It was a beautiful day in June when we took the train from Geneva Cointrin airport railway station to Broc Fabrique, where the tastiest chocolate lay waiting for us . Let me just say that train journeys in Switzerland are quite pricey (at almost 100chf for the entire day of travel), but this is coming from someone who has spent the last 3 years using a 1/3 off rail card back in Scotland. However, let me also say how completely worth every penny it was.
See this beautiful view of Lake Geneva. I had my eyes glued to the scenery for the entire ride. I really appreciate a good train ride, and this was definitely in my top 10.
There is another way to get to the chocolate factory, a special train known as The Chocolate Train that runs from Montreux to the Gruyère region giving you a beautiful tour of Gruyères castle (shown below as a speck on the hill) as well as the chocolate factory tour and a cheese making demonstration. I have heard nothing but good things about it but as we were coming from Geneva we decided to keep costs down and take the regular old train which, as I mentioned, was spectacular anyway.
After a quick pit stop there (mainly because our trains didn't connect right away) and we were back on our way to the factory!
The first thing that hits you as you step off the train is the smell chocolate in the air, delightful. There was a discount chocolate shop right next to the train station and it was cheaper than the shop at the factory. I think we may have even bought some pre-factory chocolate to snack on which is something you shouldn't really do if you want to make the most of the gorgeous free samples. Once in the factory we seen that they do tours in various languages and we started our tour pretty quickly considering it was summertime. There was also a cinema/theatrical experience describing the history of chocolate and how Callier was founded, we watched this for ages at the end of our tour, it was really enjoyable and informative. We were also showed this corporate movie for Nestlé - Cailler which I rather loved.
The tour itself is excellent. You travel through time learning about the early uses of chocolate and progressing to Swiss technique of chocolate making. There was a room where we could touch, smell and sample from big sacks of cocoa beans, un-roasted and roasted almonds and hazelnuts. Then there was the production line of chocolates where a robotic machine individually picks up each piece of chocolate and at this point you can sample some chocolate but be warned, the best is yet to come. The main chocolate sampling room has a vast range of chocolates to eat.You can eat as much chocolate as you want but it was impossible for me to sample one of every kind of chocolate in that room, there was just such variety. Even my chocoholic friend, whom I have never ever before seen giving up a chocolate challenge, gave in and just nabbed a bunch of chocolates for consumption later and all for just 10 chf. Amazing.
*As a side note for visits in the summer I don't recommend chucking your nabbed chocolates in your bag unless you like melted chocolate covered things. Bring a container or baggies. Ahhh happy chocolate hand covered times.
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