The chocolate that changed my life.

Today may have been the best day of my life. Surrounded by a beautiful country, with its beautiful people (blonde, light eyed, tall and slender creatures), eating unlimited amounts of Swiss chocolate.

Seriously, unlimited amounts.

We started the day with a visit to Chocolat Frey, a real Swiss chocolate company. 

Here are some more crappy pics from the train ride there..

I like this one though because you can see everyone peaking out!

gorgeous mountains!

EVERYONE rides bikes here!

these bizarre trees are all over!

And we have arrived at the place that I have dreamt about for years. An entire building full of chocolate. I KNEW it existed somewhere!!!

Chocolate seduction, the best kind of seduction.

We got to learn all about the company, tour the factory, and eat all the chocolate we wanted. Literally, there were 5 tasting tables filled to the brim with delicacies such as chocolate truffles filled with champagne, giant chocolate-covered marshmallow fluffs, dark dark chocolate, crazy concoctions such as red hot chili bars (these left my mouth on fire), and wrapped chocolate ladybugs (they call them ladybirds) for luck!

It was an amazing experience and I learned so much about my very favorite food.

Don't worry, I won't leave you all empty handed, I am coming home with 3 cases of chocolate. That's right my friends. And it's all for me…. :)

Here are some things that I learned…

1.)First of all, cocoa beans only grow 20 degrees south and north of the equator, so obviously not Switzerland.
2.)The reason the country is known for it’s chocolate is that it uses more cocoa beans and pure products rather than fillers like Hershey’s or other American chocolates. This makes for a melt-in-your-mouth kind of quality that I can’t even describe.
3.)They use all Swiss ingredients, such as milk and sugar.
4.)White chocolate contains NO cocoa beans, only cocoa butter which you make from grinding the unhusked cocoa beans.
5.)Don't buy beans from the Ivory coast because of child labor there...

There is so much that goes into making chocolate, it’s unbelievable. They literally keep it stirring for 2 days (longer for dark chocolate) in a process called Conching developed in Switzerland. Each Swiss person eats more chocolate per capita than any other country in the world at 2 pounds per person per year. I think I’m Swiss. I must have been adopted.

                                                             This was my favorite kind!

They are very strict about the cleanliness of their factory though, because much of it is done by hand and they don’t wear gloves (they wash their hands every hour). I felt like I was scrubbing in. I doned a hairnet, shoe covers, a lab coat, and scrubbed my hands followed by an antibacterial treatment.

Look how precious our little Swiss tour guide is and check out our sweet outfits

Sexy, huh?

This sign was on the back of the bathroom stall door...Handewaschen! I laughed for about ten minutes about this!!

There was no jewelry, nailpolish, etc. allowed. One girl even had to stay behind for 2 hours while we went on the tour because she had permanent acrylic nails. Boo. There goes my precious manicure I got before I left! Oh well, it was worth it.

After the chocolate factory, we headed to Migrolino headquarters (a division of Migros, the company we learned about yesterday) to see all their logistics.

The CEO of the company bought us lunch at Migros cafeteria, it was the first time I ate legit Swiss food…

Meatballs and pork schnitzel (wouldn't recommend it highly to ANYONE)!!!!

And a cappuccino made by the CEO himself!

I am not usually one for logistics, but it was truly fascinating. Everything they do makes perfect sense and is VERY smart. Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world that is thriving economically right now, and it’s either because they’re neutral on everything or because they’re extremely smart.

It didn’t hurt that our tour guide LOVED his job and was super enthusiastic about it. He was actually a California native gone Swiss.

He was about as excited as these guys…

There he is, he was so fun!!!

Here's some pics of the factory…Not that you can tell what's going on, but I will tell you they had robots for EVERYTHING and every single thing was thoroughly thought out and precise...

This factory was sooo smart!!!

We headed out on the town (Old Towne) for Himanshi’s (a girl on our trip) birthday. I ate Chinatown pasta at Spaghetti Factory, where we had dinner.

Then, it was off to see how partying in Switzerland really works.

First, we met up with one of our friend from UT who is originally from Switzerland. We headed with him to a real live Swiss college party. It was soooo like American parties, but with REALLY good, classy beer and a different language. It was so fun rubbin’ elbows with real Swiss college students. There was also a way to get out on the roof, so Fabian took all of us up there to get a 360 degree view of Zurich. It was absolutely breathtaking up there, partly because of the view, partly because of the cold :)

Bathroom on the way there..madame!!! so cute!

disposed christmas tree on the way there…we had to save it!

A college party in Switzerland would not be complete without fancy beer and a cheese wheel. Literally, they ate the whole cheese wheel. I'm not even mad.

This is the group out on the roof with our fancy beers!!

Here's a video…notice the American music….

After we tired of real Swiss people, we headed back to Old Towne with the tourists for some brew at the local club, 

What the trains look like...

On the way to the next bars!

Tina's in Neiderdorf, such a cute little tavern!!

Heather got wild

met some locals and had a ball!

Tomorrow morning will be rough for sure but worth it….

I'll end on this...



hahaha, way to get straight the point.

Good nightshlagen (we've figured out how to speak German…just hack phlem a lot and add shlagen to everything)!!!