Berlin - The Sweet Side

When you think of Europe and chocolate together (and who doesn’t?) which countries come to mind? Switzerland, perhaps? Or Belgium? How about Germany? Did you know that Europe’s largest chocolate store is in Berlin?

Fassbender & Rausch is family owned and has been in the business for over 150 years and is basically a chocolate-lover’s dream of a place. It claims to be the biggest chocolaterie in the world and, given its vast counters of chocolate confections of all kinds and the rows of shelves of prepackaged assortments and truffles, I’m inclined to believe the claim.

But even if you are not a chocolate lover, it is worth going into the store just to see the amazing models of some of Berlin’s more famous sights, all made out of chocolate.

There’s the Reichstag building:

Or the Brandenburg Tor:

Even the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church  - this was badly damaged during the war but the bombed-out remains have been left standing as a memorial and now has a (very) modern annex built next to it.

And when you have had enough of the chocolate sights, there’s a café on the second floor which mostly sells food involving…. You guessed it…. Chocolate!  Even the main courses have chocolate in them. We were just there for dessert and managed to find some which were not completely chocolate. My choice was the Marzipan Tortchen, which proved to be quite a challenge, but I was determined not to be defeated by a cake.

With hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have had that AND the hot chocolate with whipped cream!  

Verdict: Well worth a visit.