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MAISON CAILLER CHOCOLATE FACTORY BROC-GRUYÈRE
The Swiss Chocolate Factory Opens New Tour

One imagines the visit to a chocolate factory as a magical journey. So much so, that Roald Dahl’s book of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and two movies presented the secrets of the making of the sweet treat as a trip down a river though Willy Wonka’s magical factory. The Maison Cailler Chocolate Factory in Broc Switzerland near Gruyere was presented with a problem. It had become a very popular tourist destination as the featured attraction of the Swiss Scenic rail ride known as the Chocolate Train (see Swiss Rail Chocolate Train). Chocolate had been manufactured at the factory in Broc since Louis Cailler established his headquarters in the Swiss hills of Fribourg-Gruyere in 1989, but for health reasons, having tourists from around the world tromping through a food plant was not such a good idea, so the Cailler Chocolate factory owned by Swiss food giant Nestlé has opened a brand new tour and visitor center at the hundred year old factory.

The story of how sweet milk chocolate candies and chocolate bars came to be is a little complex. The cocoa bean was discovered by the conquistadors in the new world during the age of discovery. The powder from the been had been mixed with sugar for a dark bitter sweet enjoyed by royalty and the wealthy for a few centuries before until François-Louis Cailler happened upon it during a trip to Italy in 1819 from his home near Vevey on Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) in southern Switzerland. François-Louis Cailler began making squares of dark chocolate in a shop along the lake at a price for the enjoyment of the common man. A French entrepreneur Henry Nestle who had settled in Vevey had been successful with making a baby formula from a process of turning milk in a powder. In 1875, another resident of Vevey, Daniel Peter, a candle maker, discovered the idea of mixing powdered milk with powdered chocolate to make milk chocolate. (Until then if you mixed milk with chocolate you got chocolaty milk, not milk chocolate). Daniel Peter married into the family. Francoise-Louis Cailler died but his nephew Alexandre-Louis Cailler took on the business. Alexandre had come up with a process for making sweet chocolate with liquid milk rather than powder and needed a plentiful source of fresh milk, clean mountain water and a rail line. While on a bike ride in the mountains above Lake Geneva in the village of Broc, near the ancient medieval town of Gruyère, Cailler found the perfect spot to expand the family chocolate business, and built the factory, merging with Peter and another local, Amédée Kohler, who had come up with a recipe for adding hazelnuts and pralines to chocolate. The Cailler Chocolate brand flourished until the world market crash of 1929 when Cailler merged with Nestlé (see Nestle Food Museum Vevey) .

Nestle spent a few million Swiss Francs on the new Cailler visitor center, less a factory tour than an entertainment exhibit. I won’t reveal all the secrets of the chocolate factory visitor tour of Cailler, but visitors in groups (each group divided by language) enter via timed entry into a journey through the history of cocoa, milk chocolate and the Cailler story, though a series of darkened rooms with interactive displays of sights, sounds and narration in Disneyesque style (though no ride or chocolate river). At the end of the display the doors open to the “factory”. A room where cocoa beans of different roasting flavors can be scooped in your hand to smell the aroma or taste the bitter sweetness, quite interesting, and a display of milk cans with the names of local suppliers (all the milk is from family farms in the Gruyère-Broc area). There is one machine to follow the automated process of a chocolate bar being made, which you get to eat at the end (the actually factory is beyond a glass window). The tour ends in the tasting room, where all the varieties of Cailler chocolates are laid out and can be sampled to your heart’s content or until your teeth rot (whichever comes first). After the tour kids and parents can have the hands on opportunity make their own chocolate recipes in the Atelier de Chocolat educational center, perhaps the most entertaining for children. A shop provides amble chance to take home packaged Cailler Chocolate products or souvenirs and a new café restaurant "La Chocolatière", just in case your appetite hasn’t been entirely satiated with sampling chocolate gooey treats.

Visiting Maison Cailler-Nestle Factory Tour

The Cailler Chocolate Factory Tour is open daily from 10am to 6pm with the last show entry at 5:15 pm. A tour visit takes about an hour and 15 minutes, unless you stay for the chocolate making classes. Entry for Adults is 10 CHF, Students and Seniors 8 CHF, children under 16 are free. By car from Montreux or Fribourg is about 30 minutes with ample parking in the factory visitor lot. By local train to the Broc Fabrique stop on the SBB. The Swiss Chocolate Train from Monteux which includes the chocolate factory tour runs from May to October. The Chocolate train takes a full day and includes the Gruyere Cheese Dairy (see Gruyere Cheese Tour) and Gruyeres Castle (see Counts Castle Gruyeres). The Swiss Rail Golden Pass line from Interlaken to Montreux passes near Gruyere through Montbovon (see Golden Pass Line Tour) for a stop-over visit. © Bargain Travel Europe

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SEE ALSO:

HR GIGER MUSEUM AND BAR - GRUYERES

CHATEAU D’AIGLE WINE MUSEUM

CASTLE CHILLON - LAKE GENEVA

CHATEAU D'OEX - BALLOON RIDES

ST BERNARD DOG MUSEUM - MARTIGNY

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