The term ‘conche’ is key here. The conching process was a secret in Switzerland’s valleys before it became known worldwide through delicious chocolate bars.
Rodolphe Lindt kept the ‘conching’ process to himself for two decades. In 1899, he sold it to another person, the chocolate maker Johann Rudolf Sprungli-Schifferli. Here is how the chocolate made available to the world
History
Our story begins with cocoa. Chocolate history goes back to the 4th millennium BC. The native people of the Ecuadorian rainforests were already captivated by the bean.
Fast forward to the 2nd millennium BC in Mexico. The term ‘kakawa’ became well-known. The Aztecs relished their spicy beverage ‘Xocolatl’. Yet, like many valuable things, it remained unknown to the world until Europe discovered it.
In 1528, Hernan Cortes, a conquistador, brought cocoa to Europe. By 1544, chocolate had reached the Spanish court and was savored as a drink.
Centuries later, the cocoa tree received its name from natural scientist Carl von Linne. He called it ‘Theobroma Cacao L.’ which means food of the gods in Greek.
First Solid Chocolate Made
Switzerland had yet to discover its love for chocolate making.
Over a hundred years after Linne named cocoa, Italian ‘cioccolatieri’ or traveling artisans took their chocolate-making skills to fairs. People from all over Europe came to learn the craft. Making chocolate was not easy. It needed skill and patience.
Francois-Louis Cailler was among the first Swiss to learn chocolate making. In 1819, he opened the first chocolate factory in Switzerland in Corsier-sur-Vevey. Cailler is the oldest chocolate brand still in existence today. But chocolate bars were not yet around.
Young chocolate makers in Switzerland, France, and England spent years experimenting. They faced failure and sought fame until they could invent solid chocolate bars. France created the first single bar manufacturing plant. By 1846, solid bars were available. But they didn’t taste like the chocolate we know today. They were bitter, hard, grainy, and left a bad aftertaste.
In 1847, England produced the first edible chocolate bar. It was still rough and gritty and hardly a treat.
Lindt Home of Chocolate
Switzerland, abundant in milk, was the next logical step in the timeline of chocolate making. In 1875, Daniel Peter found a way to stabilize milk and chocolate. He mixed condensed milk with cocoa butter to create a stable emulsion.
Adding milk to chocolate bars benefited the industry in three ways:
- it improved the taste of chocolate;
- it made it more nutritious; and
- it reduced the amount and cost of the expensive cocoa needed for making chocolate.
In the 1870s in Bern, entrepreneur Rodolphe Lindt invented a roller machine. This machine achieved the perfect melt-in-the-mouth consistency of milk chocolate. His pharmacist brother advised him to heat the roller, add more cocoa butter to the mixture, and let the machine run longer.
Lindt left the roller on and went hunting. The roller ran for three days and nights. When he returned, he had his Eureka moment. The mixture in the roller was dark, velvety, and silky smooth. It was a delight to taste.
Lindt named this creation ‘chocolate fondant’, or melting chocolate. The roller was named a ‘conche’ (from the Spanish word for shell, concha), and the process, ‘conching’.
Switzerland’s Chocolate Factory
Switzerland has been a fan of chocolate for over a century. The average Swiss person eats 10.4 kilograms of chocolate each year. The country also exports a significant amount of chocolate. It is home to the world’s largest chocolate museum, the Lindt Home of Chocolate.
This chocolate factory, inspired by Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is in Kilchberg. This is a 15-minute drive from the busy city of Zurich. The water of Kilchberg is believed to be the reason for the factory’s location. It is right in front of Lake Zurich.
The museum is a feast for the senses. A nine-meter chocolate fountain welcomes you in the beautifully lit marble foyer.
Inside Dahl’s Chocolate Factory
Your journey at the Lindt Home of Chocolate starts with a chocolate fountain. As you ascend the spiral staircase, you traverse the history of chocolate, from the Ecuadorian rainforests to Lindt’s conche.
Rooms guide you through centuries of history until you reach the reason for your visit: the chocolate! In the tasting room, you find three chocolate fountains – dark, milk, and white. Disposable spoons are provided for you to taste the chocolate until you’re satisfied.
The next area shows how a chocolate bar is made, complete with nuts and other additions. Then, you discover a real chocolate lab. Here, your open hand is filled with pieces of six types of solid chocolate. You take a bite, guess the flavor, and check if you’re right.
The tasting room is bustling with people, both kids and adults, all competing for space in front of the dispensers and fountains. But there’s more chocolate to come.
The next room presents the current state of chocolate consumption and export. A collection of facts and figures gives you a moment to digest the previous room’s chocolate. Then, you enter the next room. Here, you find all of Lindt’s Lindor chocolates, piled high in glass cylinders for you to choose from. You’re asked to ‘take one of each flavor’… but it’s a challenge to follow that instruction!
After this part of the tour, you reach the final step: another Lindt Square awaits you.
You’re welcome to stay in the museum as long as you like (within visiting hours). You can eat as much chocolate as you want. If you’re not convinced yet, the museum also has the world’s largest Lindt store. Here, you can shop from shelves full of various Lindt creations. From the famous Lindt Bunny to liquor chocolates, the store has it all.
Facts
Location: The Lindt Home of Chocolate is a 15-minute journey from Zurich. You can take a train from Zurich HB to Kilchberg and then walk for about 10 minutes to reach the museum. Buses are also available from the Kilchberg railway station to the chocolate factory. The walk is scenic and a good way to digest all that chocolate.
Tickets: Tickets can be purchased online on the Lindt Home of Chocolate website. This is easier than buying them at the museum as most tours sell out in advance.
The museum tour ticket costs CHF 17 (Rs 1,600) for individuals aged 16 or older. Entry is free for children under the age of 7. For children aged 8 to 16, the entry fee is CHF 10 (Rs 950). Group tickets are available for groups of 20 or more.
The museum also provides various chocolate-making courses. The price depends on the course’s complexity and duration.
As mentioned earlier, all the chocolate you eat during the tour is free. This might be reason enough to visit the museum!
