Choco-Story Bruges occupies a restored 15th-century merchant house on Wijnzakstraat, two blocks south of the Markt, where stone vaults and timber beams frame 4,000 years of cacao history across three floors and 1,000 square meters. The museum opened in 2004 as the first dedicated chocolate museum in Belgium, a country that produces 220,000 tonnes of chocolate annually and holds 2,100 chocolate shops for a population of 11 million. The ground-floor galleries trace cacao cultivation among the Maya and Aztec civilizations, displaying replica stone metates for grinding beans and ceramic vessels that held xocolātl, the bitter ceremonial drink reserved for nobility. Hernán Cortés brought cacao to Spain in 1528, but it took Belgian pharmacist Jean Neuhaus until 1912 to invent the filled praline, the chocolate shell technique that defines Belgian confectionery today. The museum's top floor hosts a working demonstration kitchen where chocolatiers temper couverture in copper bowls, pour liquid chocolate into polycarbonate molds, and hand-pipe ganache fillings using parchment cones. Bruges chocolate workshop kids tours incorporate these live demos alongside hands-on sessions where children aged four and older mold their own pralines, selecting fillings from hazelnut gianduja, caramel, and raspberry ganache. The workshop tables seat twelve participants at a time, with sessions running hourly from 10:00 to 17:00 daily. Each child receives a disposable apron, a tray of tempered dark or milk chocolate, and silicone molds shaped as hearts, shells, and animals. The process takes 25 minutes from pour to unmolding, with finished pralines boxed in branded take-home containers. Bruges produces no cacao beans but processes imported West African and South American varieties in seven artisan ateliers scattered across the old town, maintaining a craft tradition that predates industrial Lindt conching by six decades. The city's limestone cellars hold stable 16-degree temperatures year-round, ideal for aging ganache and storing tempered reserves. Choco-Story's permanent collection includes 19th-century European molds in tin and copper, advertising lithographs from the Belle Époque, and a working 1920s stone grinder that mills roasted nibs into paste during weekend demonstrations. The museum shop stocks single-origin bars from Ecuadorian Nacional and Madagascan Criollo beans, both rare varieties comprising less than 5% of global cacao production. The adjacent tasting counter offers callets of 70%, 80%, and 90% cacao for side-by-side comparison, illustrating how fermentation and roast profiles shift flavor from fruit-forward to tobacco-edged.