MAISON
CAILLER CHOCOLATE FACTORY BROC-GRUYÈRE
The Swiss Chocolate Factory 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 1889, 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
now owned by Swiss food giant Nestlé, opened a 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 beean
had been mixed with sugar for a dark bitter sweet enjoyed by royalty
and the wealthy before 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 an affordable price for the enjoyment of the common man. 
About
the same time, a French entrepreneur, Henry Nestle, who had settled in
Vevey found success 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. 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 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) .
Nestlé 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 tour , but
visitors in groups ( divided by language) enter via timed
entry into a journey through the history of cocoa, milk chocolate and
the
Cailler
story, following 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, 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 ample 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
Reviews and best travel deals for Lake Geneva on TripAdvisor
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Info
Maison Cailler
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and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and
may not be copied or reprinted without permission.
SEE
ALSO:
HR GIGER MUSEUM AND BAR - GRUYERES
ST BERNARD DOG MUSEUM - MARTIGNY
HOTEL HAUSER CONFECTION ST MORITZ
HALLOREN CHOCOLATE WORLD MUSEUM HALLE
