ABOUT
The Chocolate Museum is an independent museum established by Isabelle Alaya, a French artisan chocolatier, who started her own brand, Melange Chocolate, in the UK in 2008. Our collection encompasses a range of objects and memorabilia acquired over many years from different merchants and collectors.
The Chocolate Museum opened its doors in March 2013. It was located in the colourful and vibrant area of Brixton (London) in the historic and conservation area of Ferndale Road until February 2023. Our aim is to represent the UK chocolate industry as well as to provide visitors with accurate information and quality products.
We stock ethically sourced chocolates produced by independent bean-to-bar makers and focus on single origins chocolate bars as well as on the adventurous flavours of Melange Chocolate, blending fruits, spices and herbs.
We run a very dynamic programme of workshops for the whole family as well as for schools, or special occasions where we use UTZ certified chocolate in support of cocoa farmers.
WE ARE NOW LOOKING FOR NEW PREMISES OR SHARE A SPACE WITH ANOTHER CULTURAL INSTITUTION
PLEASE CALL US OR EMAIL US IF YOU KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING
OUR PROJECTS
for 2023/2024
The Chocolate Museum is now well established. Our main activities focus on education, and our permanent exhibition is always free to visit. Since we moved out, we'll soon have a virtual exhibition available to see online.
The number of visitors has grew steadily over the years and our workshops were busier than ever before Covid19. We now hope to resume our activities and projects soon and become a permanent feature for London.
With this in mind, the Chocolate Museum is now looking into relocating, so we can provide visitors with a physical exhibition space and offer more creative events and workshops.
We are happy to study all proposals coming our way;
If you believe in us, please support us!
Thank you in advance,
WHO WE ARE
ISABELLE ALAYA, The Chocolate Museum Founder & Director
Working as an artisanal chocolatier for over 12 years, Isabelle Alaya is the mind behind The Chocolate Museum. Housing her growing collection of chocolate-related artefacts, the museum functions as a venue where her passion and interest in cocoa, chocolate history and British chocolate makers can be shared and passed on. She also runs
The Melange Chocolate Shop (Peckham, London).
ALESSANDRA FERRINI, Art Director and Education Liaison
Alessandra Ferrini is the creator of The Chocolate Museum’s visual identity and of all interpretation material. She has curated the permanent exhibition, and perfected the education programme. She has also designed the museum's displays and identity.
LAURA REIMAN, Art & Culture, Press and Social Media
Laura is very creative and a hands-on conceptual artist building objects from scratch; her kowledge about chocolate is very impressive, she loves transforming cocoa beans into bars, paint with chocolate and uses unique tasting techniques of crossmodal correspondances (matching 2 different senses: taste & colour).
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
MITSUSHIGE NISHIWAKI, flyer Illustrator (website link)
RACHEL LYNN STYLE, Choco-Tale Development
CUMALI OGEL, Cocoa & Slavery Exhibition Researcher
DOROTHY DUNN, Interpretation and Archival Work
THOMAS SILVA, Marketing & Social Media
MARIA VEIGA, Manager 2018-2020
KATHARINE DAVIS, Design of A-Z Chocolate History Challenge 2020
CRAIG METHVEN, History tour and visitor experience facilitator
CHIARA PANDOLFI, Facilitator and specialised in Sen
AND TO ALL OUR MARKETING INTERNS
PAST & PRESENT:
SANDRINE SASITHARAN, LAMIAE EL HIRECH, HOLLY OBERLE, BERENGER TA, ELISABETH HERVY, ALEXANDRA FARANCE, TEBS MALEKE, CLEMENTINE GUILLAUME.