According to the Nielson Consumer Index, people buy more chocolate candy during Valentine's week than at any other time during the year. Chances are good that today you will eat something made from chocolate. But how much do you know about what you're eating?

We have come to associate the giving of chocolate with love, friendship and romance, and while some will blame it all on advertising, the truth is that chocolate has been a powerful symbol for thousands of years.

From now until May 4, take a trip to Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center to experience "Chocolate: The Exhibition" and learn more about the object of so much passion.

'Chocolate: The Exhibition' was developed by the Field Museum in Chicago. According to Whitney Owens, the traveling exhibitions director, the exhibit began with an idea for a small display featuring commodities from the natural world, such as chocolate, bananas and coffee. When the museum asked for feedback from members, the enthusiastic interest in chocolate led to the creation of an in-depth examination of chocolate as a natural product, a historical symbol of wealth and luxury, and as a commodity.

The first image of the exhibit is the display case in an old-fashioned chocolate shop, but as visitors round the corner, they find themselves transported to the rain forest to learn about where it all begins -- the cacao tree.

Though the exhibit contains plenty of fun facts about chocolate and how it is made, it also uses chocolate as a lens to explore anthropological, historical and cultural topics.

The exhibit is tailored to appeal to visitors of all ages. In an Aztec marketplace, children can interact with a display to figure out how many cacao seeds would have been needed to buy all the goods on an ancient grocery list.

The exhibit doesn't shy away from complex issues. The room that documents the arrival of chocolate in Europe, the creation of sweet hot chocolate, and its instant popularity also deals with the resultant increase in forced labor in sugar fields. A modern exploration of the way chocolate gets from the farm to the consumer describes not only the difficult labor of harvesting cacao, but also the effects of the commodities market on the price of cacao.

Mr. Owens of the Field Museum spoke enthusiastically about the way other museums each have made unique additions based on museum mission and that community's relationship to chocolate. In Honolulu, for instance, the Bishop Museum made connections to local cacao plantations (Hawaii is the only state in America where cacao trees can grow). At the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, local specialty stores and restaurants helped create events demonstrating the unique role of cacao in Mexican cuisine.

At Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center, where the exhibit opened Saturday, the focus is, of course, on science. So museum educators have added a room at the end of the tour containing a "chocolate bar" in a French country kitchen, where visitors can participate in a range of experiments and activities. Depending on your age and the time you visit, you may participate in a blind taste test that will help you figure out what kind of chocolate you like. Kids might learn more about the "food web," taste chocolate ice cream made by freezing hot chocolate with liquid nitrogen, and get a chance to count their taste buds and see if they are "super tasters."

The exhibit is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m Monday through Sunday. Tickets are two-tiered: "Chocolate" and "Chocolate Supreme" (the fee in parentheses also gets you in to an Omnimax film): adults for $12.50 ($17.95); seniors (65 and older) and military $11.50 ($14.95); and youth (3 to 17) for $10.50 ($12.95). For tickets, call 866-866-4506 or visit www.GreatScience.com.

Whether or not you can make it to Cleveland, check out the Web site designed by the Field Museum to supplement and complement the exhibit. At www.fieldmuseum.org/chocolate, interactive sideshows let you explore how a cacao pod becomes a chocolate bar and learn more about environmental issues affecting cacao production.