Warsaw opens doors to chocolate empire with new museum

For almost a century, the smell of chocolate was carried by the breeze in Warsaw's Kamionek neighbourhood, rising from the imposing Wedel factory -- the seat of a sweet-toothed country's most famous confectioner.

The giant white-walled plant has provided several generations of Poles with chocolate -- surviving the Second World War and political transformations -- with its sweets over time embodying national identity.

Its gates -- decorated with a giant W -- have been closed to the public for decades bar the odd school trip.

But this autumn, it has for the first time given a glimpse of life inside by opening its doors to house a chocolate museum.

"Fascinated by the legends" of the factory, Anna Szczepanik jumped on the occasion to visit it.

Her grandmother worked at the plant and she recalled playing with her collection of chocolate wrappers as a child.

"The history of Wedel is to some extent the story of most Varsovians," Szczepanik told AFP in the museum, as she tasted liquid chocolate poured from a tap onto a waffle.

While not being a chocolate giant like Belgium or Switzerland, Poland's Wedel brand goes back to the mid-19th century, making it ones of the oldest in the country.

"To some degree, we all in Warsaw have links to it," Szczepanik said.

- 'Taste of childhood' -

Inside, visitors can peek at the production lines of Poland's most loved sweets.

Across a glass wall separating the museum from the factory, workers stir giant cauldrons of a mix that will be made into bars of "chalwa" -- a popular treat in Poland.

In another room, visitors can see women stacking the already made product from a conveyor belt.

As he dipped his finger in a wall of pouring chocolate, visitor Krzysztof Darewicz -- who described himself as a "chocoholic" -- said Wedel delicacies were "the taste of his childhood."

Without giving away carefully guarded recipes, the exhibition includes information on "the sniffers" -- an elite group of around 20 people who guides said lead an exclusively healthy lifestyle to test and smell the chocolate.

While telling the story entirely from the company's perspective, it also touches on the controversial side of the European chocolate industry relying on African countries, beginning its exhibition with Ghanaian farms where Wedel gets its cocoa beans.

- 'Emotional link' -

Opened in 1937, the factory is deeply rooted in Warsaw and one of the oldest non-stop functioning work places in the capital.

"People not only know it but they also feel it because of the sweet smell," the museum's director, Robert Zydel, told AFP.

With the Wedel brand going back 150 years, it has provided some continuity through tumultuous eras, he said.

"Many people have a very emotional link with this brand," Zydel said.

It all started with confectioner Karl Wedel coming to Warsaw from Berlin, opening a pastry shop in the 1850s.

His son Emil opened a chocolate shop in central Warsaw, expanding the business.

But it was the third Wedel -- Jan -- who was the real visionary, taking over in the inter-war years and setting up the current factory, becoming somewhat of a Polish Willy Wonka.

"He dropped coupons from a plane for people to collect to exchange for chocolate," Zydel said.

He toured European confectioneries, looking for the perfect product, leading to the creation of Wedel's now trademark Ptasie Mleczko (which translates as "bird's milk") -- a rectangular white mousse covered in chocolate.

- 'Directed by the smell' -

His dream, however, ended with the new post-war communist authorities who nationalised the factory and kicked him out.

"Legend has it he used to sit on that bench looking at the kingdom he lost," Zydel said, pointing to a spot outside in Skaryszewski Park.

The communists changed the brand name to "July 22nd" in honour of their constitution, but it did not catch on.

In modern Poland it passed through various owners and is now part of South Korea's LOTTE Group.

But for the people of Warsaw, the chocolates remained the same.

Outside the plant, Danuta Katkowska was sipping a cup of cherry dark chocolate.

The retired midwife recalled how chocolate helped sweeten things up thoughout her life: "Their cakes changed everything."

Katkowska was not planning to visit the museum, but her taste buds led her there.

"I was just walking by but the smell directed me and now I have to go."

oc/mmp/rl