A significant percentage of the factory’s output is kosher l’mehadrin, known to chocolate lovers in the frum world as Schmerling’s

T

he Swiss are famous for their watches, their Alps, and their chocolate. We took a short train ride from Zurich Airport toward eastern Switzerland to check out the latter.

A local bus brings us into Flawil, in the canton of St. Gallen. Industry hums solidly in the background of this quiet rural village. As we make the climb up picturesque country roads, it seems like an unlikely starting point to check out a staple of the Pesach shopping list.

We’re here to see Flawil’s number-one tourist attraction: Maestrani’s Chocolarium. While Maestrani is one of Switzerland’s elite chocolate producers, owners of the iconic “Minor” and “Munz” ranges, a significant percentage of the factory’s output is actually kosher l’mehadrin, known to chocolate lovers in the frum world as Schmerling’s. Need we say more?

Signs pointing to the Chocolarium building proclaim “50 Meter bis zum Glück [50 meters to bliss].” The “Chocolate Is Happiness” theme is evident all over, with swirling colors, striped poles, and fun posters in a lobby reminiscent of a magically themed children’s attraction. It’s a quiet day here, just one large group of schoolchildren enjoying the chocolate tour and eating their packed lunches, which means we’ll have some private time with the two product managers who have graciously welcomed us.

We sit down with Fabienne and Jonas, who are happy to share some chocolate history and speak about their kosher products — mentioning that Schmerling is the production line that makes it across the Atlantic to the US.

My eye is drawn like a magnet to the familiar kosher bars on sale among the other factory products (a real novelty to find mehadrin products in a little Swiss village), and in fact, every one of those fresh-off-the-line Rosemarie bars are now strictly kosher — so you no longer have to look for the packages with the special hechsher.