Me and the chocolate factory

After two years here, I finally made it to the Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate factory in Kilchberg, just outside of Zurich. You can't actually go inside the factory (which may or may not be run by Oompa Loompas), but you can (1) walk by it and breathe in its insanely chocolaty smells, and (2) visit the factory outlet chocolate shop.

30 minutes later, and all my Christmas shopping was done.

The factory shop has limited opening hours, so check the schedule before you go. To get there, take bus 165 from Bürkliplatz to the Schooren stop, about 10 minutes away. The bus runs as infrequently as every half hour during the day; check out sbb.ch for specific schedule info.


Posted from Thalwil.

Lindt has been holding out on me

While in Munich last weekend, I wandered in to a Karstadt department store and perused the chocolate section. It really wasn't bad (and I say this as someone who lives in Switzerland). Of course a lot of it was Swiss chocolate, like the gigantic Lindt display which contained quite the array of dark chocolate flavors. There was my new favorite cherry & chili, plus several others I had never seen before. What's up with that, Lindt? You think the Swiss are too good for lime & green peppercorn filled 70% cocoa chocolate? Well I'm not...

Lindt wasn't the only brand sporting the creative flavors. Everyone seems to have thrown their hat into the spicy-chocolate ring now, and ginger was also a popular accompaniment for dark chocolate. Out of curiosity we picked out a wasabi & algae bar and a chili & highland whiskey bar. That's right, I said wasabi & algae. We like to live on the edge like that.

Turns out that wasabi & algae don't make for as fabulous a chocolate bar as one would expect, but the chili & highland whiskey one was pretty good. The lime & green peppercorn chocolate was surprisingly endearing. I might even need to go out and find a local source. Anyone seen it?

Oh Switzerland, how you continue to delight me

Today I was wandering around Coop, minding my own business, when suddenly something new and different crept into my field of vision. There on the shelf, looking all dark and handsome, was this package: Lindt 70% cacao dark chocolate filled with a gooey center of cherry and chili. I'm not sure how long this stuff has been in existence, but I had never seen it before today (and trust me, I'm pretty well-versed in the standard dark chocolate offerings of a Swiss grocery store). Next to it was a similar package containing a fig and caramel center (not nearly as exciting, but probably worth a taste one of these days).

In the name of furthering my understanding of this culture and its customs, I picked some up, brought it home, and tried it. I wasn't sure what I thought of it after the first piece, so I had a little more. Now that half the bar is gone, I feel qualified to give you my evaluation. The chocolate itself is an excellent, smooth texture. The filling is good but a bit disappointing - I wish the chili were a little spicier. But overall, it's one of the tastiest filled chocolate bars I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Suddenly I'm falling in love with Switzerland all over again...

Kaffee und Kuchen in Vienna

The Viennese have a lovely tradition of dropping everything at around 4 PM and indulging in some Kaffee und Kuchen. In the interest of getting the most out of our vacation, we of course also adopted this practice while we were in Vienna. We are nothing if not cultural adventurers.

To get the true Austrian experience, you have to order your coffee mit Schlag, which translates roughly to buried under copious amounts of really stiff whipped cream. I'm not sure if it's the word or the actual cream which makes me not like this particular type of coffee, but I always just got mine black.

Although Kuchen translates to cake, it's used more as an umbrella term to include a wide variety of sweet baked things that one may consume alongside the coffee. Of course there is the oh-so-famous Sacher Torte, a chocolate cake with raspberry jam filling and a chocolaty outer coating (not entirely unlike Magic Shell). It originated at the tragically snooty Hotel Sacher, which is right next to the Vienna Opera House, but these days every Thomas, Dieter, and Horst in this city makes his own version of it (despite Hotel Sacher's claim to having a top-secret recipe).

Luckily Vienna had plenty in the way of sweets that I was actually impressed with, like this thing called a Scheibbserkugel - a chocolate-coated ball filled with cookie and creamy goodness. We found them at the Easter markets around the city, but hopefully these things are around at other times of year, too. Another thing I liked were these pointy chocolate things filled with chocolate mousse. I think the name had something to do with Paris (how's that for good journalism for you?).

Buona Pasqua

Easter in Italy is always marked by the omnipresent giant chocolate eggs. No bunnies, no peeps, just big chocolate eggs. If you're lucky, there's an exciting surprise awaiting you inside your giant chocolate egg. These surprises can range from cheap plastic toys to fine jewelry, depending on where your egg came from. They're kind of like giant Kinder Surprise eggs.*

Easter in Europe can be tricky, as Heather recently discussed. On one hand, it's a four-day weekend. On the other, it seems like all of Europe is closed. It's like having four Sundays in a row: no groceries, no shopping, and limited restaurants. That makes it a little difficult to pick a destination for the weekend. It would have been nice to go skiing, but we're done with fighting the bad snow. Last year we went to Berlin, and the year before that we came to Zurich for the first time (having no idea that we would eventually move here). This year we opted to continue our success with 'big' cities, and head to Vienna. It turned out to be a good choice, as pretty much everything was open as if it were a normal weekend. Plus we got colored eggs and chocolate lamb-shaped cake for breakfast. What more could you ask for?

Speaking of religious holidays, this article about the recent marketing efforts of Swiss churches caught my eye this morning. As in many European countries, funding for churches (well, mainstream Christian churches anyway) is done through taxes collected by the government here.

* remind me to tell you a funny story about Kinder Surprise eggs.

Mmmmmm.... chocolate

I'd like to introduce you to the new love of my life, Cru Sauvage chocolate truffles from Sprüngli, one of Zurich's two most famous chocolatiers (Teuscher being the other, tackier one). I don't actually know what Cru Sauvage means, but I'm imagining that it has something to do with the raw, wild, savage nature of these little chocolate delights (I know, I could look it up, but the real translation won't be anywhere near as good as my made-up one).

As we do with all our international guests, I was escorting my brother on a tour of Zurich's chocolate shops when we came across these at the Bahnhof Sprüngli. I was recommending them as a gift for a certain chocolate-loving relative back home when I realized that I had never actually tried them (I think my recommendation was based purely on something I read on Maki's food blog). Naturally there was only one thing to do: buy an extra box for ourselves.

As soon as we got home, the box came open, and a love affair began. Fortunately (for my waistline, at least) they are much too expensive to make into a regular habit. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself.

Journey into the flowery chocolate jungle

How is it possible that I’ve gone this long without ever writing a post about Swiss chocolate? As we all know, Switzerland is The Land of Chocolate. Its claim to fame amongst the other Lands of Chocolate (Belgium, Germany, Holland, etc.) is that milk chocolate was invented here. Makes sense, given all the milk-producing they do.

But luckily for us the Swiss didn’t just rest on their laurels after that great invention. Instead they also managed to bang out a wide array of delicious dark chocolates, too. You can get bars made from up to 99% pure cocoa, but I tend to prefer the ones around 70-80%. But really, I’ll eat almost anything dark – even dark chocolate Toblerone does it for me.

For our every-day chocolate (and chocolate gift-giving) needs, the chocolate section at a Coop department store does just nicely (in Zurich, try the one on Bahnhofstrasse). They carry a wide variety of brands and types, and so much selection that I can usually find something new to try each time I go. I’m savoring the Dolfin dark chocolate with fresh ginger we picked up last week when we took my parents there (they picked up enough Swiss chocolate to fill an entire suitcase, I think).

Given our upcoming trip to Japan, I needed to stock up on Swiss chocolates to bring to our friends we will be visiting there. In addition to a visit to Coop, I decided to use this opportunity as an excuse to go to that great Mecca of Swiss chocolate boutiques, Teuscher. I usually stay far away from these stores because (1) it seems like a waste of money to eat this stuff on a regular basis and (2) quite frankly, their decoration scheme frightens me. Look at these pictures! Now I love kitsch, but I have nightmares about getting strangled by one of the long colorful vines of crepe paper flowers that dangle from Teuscher’s ceiling. It’s just that scary in there.

But sometimes one has to be brave, so today I mustered up all my courage and ventured into a Teuscher shop. At the end of the day, their chocolate is pretty darn good, so I figured the trip would be worth it. Although I usually stick to the dark stuff, our Japanese friends have indicated a preference for milk chocolate, so milk it was. I got an array of interesting-sounding flavors: chocolate bars with with lemon, mint, pink pepper (anyone ever seen a pink pepper?), and my personal favorite, jalapeño (it's entirely possible that this bar will mysteriously disappear before we arrive in Japan). I also got a box of Teuscher’s signature champagne truffles. Luckily those are well-wrapped, or they might have trouble making it to Japan, too.

All over the shop, labels reminded me that Teuscher also has a store in Tokyo, but I’m sure it will taste even better because I’m bringing it fresh from its birth country, right?

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To hear about bloggers’ favorite chocolate shops from around the world (or submit your own), check out Food Destinations - there will be a round-up of posts on Chocolate in Context shortly after the October 30th deadline for submissions. Mmmmmm… chocolate.

Merry Christmas!

Without Halloween and Thanksgiving to hold it back, Christmas merchandise apparently starts running wild as soon as the leaves on the trees start to turn. Are there really people out there who stock up on chocolate santas two and a half months in advance?

While completely immune to the charm of chocolate santas (especially milk chocolate ones), I’m quite lucky they haven’t broken out the Zimtsternen yet (I looked all over for them just to make sure). I am powerless against them.