Got
Milka? Or Boehms Chocolate-dipped
Candies?
Profit from chocolate’s new
“health halo.”
By Claire
Rood
Published September 2005
You
may already know it, but it is
once again official: “Some
chocolate is good for you.” Dr.
Charalambos Viachopoulos and his
colleagues from the Athens Medical
School reported in the American
Journal of Hypertension that
high flavonoid-rich dark chocolate
benefits the cardiovascular system
by dilating arteries and
decreasing aortic stiffness.
The progress from a
frothy spicy drink, made from the
paste of fermented, roasted and
ground cacao seeds in Mesoamerica,
to today’s abundance of chocolate,
took many centuries. Around 250 -
900 C.E. Mayans loved cacao enough
to transplant their “gift of the
gods,” from the rain forests and
included the cacao drink in their
social- religious- ceremonial
life. The cacao tree seeds also
served as Aztec money by the1400s,
at the rate of 100 seeds for a
slave. Columbus apparently failed
to recognize the importance of
these precious seeds, but by 1520
the Spanish conquistadors resisted
to trade them for gold and brought
them to Spain. Over time, cacao
mixed with sugar and vanilla
evolved into a most delicious
drink, but remained a Spanish
secret for about 300 years before
spreading to Europe’s upper class.
With the emergence of
new machinery, the enterprising
Swiss Suchard family was able to
greatly increase production, which
led to the “lila (lilac) legend”
of Milka, patented in 1901 in
Berlin. Although the ingenious
first “lila cow” advertisement of
1973 is still effective, we are
now exposed to an ambitious, ever
expanding marketing strategy on
radio, television, billboards and
on-line games, as well as in
sponsorships of high visibility
sport events, such as ski-flying.
The locally available Milka
products are made in Austria and
Germany and distributed by the
Northfield, ILL branch of Kraft
Foods Global Incorporated.
Lila wrappings of an enormous
variety of Milka products in every
price range for every occasion
beckon from kiosks to airport
shops throughout the world.
Regionally we have our
own boutique choice -
Boehms Chocolate
Candies.
The
amazing legacy of the
Austrian/Swiss immigrant Julius
Boehm (1897 -1981) lives on in
every box of Chocolate Candies at
the “Edelweiss Chalet” in
Issaquah. Boehm, an Olympic relay
runner at the 1924 Paris Olympic
Games and a torch carrier to those
in Berlin in1936, an avid
sportsman and mountaineer, climbed
Mt. Rainier no less than three
times, and even higher as an
entrepreneur. Soon after
establishing a candy kitchen with
a friend in Seattle, he moved the
production of deliciously filled
chocolate candies to the present
location in Issaquah.
Today, Boehm’s “High
as the Alps Quality” continues
under owner/manager Bernard
Gardusjuk, who oversees a staff of
master candy makers to produce
caramel, fudge, nuts, cherry and
other fillings for about 150
different hand-dipped chocolate
confections.
Some of the ca 200,000
yearly shoppers at the confiserie
are enticed to watch the process,
to sample, buy and ship the
popular merchandise, and to stroll
through the park-like surroundings
or even visit the replica of a 12th
century St. Moritz Chapel by
appointment. Enjoy these tasty
dark chocolate treats - they are
good for you (in moderation).
©
2006 All content property of European Weekly unless where otherwise
accredited
