175 years Lindt & Sprüngli

35 Creation — 175 years of chocolate history C As one of the few big chocolate manufacturers, Lindt&Sprüngli produces from “bean to bar”. This all starts with purchasing the cocoa beans, continues with producing the cocoa mass in own production facilities, and extends to processing the chocolate. An ex- ception here is Russell Stover, which buys chocolate and chocolate products. The cocoa used is decisive for the quality and taste of the chocolate, which is why the high stand- ards that Lindt &Sprüngli demands from the raw materials used and subsequent processing start as early as with the cocoa. Cocoa beans are purchased from the countries of origin of Ghana, Ecuador, Madagascar, the Do- minican Republic, and Papua New Guinea, which are all part of the Lind&Sprüngli Farming Program. In the beginning, everything hinges on selecting the right cocoa beans. Depending on its origin, each variety of cocoa has a multitude of intense flavors. In the end, it is only high-quality beans that are transported by ship and then by rail and truck to our own cocoa mass facilities in Switzerland, France, and the US. However, producing premium chocolate re- quires much more than this, as each individual step in the production affects the quality of the chocolate. After repeated quality tests, the beans are sent off to be processed. Special beanmixtures from various different regions of origin are used for the recipes. The finely tuned blends later determine the flavor of the chocolate. The beans are cleaned, split open, and removed from their shell. Eventually, all that remains are the cocoa fragments, the so- called nibs, which are roasted in line with a special process which involves perfectly coordi- nating the temperature and roasting time. Unlike when entire beans are roasted, roasting the nibs allows for a more even and finer roasting flavor. After roasting, the cocoa is cracked. The pressure and heat create a liquid cocoa mass, but this is still quite bitter. Depending on the recipe, cocoa butter, milk, sugar, and other ingredients are then added to the mass and ground to the smallest possible parti- cle size on large rolling mills. The cocoa mass is then heated in the conche with intense stirring and the cocoa butter coats every tiny particle. Even today, Rodolphe Lindt’s invention, which has been refined over decades, remains the decisive production step. The cocoa mass loses un- wanted bitter aromas, resulting in a soft, fine melt. Further high-quality ingredients, such as hazel- nuts or almonds, are added in the subsequent pro- duction stage. Considerable attention is paid to pre- serving the fine aroma after roasting. This is why Lindt&Sprüngli roasts the nuts itself and processes them as quickly as possible. The soft chocolate mass is now used to create the Lindt&Sprüngli world of products. Nowadays, well over 2,500 products, fromLindor truffles, Excellence chocolate bars, pralines, Gold Bunnies, Ghirardelli Squares, Russell Stover pralines, Küfferle chocolate umbrellas, through to Hofbauer pralines, are pro- duced all over the world with a great love of detail. The design teams create an incredible variety of sophisticated designs to inspire consumers time after time. For Lindt&Sprüngli, “bean to bar” production forms the basis of a sustainable and traceable cocoa supply chain and is therefore a responsibility from the very beginning, which we want to assume ourselves. The Cocoa Center in Olten, Switzerland, is the largest cocoa mass facility in the entire Lindt &Sprüngli Group and supplies all European production sites with its own Lindt cocoa mass. A staggering 150 tons of cocoa mass is produced every day in Olten. On top of this, Lindt &Sprüngli still produces cocoa mass for Lindt in Oloron in France and in Stratham in the US. In the US, Ghirardelli also produces from “bean to bar” and has its own cocoa mass facility in San Francisco. Cocoa in its purest form After removing the shell, the so-called cocoa nibs remain. These are small pieces of fermented and dried cocoa.