Love Triangle

What do you get when you combine two iconic aspects of Switzerland: mountains and chocolate? Toblerone!

"Toblerone is a success story unique to Switzerland. In 1867, Jean Tobler opened a confectionary in Bern. Over the years, demand for his homemade chocolates grew to such an extent that he opened a chocolate factory in 1899. In 1908, the Tobler family created the honey and almond bar that was destined to become an enduring symbol of Switzerland throughout the world. A year later, Toblerone became the first patented milk chocolate. It was acquired by Kraft Foods - now Mondelēz International - in 1990." ~SwissInfo.ch

The name Toblerone is the combination of the chocolatier's family name, "Tobler", with the Italian word for nougat, "torrone". And the unique triangular shape is the stuff of legends.

Some think it is a nod to the one of the most recognizable mountains in Switzerland, the Matterhorn.

On the official Toblerone website the theory that the triangular shape had far sexier origins is floated, "a red and cream-frilled line of dancers at the Folies Bergères in Paris, forming a shapely pyramid at the end of a show."

In fact, the shape of this chocolate is said to be the inspiration for anti tank defenses, or toblerones, built by the Swiss to slow any possible invasion by the Nazis during the Second World War.

While the triangular shape has remained the same, the logo of Toblerone has changed over time. The first logo featured an eagle. Then in the 1920's, they switched to a Bernese bear as Bern was known as "City of Bears". In the 1930's the eagle reappeared until 2000 when they changed the logo to reflect the Matterhorn mountain, but with a nod to their home city.

Do you see a shape on the left side of the mountain? Yep, the Bernese bear is in profile 'hiding' on the mountain.

An interesting, and funny, side note: In 2016 Mondelēz International introduced a lighter, cheaper version of Toblerone in the UK, but it did not go over well. In fact, some blamed the cost-cutting measure on Brexit as is illustrated by this social media meme:

The bottom picture is actually what they did to cut production costs.

And being good expats who are eager to assimilate into the local culture as much as possible, we've taken to doing what the Swiss do and eat chocolate! According to this Forbes graph we are fitting in with Swiss societal norms:

Today's concrete or shape poem pays homage to Toblerone and our Swiss brethren:

A

milk

chocolate

triangle filled

with bits of honey

and almond melts on my

tongue. I am thankful for my

Swiss kindred spirits - a society

that loves chocolate as much as I do.

©2018, Bridget Magee. All Rights Reserved.