"Chocolate Factory" theme
park to open in Amsterdam
Fri Jun 30, 11:43 AM
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Amsterdam will get a theme
park dedicated to chocolate and inspired by Roald
Dahl's children's book "Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory," city officials and entrepreneurs said
Thursday.
Just like Dahl's fictional "Chocolate Factory" owned
by Willy Wonka, the main part of the "sweets
park" will be located underground, in a disused
railway tunnel which was handed over by the city
of Amsterdam in a ceremony Thursday.
The attraction, which is expected to open to the
public in two to three years, will feature a glass
elevator and a chocolate fountain, similar to the
book. It will also produce small amounts of chocolate.
"Ten years ago I made a radio play of the 'Chocolate
Factory' and ever since I've been fascinated by it," said
audio books publisher Maurits Rubinstein who started
the project.
The city of Amsterdam and Dutch construction company
BAM are supporting the plan, which will cost 20 million
euros, partly raised with bonds that parents and
grandparents can buy for their children and grandchildren.
Amsterdam is the world's biggest cocoa port, processing
around 30 percent of the world's cocoa beans from
countries like Ghana and Ecuador. It supplies the
key ingredient, cocoa paste, to major chocolate manufacturers
throughout Europe.
Amsterdam is also the place where Coenraad Johannes
van Houten invented the hydraulic cocoa press in
the 1820s, enabling the production of eating chocolate
alongside the already available drinking and cooking
varieties. He also came up with the process known
as "dutching" to create a mildly flavored
cocoa powder that mixes more easily with water.
An impression of how the Chocolate Factory will
look can be found by clicking on Impressie on www.dechocoladefabriek.nl.
