It was 1879. Rodolphe Lindt, the son of a Bernese pharmacist, wanted to make chocolate. At the time, chocolate was hard: Hard to process and hard to eat. But Rodolphe Lindt, who was also a confectioner, epicurean¹ and bon vivant², wanted to create a new chocolate: soft, fine, an enjoyable! Bernese society was surprised that Rodolphe wanted to do this in an antiquated factory. In this factory Rodolphe tested, experimented with everything to create the perfect chocolate. But nothing worked.
It was his brother Auguste, a pharmacist like his father, who analysed the white coating which turned out to be harmless: Crystallised fat. The testing continued well into the night. More cocoa beans? Cooking the Cocoa butter? Nobody had done this up to then! He worked on the recipe, thought about it, experimented. But no matter what he did, he was no closer to achieving his goal. "Chocolat fin"? You must be joking!
Then, one Friday evening, Lindt, jeered as one of the jeunesse dorée³, left his factory – and forgot to switch off the machines. Was it because he was in a hurry? Intentional? Or a slight hunch? We don't know. But the machine continued to run: For a whole weekend.
When Lindt entered his factory on the following Monday morning, he was met by a fine aroma. The chocolate mass in the stirring tank was not burnt - it shone temptingly. And when he tried some of it, he was in heaven: Melt-in-the-mouth chocolate, such a delight! (Chocolat Surfin is the old description for dark chocolate)
Nobody has known the secret up to now – or almost nobody. One thing is for certain: The stirring for hours, even days and nights is all part of it: The conching process. Cocoa butter? Definitely. But how much? Hm. And what else? ...
¹ A person interested in food, sometimes with overtones of excessive refinement
²Meaning “good living” , a bon viveur being a “good liver”, or one who lives well
³lit. "gilded youth"; name given to a body of young dandies, also called the Muscadins, who, after the fall of Robespierre, fought against the Jacobins. Today used for youthful offspring, particularly if bullying and vandalistic, of the affluent.
(Source: Wikipedia)