How Sweet it is

Switzerland is the land of chocolate. Did you know that the average Swiss person consumes over 26 pounds of chocolate every year?! We always have a few bars of wonderful chocolate in the kitchen. I’m on a mission to try every kind of chocolate in the amazing aisle at the grocery store. But this week, we had a chance to go a little deeper into Swiss chocolate culture.

On Wednesday afternoon, when the kids are not in school, I took them to the Kambly factory. Kambly is a Swiss company that is best known for their cookies. At their factory, they have a special program for kids to make a cookie creation. I had registered Emily and James, so when we arrived they received an apron and got to work. I was expecting them to churn out a batch of cookies, but no. They made a work of eatable art, complete with a cookie base, cake ball snowman, chocolate tree, and marzipan decorations. At the end, after over two hours of hard work, they didn’t want to eat it! (You can see their finished creations in our gallery). Fortunately, there were plenty of Kambly cookies laid out to sample, so we all spoiled our supper before returning home.

The next day was my birthday, and I had another treat for my sweet tooth. Recently, I discovered a great blog called “My Kugelhopf” written by an American living in Zurich who loves sweets, chocolate and traveling. It’s perfect for me! She gives a tour called “Sweet Zurich,” so I signed up. Joe’s gift to me was staying home with the kids for the day (he worked late a couple of nights to make up for it). So, I grabbed my book and my camera and hopped on the train.

This tour was deliciously sophisticated, like a chocolate appreciation class. We walked around the beautiful old town neighborhoods of Zurich visiting small, boutique chocolate and pastry shops. We learned about the different tropical regions the cocoa beans come from, the ingredients and process involved with making chocolate, and how different decisions affect the taste and quality of the final product. I tasted a dark chocolate with ginger and orange, a white chocolate with lime, an unconched chocolate with raisins (and learned what “conching” is!), among many other things. At a specialty cupcake shop, they even had a candle in a cupcake for my birthday.

Before I knew it, I was back on the train, but there was one more sweet treat on my list. After reading the blog and meeting the author, I wanted to try a Kugelhopf. I stopped at the store on the way home and picked one out. I opted for the less traditional chocolate kugelhopf (or gougelhof in this area.) At home we had a little celebration with the cake and a few cards and presents. I feel very blessed, and very full. I think I need to eat salads for the next week!

See all the sweet pictures here.