By Elaine Whelan
For anyone who knows anything about children, they know that children love chocolate. For anyone who also knows anything about the Netherlands, they know that Tony’s Chocolonely is the country’s favourite brand of chocolate. After scoffing more than a few bars on my past trips to Amsterdam, it’s easy to see why it’s so popular with the Dutch.
Tony’s is set to become even more popular however with the announcement of their new chocolate factory theme park- ‘Tony’s Chocolonely Chocolate Circus’. The Amsterdam-based architecture company ‘SeARCH’, has revealed the rendering for the project and it is being compared to something straight out of Roald Dahl’s famous ‘Charlie and The Chocolate Factory’.
The company purchased an old flour warehouse in 2018 in Zaandam, a city just north of Amsterdam and plans to convert the warehouse into a state of the art factory which is linked to a more contemporary factory unit by a giant rollercoaster. The roller-coaster will be housed in an impressive red pavilion. The details of the roller-coaster itself have yet to be announced but it is sure to be both a sugar rush and an adrenaline rush all in one!
Tony’s Chocolonely began in 2005 with a mission to end slavery on cocoa farms and provide a transparent Fairtrade chocolate production. An official statement released at the time of purchase of the Zaandam property said that the complex would be ‘a total experience, where you can learn and experience everything about chocolate, the problems in the cocoa industry and what Tony’s Chocolonely does about it’. The factory is planned to contain a restaurant, a shop, and hopefully plenty of chocolate samples.
The project is estimated to be complete by the year 2024 and is set to cost more than 100 million euros. Tony’s Chocolonely expects that the opening of the chocolate circus complex will create more than 600 jobs in the Zaandam area and hopes to welcome 500,000 visitors a year.
With no golden ticket needed, your kids are sure to be salivating to visit. I know I sure am! It’s sure to be a trip choc full of adventure.
