Imagine entering a tropical climate after a walk through the bitter Wisconsin winter weather. The sound of birds chirping in the distance can be heard over the soft bubbling of a miniature waterfall. The room is filled with an overpowering scent of freshness, cultivated through the accumulation of nearly 700 tropical plants. Just walking into Olbrich Botanical Garden’s new exhibit, “Chocolate: The Bitter and the Sweet” itself is an experience well worth the $1 entrance fee.
While the atmosphere itself is pleasing to the senses, “Chocolate: The Bitter and the Sweet” offers up more than a toasty temperature. Staying true to its mission, Olbrich Botanical Gardens provides its guests with a Green experience, treating them to a tropical paradise, as well as imparting such critical topics as rainforest deforestation and proper treatment of farmers.
In a recent interview with The Badger Herald, Jane Nicholson, Olbrich’s education director, and Cindy Cary, Olbrich’s tropical plant and wildlife assistant, spoke on how this new display tackles the obstacle of being both an enlightening and engaging experience.
“I think [the exhibit] is an opportunity for people to actually see a cacao tree and learn some information that they may not know, despite how much they eat chocolate and think they’re familiar with it,” Nicholson said.
True to these words, the exhibit hosts not one, but two cacao trees, from which seeds are cultivated and used to create chocolate. The exhibit also features banana, herrania and annatto trees, as well as the aromatic vanilla orchid, all of which have a hand to play in the realm of chocolate.
When asked why they chose chocolate, Cary replied, “A lot of times the educational exhibits highlight a particular plant, and chocolate is a popular type of item that both has a lot of history and a story behind it.”
Hence, the exhibit is not just about the sensory experience of being surrounded by plants, but also about education. Various plaques are interspersed throughout the conservatory, detailing a long and troubled history spanning almost 4,000 years.
In addition to shining a light on the history of chocolate, the exhibit focuses on the problems chocolate has created today, most notably its contribution to the destruction of the rainforest. Describing at length such ideas as sustainable farming and shade grown chocolate, Olbrich Botanical Gardens offers a solution to this problem, hoping through informing the public, wiser decisions will be made in the future. The display also describes fair trade in depth, which provides cacao producers with a fair price for their product and also prohibits child and forced labor.
“It goes along with our educational mission of preservation of the rainforest, so that people can make an informed decision on what they want to purchase,” Cary said. “A lot of people tend to be more and more interested in that part of their purchase. They need to understand how what they buy makes an impact.”
The exhibit also describes at length how chocolate is produced. “I think people aren’t familiar with where chocolate comes from, this pod that grows from a trunk, and then the long process that it goes through to actually become that candy bar that they’re eating,” Nicholson said.
In the end, “Chocolate: The Bitter and the Sweet” at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens is a dollar well spent. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, knowing the background of chocolate is as relevant as ever, especially its aphrodisiac qualities.
While the prospect of entering a tropical oasis is enticing enough for some, the mouth-watering sensation that the very mention of chocolate produces makes this exhibit damn near irresistible. In the words of Nicholson herself, “People will find a lot of surprises.”
Olbrich Botanical Gardens’ Bolz Conservatory Exhibit, “Chocolate: The Bitter and the Sweet,” is open to the public through March 21. On Saturday, Olbrich Botanical Gardens will screen”Chocolate Country,” recipient of the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Documentary.
