Swiss Chocolate Galore!

Today was a perfect day for the sweet tooth in me. We visited a chocolate factory in the morning and each made a chocolate tart and a bag of truffles. First, we melted chocolate chips along with butter and cream which was promptly poured into a pre-prepared crust. The chocolate masters had to help us out incessantly with the simple work and Dean Steinert Borella did not hesitate to point out those who tragically didn’t seem to have any future in chocolate making (i.e. all of us). The truffles were even messier, leading to twenty one chocolate handed monsters; quite a few of us couldn’t wait for the sink to free to wash it off so we sped up the process ourselves. It was tasty. Despite our massive chocolate challenges, every one of us ended up with a delectable chocolate tart and an irresistible bag of cocoa powdered chocolate truffles. While we sadly came nowhere near finishing the tarts we made before they had to be thrown away, we had access to chocolate galore for the rest of the trip. This was a delicious activity and I will eternally treasure the opportunity to have my hands drenched in chocolate, but the most interesting part of the morning admittedly came after this.

One of the chocolate makers delivered a short lecture on chocolate, its forms, its origins, and its history.

I have been to multiple chocolate factories before and have sat through similar lectures, but what I had never learned was the key to the connection between fine chocolate and Switzerland. Today we outsiders see that the Swiss have famous surpluses of milk products at their disposal as well as a multitude of large companies based in Switzerland. But what does Swiss chocolate really all come down to? Apparently, the Swiss chocolate makers were the inventors of powdered milk and in doing so, made milk chocolate production possible. That is why we can now say that chocolate is a key characteristic of Swiss gastronomy. Because the Swiss have the ability to apply great innovation to their work, we can thank them for a variety of specialty products, especially when it comes to milk-related foods. So, even though the cocoa bean is grown in the equatorial regions such as South America, the Swiss are famous for their fine chocolates and for that I am eternally grateful. One only has to go into a simple gas station or grocery store in order to see a full selection of fine chocolates in a mere convenience shop. That’s a lot of convenience for the chocolate lover!