http://www.cheerychocolate.com/chocolates/swiss.html Swiss chocolates are known throughout the world to be some of the best, at the forefront of Swiss chocolates is Lindt. en-us Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:54:49 EDT Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:54:49 EDT Weblog Editor 2.0 The company that makes some of the world's favorite Swiss chocolates might have started as a small confectionery shop - but that was 160 years ago! Today Lindt is one of the largest producers of Swiss chocolates, still mostly Swiss owned and traded on the Swiss stock exchange. The Lindt legacy of Swiss chocolates Although the company has been around for over a century and a half, the quality of their Swiss chocolates has never faltered. Like many other companies in Europe the decades between 1920-1950 were exceedingly difficult to manage through, but manage they did and continue to this day to produce Swiss chocolates that are now consumed by people all over the world. Even a decade or so ago, one would be hard-pressed to find fine quality chocolates in the United States, especially outside of the country's major cities. Now you can walk into a great many supermarkets and find a variety of Lindt Swiss chocolates at the check-out. American taste for chocolate has changed dramatically in the last few years and there is much more of a demand for quality chocolate, in lieu of much of the lesser quality American made chocolate products. More and more stores across the United States are responding to the demand and keeping more Swiss chocolates and Belgian chocolates on hand for their customers. For over a century, chocolates made in Switzerland have served as a model for other European chocolates. Much of the success of chocolate in this time can be attributed to the Swiss, who have been instrumental in progress that chocolate production has made since then. Here are just a few of the leaps that the Swiss have made for the love of chocolate: 1826 - The first commercially manufactured chocolate bars produced by Phillipe Suchard. 1828 - Jean Tobler, of Toblerone fame, was the very first to add hazelnut to chocolate bars, since that time it has become more than a favorite in Europe - it has become a tradition. 1875 - Milk chocolate is finally introduced by Daniel Peter, who after years of trial and error, came up with the idea of adding condensed milk to chocolate. This is just a sampling of the things that the Swiss have done to help perfect the art of chocolate making. Is it any wonder that so many people are Swiss chocolate loyalists? Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:54:49 EDT