Chocolate

When I think of chocolate, I think of Switzerland. And our recent visit to Switzerland confirmed that they make some of the best artisan quality chocolate available. However, I have never seen a people more obsessed with the making of and eating of chocolate than the Italians.

Any respectable town has a chocolate shop; not just a shop that sells chocolate but a shop that makes chocolate and makes it own molds and candies. Often the chocolate shop is in conjunction with a caffe but often they are free standing.

Chocolate is in everything: breakfast food, cakes, cookies, ice cream and then just pure chocolate bars. Every supermarket has a large section devoted to chocolate; not chocolate candy but pure chocolate bars of every quality, kind and description. Italians think eating chocolate for breakfast is healthy so the sort of breakfast cereal that Americans see as unhealthy is seen as a good breakfast for children.

Perugia has probably the most prominent annual chocolate festival though many other cities also have chocolate festivals. When the Perugia festival is in full swing every local tour agency schedules day long bus trips often with specific tour schedules.
Ferrero SpA is one of the largest corporations in Italy and the family that owns it has recently become identified as the richest family in Italy (though they now live in Monaco). It not only makes Ferrero Rocher chocolates, the little round hazelnut and chocolate balls but also makes Nutella (a national obsession), Tic Tac mints and the whole line of Kinder branded products (while little known in the US, Kinder is a very prominent and wide ranging brand of snacks in all of Europe). Ferrero SpA is privately held, has annual revenues in excess of 6 billion euros, about 9 billion dollars US, employees 21,500 people, produces all of its products on machines engineered and built by its own engineering department, is famous for is obsession regarding the secrecy of is formulas and has never held a press conference.

The prominence of chocolate in Italy is not readily apparent because it is so seamlessly integrated in all aspects of food that it is easily overlooked; however, when one becomes conscious of it and looks for it, its presence is very obvious. I have fallen victim to its overwhelming presence. I always liked chocolate but did not eat it every day. It's difficult to avoid it when a piece or two of extremely good chocolate is frequently placed on your saucer when you have a caffe. That, coupled with its prominent display in every store, has done me in.