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When I planned a family trip to Lausanne earlier this year, I had one requirement: ample time to shop chocolate. It’s Switzerland’s signature sweet, but the nearly 75 per cent of production that’s exported worldwide isn’t what fascinates me most. The “chains” that dominate the Swiss market — Lindt and the like — offer largely the same products across their stores nationwide.
Instead, I wanted to sample from the remaining quarter, the local, artisanal chocolatiers whose exclusive confections, regional specialties and award winners were worthy of including in my own personal “chocolate pentathlon” through Lausanne, Switzerland’s Olympic City.
After all, it was in this region — the canton of Vaud, where Lausanne is located — that the nation’s 19th-century candy pioneers opened the first chocolate factory and later invented the milk chocolate variety, now synonymous with the Swiss. With such an illustrious history, it’s no wonder the country has the highest per capita consumption of chocolate — upwards of 22 pounds a year — in the world. I was keen to consume my share.
I’d never heard of a “caracathon” before arriving, but I was eager to give its winner a try. Carac, a miniature shortbread pastry filled with rich dark-chocolate ganache and topped with a distinctive green glaze, is a childhood treat in Switzerland’s French-speaking cantons, including Vaud. The best rendition of carac in the city is celebrated in the caracathon, a “people’s choice” competition sponsored by the non-profit Lausanne à Table.
Noz Chocolatier won the top prize in the first caracathon, in 2021. Its version stood out for its superior, hazelnut-infused biscuit base, its high-quality chocolate and its thin, not-overly-sweet icing. “It’s all about keeping these three elements in balance,” says Anne-Lise Noz, who opened the store 30 years ago with her chocolatier husband, Nicolas Noz.
While I ordinarily would have been laser-focused on their bestselling caramels (my all-time favourite candy), I was grateful for the introduction to this beloved local specialty, which has always held a special pride of place in Noz’s display case. “Carac is a memory you keep alive from generation to generation,” says Anne-Lise.
I found myself walking in the footsteps of generations of Lausanne residents when I entered Blondel, which opened in 1850 and is one of two historic chocolatiers on Rue de Bourg, one of the city’s main shopping streets. There’s an air of reverence as staff members gingerly retrieve orders from precisely stacked trays. Its cases are dominated by truffles and plates, slabs of chocolate studded with nuts, fruits or candies.
I opted for rustic truffles, Blondel’s unique variation on the typically spherical sweets. These handmade short sticks are filled with assorted ganache flavours — caramel, cognac, dark chocolate or vanilla — then scored with a fork and rolled in sugar or cocoa. Powdered Madagascar sugar coated my lips and sprinkled my collar as I bit into the crispy yet creamy vanilla sticks.
A few blocks down Rue de Bourg, Manuel Artisan Chocolatier has an extra five years on Blondel but doesn’t wear its history as heavily: I couldn’t help but smile back at the smiley-face cookies that greeted me from the counter. Manuel is among the few confectioners in the canton still making bouchons Vaudois, which resemble wine corks. The chocolate-lined pastry shells are filled with a mixture of caramelized almond slivers and Bitter des Diablerets, an herbal aperitif from Vaud.
While several local chocolatiers offer another regional specialty called pavés (cobblestones) — subtly sweet, soft chocolate cubes dusted with cocoa powder — Manuel makes a bolder version called pavés Tony, a butter sponge cake soaked in cherry brandy, coated in gianduja (chocolate hazelnut spread) and covered in chocolate.
When I planned my chocolate pentathlon, I reminded myself not to lose sight of the fun in my search for the unique, and at Durig Chocolatier I found both. I felt like a kid picking out chocolate creatures from the shop’s menagerie (unicorn or elephant, penguin or crocodile?) and revelled in the novel souvenirs, like molé poblano powder and chocolate vinegar. I treated myself to a ruby chocolate bar, its colour derived from fresh, unfermented and unroasted Brazil Lavados beans. Its fruity flavour was a revelation: “This is chocolate?” I thought.
At my final stop, L’espace Chocolat, I found a dark-chocolate house specialty with a name that summed up my pursuit: graines de curieux, or “seeds of the curious.” To make them, owner Christophe Moret layered caramel with cocoa nibs and added a white ganache mixed with vanilla and an unexpected ingredient: extra-virgin olive oil, which imparted a touch of green and hint of freshness.
“Graines de curieux are a gamble. It’s not easy to sell chocolate containing olive oil,” Moret says. “You have to break down customers’ prejudices and get them to taste and appreciate a product they would not have bought otherwise.”
It’s the perfect finish to my chocolate tour, which took my taste buds in new directions and fostered an appreciation for both tradition and innovation in the cradle of Swiss chocolate.
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