 180 tons of sugar, the weight of 30 elephants" or "Every second we make 16 tablets, in a year, one after another, they would go around to the world". The factory is seen to pieces of the industrial secret, but there are points where binoculars have been placed to "peek" more closely how the thick black and bitter gold of the Mayans is turned into very sweet tablets wrapped in paper.
This article has been shared 87 times. We have spent many hours collecting this information. If you liked it, share it, please: