Amongst Switzerland’s most well known exports is its chocolate and in particular, the ubiquitous Toblerone bar with its Matterhorn mountain shaped triangles cleverly presented in a prismatic packaging.
2023 Update
Invented in 1908
This most iconic of Swiss confectionary was first conceived in 1908 by Theodor Tobler and his cousin, Emil Baumann who incidentally, is tennis star Roger Federer’s great grandfather, and although production has moved around, it is now exclusively made in Bern, the Swiss capital.
The Tobler Company remained independent up until the 1970s when it merged with another Swiss chocolatier, Suchard, the makers of Milka, but nowadays it is a division of Mondelēz International Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois.
Always the Matterhorn
Even if the Toblerone range has expanded over the years from the original honey and almond recipe to include dark and white chocolate variants as well as one with fruit and nuts, the triangular presentation, reminiscent of the mountains, has been constant.
Indeed, the packaging is imprinted with an image of the Matterhorn and a bear as reference to the product’s city of origin.
100kg of Toblerone, anyone?
Available in many different sizes, the largest Toblerone bar on the market weighs 4.5kgs and is 80cm long although, as part of the brand’s 100th anniversary celebrations, special bars weighing over 100kgs were made.
Why not come to Zermatt this winter to gaze at the Matterhorn and eat some delicious Swiss chocolate?
Article by Ed Mannix, owner of www.matterhornchalets.com