All around Switzerland, visitors are presented with small blocks of the country's most divine commodity. Photo / Thinkstock
All around Switzerland, visitors are presented with small blocks of the country's most divine commodity. Photo / Thinkstock
Justine Tyerman suspects there is a secret ingredient in Swiss chocolate which anaesthetises the conscience ...
Unless you are imbued with unshakeable self-discipline when it comes to resisting the world's finest chocolate, make sure you factor in some vigorous exercise every day to offset the calorie intake in Switzerland. I won't even mention the cheese, fondue, bread and wine ...
When we visited the famous Jacot Chocolatier in Noiraigue, Val-de-Travers, the others in our party showed remarkable restraint, nibbling politely at each pastille on their sampling tray.
But a little voice inside my head told me I would come this way only once: this allowed me to consume all 12 offerings in front of me and accept two bars of complimentary chocolate as I left, grinning broadly and lying shamelessly about how I would take them home to my family. Love has its limits.
A chocolate tasting tray at Jacot Chocolatier in Noiraigue, Val-de-Travers, Switzerland. Photo / Justine Tyerman
The consumption of the chocolate came after we had been fully educated on the history of the craft and the characteristics of each sample so I was also able to rationalise the eating as an intellectual exercise. A wine match was served with the chocolates, adding to the divine decadence of the experience.
One of the samples was full of absinthe which, according to a Val-de-Travers' legend, produces hallucinations of green fairies. I obviously didn't have quite enough. My favourite was the hazelnut and almond chocolate with the Jacot insignia on top.
Sounding very much like a winemaker, Monsieur Blaise Descombes, a chocolatier at Jacot for 30 years, spoke of the importance of terroir and climate in the cultivation of the cacao tree which bears the fruit containing the cacao or cocoa bean used in chocolate making.
The trees only grow 15 degrees north and south of the equator and while the world's biggest producer is Ivory Coast, the finest and most expensive fruit are grown in Venezuela. Needless to say, Jacot Chocolatier imports its cocoa beans from Venezuela for its premium products.
The fruit or pods of the cacao are harvested three times a year and the beans are dried under the hot tropical sun before being exported for processing.
The raw ingredients required to make chocolate. Photo / Justine Tyerman
Blaise works with a "toolbox" of 50 pastilles with different characteristics, but in total there are more than 600 different aromas or compounds in chocolate.
The secret of chocolate making is the melt-in-the-mouth factor achieved by a process called "conching", a mixing or kneading of the raw ingredients.
The importance of conching was discovered in error when a beater was left on overnight and the resulting chocolate was found to have greater meltability than ever before, Blaise said.
Jacot Chocolatier has been making its exquisite confections for more than 50 years. The company creates four collections a year to match the seasons. It also produces end-of-year gift-boxes for such prestigious watchmakers as Baume & Mercier, Piaget and Tissot. Even the Swiss government orders its chocolates.
The flavour, texture and meltability of Jacot chocolate turned me into a chocolate snob and completely ruined me for any inferior versions ... which may well be a good thing in the long-term.
I staggered out after an hour and a half having consumed - before lunch - the equivalent of a large block of chocolate (and wines to match), but I felt strangely guilt-free. Perhaps there's a secret ingredient in Swiss chocolate which anaesthetises the conscience. I have never before managed to eat such naughty food with such gay abandon.
And all around the country, the Swiss give visitors small blocks of this divine commodity. On the Swiss International Air Lines flight from Zurich to Singapore and half way up the Jungfrau on the cog railway, I was given chocolate, along with a proud smile - we have no equivalent in New Zealand.
There's even a Chocolate Train in Switzerland that operates between May and October and runs from Montreux via Gruyères to Broc, where you can visit a chocolate factory.
