Not a very original title at all is it? Forgive me but I like to go straight to the point ;). For this semester, we have Masterclasses which we could sign up for and there just happened to be a chocolate masterclass and obviously, I signed and lined up for it!

Finally, the day to go to the chocolate factory came. We took a 40 minute bus ride from school and arrived at the town of Broc. Funny thing was when we got out of the bus, everyone took a deep breath of ..cow dung. Eh. Only in Switzerland for you. That didn’t affect our excitement to make some chocolate though! We walked a few meters and TA DA~!

Welcome to the Maison Cailler!

Went in and was greeted by loads of chocolate! Check out the wall of chocolate bars! :O

But the best part was behind the reception…

Yes, that’s where we made our own chocolates! Pretty cool eh? Our instructor was Mr. Silvano Nobbs. My friends and I were thinking, “How can he make chocolates and be so thin?!” Seriously. :\

image from Ms. Wendelin

So, we got started and he told us that we’d be making chocolate bars and introduced us to the equipment and ingredients we’ll be using which were the Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Cremant (46% cocoa) and White Chocolate as well as loads of different toppings like nuts, dried fruit, chili powder (!), and even fancy gold and silver dust. He then explained the process of tempering and why we had do so and showed us how to do it.

Then comes the fun part, we grouped into pairs got started! Everyone scrambled up to pick their types of chocolates. My friend Ben and I chose the dark chocolate and cremant since we didn’t feel like eating something too sweet. Anyway, we mixed and melted them and tempered our chocolates! *I’m so happy I finally know how to do this. Can’t wait to try at home when I get back in June!*

Working it! --pics by Ms. Wendelin

Then we started picking our toppings. I chose almonds, hazelnuts, dried red berries, a few rice krispies and pistachios. Yup, love nuts in my chocolate especially almonds ^^

After filling our molds, we had to refrigerate our chocolates and so we went on the tour around the factory.

It started with the history of Cailler then we went through various rooms explaining their process of producing chocolate. There was also a mini production line and had free samples at the end. Some of my friends pretty much took pocket full of samples! :))

And what food tour doesn’t end with tasting right?! The last room was a chocolate tasting room of their chocolate lines basically. Tested a few but my throat couldn’t handle it anymore.

Afterwards, everyone went back to the demo-kitchen and packaging supplies were laid out and ready for us!

I was scared that I did my tempering wrong and that my chocolate wouldn’t come off the mold but it came off easily and was pretty good and shiny! The only thing I regret now is I should’ve added more nuts and rice krispies into the chocolate and not just on top.. maybe next semester >:).

(Left: hazelnuts and krispies, right: mixed hazelnuts, almonds and red berries with pistachios)

Not only did we get to take our creations home, but we also got Cailler aprons! ^^

And that concludes my day at the chocolate factory. One word to sum the whole experience: AWESOME! But before you go, I shall ask you this question:

PS. Ms. Wendelin, if you happen to be reading this, thanks very much for that awesome experience! And for taking loads of pictures of us! Haha :)