Mozartkugel
Encyclopedia
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
confectioner, Paul Fürst, in 1890 and named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
.
The confectionery Fürst still produces the original Salzburg Mozartkugeln by hand according to the original recipe and only sells them in its shops or over its website. As the Fürst confectionery does not own a trademark for Mozartkugeln, there are numerous imitation products, most of which are produced using industrial techniques.
The Original
The master confectioner, Paul Fürst, came to Salzburg in 1884 and opened his own shop at number 13, Brodgasse. He presented the Mozartbonbon for the first time in 1890, later producing and selling it in greater quantities as Mozartkugeln. Fürst’s achievement was the production of a perfectly rounded chocolate, with no flat areas. The production process used by the confectionery Fürst has not changed to this day.Paul Fürst presented the Mozartkugel at a fair in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1905 and was awarded a gold medal for it.
Today, the confectionery Fürst sells the original Salzburg Mozartkugeln exclusively in its four shops in Salzburg (at the Old Market, with branches in the Ritzerbogen, the Getreidegasse and near the Castle Mirabell), and via a direct service, but not in other shops. Mozartkugeln can be bought from the confectionery Fürst individually and in packages of several pieces.
Original recipe
The “Original Salzburg Mozartkugeln” are still produced manually by the confectionery Fürst according to the original recipe and using the original technique: First, a ball of green pistachio marzipanMarzipan
Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal. Persipan is a similar, yet less expensive product, in which the almonds are replaced by apricot or peach kernels...
covered in a layer of nougat
Nougat
Nougat is a variety of similar traditional confectioneries made with sugar and/or honey, roasted nuts , and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The consistency of nougat can range from soft and chewy to hard and crunchy depending on its composition, and it is used in a variety of candy bars and...
is produced. This ball is then placed on a small wooden stick and dunked in a dark chocolate coating. Next, the stick is placed vertically, with the ball at the top, on a platform to allow the chocolate to cool off and harden. Finally, the stick is removed; the hole that it leaves behind is filled with chocolate coating, and the ball is wrapped in blue-silver tin foil by hand. According to the Fürst company, their employees produce approximately 1.4 million Mozartkugeln by hand using this technique every year. In the firm’s air-conditioned salerooms, the balls remain fresh for about eight weeks.
Prizes
The specialist magazine, Der Feinschmecker (English: The Gastronome), gave the original Salzburg Mozartkugel first place in a comparison test of different Mozartkugeln in its January 2006 edition. It was remarked that the original Salzburg Mozartkugel is handmade and that it has a nougat taste with a note of slightly bitter pistachio marzipan. The original Salzburg Mozartkugel was awarded a gold medal at the second international truffle competition during the confectionery fair ÖKONDA in WelsWels
Wels is the second largest city of the state of Upper Austria, located in the north of Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is not part of its surrounding Wels County , but a so-called Statutarstadt . However, Wels is the county seat of Wels-Land.- Geography :Wels is located in the...
in September 2005.
Rights to the name
The existence of numerous imitation Mozartkugeln finally led Paul Fürst’s descendants to initiate a court process. At stake were the rights to the name, not the Mozartkugeln recipe itself. At first, the dispute concerned only confectionery producers in Salzburg, but later spread to include the competition from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The result was an agreement which obliged Fürst’s competitors to use other names. The Mirabell firm, based in Grödig near Salzburg, chose the name, “Real Salzburg Mozartkugeln”. The Bavarian producer, Reber, opted for “Real Reber Mozartkugeln”. In 1996, a dispute between Fürst and a subsidiary of the Swiss food producer, Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
, which wanted to market “Original Austria Mozartkugeln”, was decided in the third instance. Only Fürst products may be called original Salzburg Mozartkugeln.
Other producers that employ the original recipe
The confectionery Dallmann, located in St. GilgenSt. Gilgen
Sankt Gilgen is a picturesque village by the Wolfgangsee in the Austrian state of Salzburg, in the "Salzkammergut" region.-History:In the year 1376 Sankt Gilgen was first mentioned in documents. 1873 the shipping on the Wolfgangsee started and so did the tourism too. Also the construction of the...
on the Wolfgangsee
Wolfgangsee
Wolfgangsee is a lake in Austria that lies mostly within the state of Salzburg and is one of the best known lakes in the Salzkammergut resort region. The municipalities on its shore are Strobl, St. Gilgen with the villages of Abersee and Ried as well as the market town of St. Wolfgang in the state...
, produces Mozartkugeln by hand according to Fürst’s original recipe. Like those produced by the confectionery Fürst, they are wrapped in silver tin foil marked with blue print.
The confectionery Engljähringer, which has operated in the city of Salzburg since 1948, also produces Mozartkugeln by hand using the original recipe. They are sold in cardboard boxes and are available at Salzburg’s University Square at the Engljähringer market stall. Handmade Mozartkugeln are not produced en masse using industrial techniques, whereby hollow Mozartkugeln are created and then filled. Engljähringer Mozartkugeln are produced by “wuzeln” (a regional term in Austria meaning to turn or to roll) the pistachio marzipan, by covering it in nougat and finally by dunking it by hand in chocolate coating.
The confectionery Petrik, whose base of operations in the Getreidegasse, not too far from the house in which Mozart was born, produces Mozartkugeln using the same sound and traditional method. The confectionery took a top place in the 2006 Mozartkugel test carried out by the “We are Mozart” website.
Industrially produced Mozartkugeln
The industrially produced Mozartkugeln do not use the original recipe, being based instead on variations of it. Furthermore, they are smaller than the original and are often flat on one side. The Mozartkugeln produced by the Mirabell company have a green, ring-shaped marzipan centre surrounded by light and dark nougat creme. Those produced by the German company Reber have a centre made of nougat, which is surrounded on one side by white marzipan, and on the other side by green marzipan. Moreover, they are flat on one side and not completely round. The Mozartkugeln produced by another German company, Lambertz, are also flat on one side, with a hazelnut and nougat centre surrounded by pistachio and almond marzipan and covered in a layer of dark chocolate. Both Mirabell and Reber emphasise that no preservatives, colouring or artificial aromas are used in their products.
The leading industrial producers of Mozartkugeln, Reber and Mirabell, are both based in the area of the Euregio Salzburg – Berchtesgadener Land – Traunstein.
Austria
The largest industrial producer of Mozartkugeln in Austria is the Mirabell company (Kraft FoodsKraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
Austria), which is based in Grödig near Salzburg. According to its own figures, Mirabell produces over 90 million Mozartkugeln per year and exports them to more than 30 countries. Mirabell claims to have produced a total of 1.5 billion Mozartkugeln since 1945. Other producers include the Viennese
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
company Hofbauer, which produces varieties with milk chocolate and dark chocolate, and Manner
Manner
Manner is a line of confectionery from the Austrian conglomerate, Josef Manner & Comp AG. The corporation, founded in 1890, produces a wide assortment of confectionery products...
, which has factories in Vienna, Wolkersdorf and Perg
Perg
Perg is a city in the Austrian state of Upper Austria, capital of the district of the same name.-History:Originally in the eastern part of the Duchy of Bavaria, Perg belonged to Austria from the 12th century on. In 1269 it received commercial privileges from King Ottokar II of Bohemia, and from...
.
Germany
The worlds largest industrial producer of Mozartkugeln is the German company ReberReber
Reber is a last name of German origin. It is derived from two sources: First, it is "an occupational name for a vine-dresser or vintner, from Middle High German rebe 'vine' + -er agent suffix." Second, it comes "from a Germanic personal name, Radobert, formed with rād, rāt 'counsel', 'advice' +...
Specialities, which has been active in Bad Reichenhall
Bad Reichenhall
Bad Reichenhall is a spa town, and administrative center of the Berchtesgadener Land district in Upper Bavaria, Germany. It is located near Salzburg in a basin encircled by the Chiemgauer Alps ....
since 1938. According to Reber, its daily capacity is 500,000 Mozartkugeln, and it exports its products to 40 countries. Another German producer is the Confiserie Dreher. It is also located in Bad Reichenhall and has been producing Mozartkugeln since 1931. It claims to be the oldest German producer of Mozartkugeln. Dreher was bought in 2000 by the Halloren Chocolate Factory in Halle (Saale). The Lambertz company, based in Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
, also produces Mozartkugeln e.g. for discount supermarket chains like Aldi
ALDI
ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...
.
Dispute between Mirabell and Reber
At the end of the 1970s, a dispute arose between the Mozartkugeln producers Mirabell and Reber over the trademark. A provisional agreement was reached in 1981 between representatives of the Austrian and German governments, whereby only Austrian producers were to be allowed to use the label "Mozartkugeln". Reber protested against this agreement, and the EC-Commissioner in BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
charged with deciding in the affair finally declared the agreement invalid. This is why Reber may legitimately and continuously use his Genuine Reber Mozart-Kugeln trademark, though with a hyphen in-between.
Nonetheless, only Mirabell Mozartkugeln are allowed to be round. Other industrially produced Mozartkugeln must have one flat side.
Other Fürst chocolates named after famous personalities
Besides the famous “Original Salzburger Mozartkugeln”, which is named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, there are further chocolates that are named after famous personalities: the Bachwürfel (English: Bach cube) (Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
), Wolf-Dietrich-Block (Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau), Doppler Kon(Ef)fekt (Christian Doppler
Christian Doppler
Christian Andreas Doppler was an Austrian mathematician and physicist.-Life and work:Christian Doppler was raised in Salzburg, Austria, the son of a stonemason. Doppler could not work in his father's business because of his generally weak physical condition...
) and the Paris-Lodron-Truffle (Paris Graf von Lodron).
Trivia
In the winter and spring of 2006, 80 oversized polyester Mozartkugeln, each with a diameter of 1.6 metres, were placed in the old town of Salzburg. They had been designed by artists. In the night of the 27th of March, vandals removed one of these Mozartkugeln from the Franziskanergasse, where it had been bolted to the ground. The unknown vandals then rolled the Mozartkugel onto the street, causing damage worth around 7000 euro.The confectionery Dallmann in St. Gilgen offers a Mozartkugeln seminar. Participants graduate as Mozartkugeln specialists.
External links
- History of the Mozartkugel (in German)
- http://www.original-mozartkugel.com/Café KonditoreiKonditoreiKonditorei is the German word for a pâtisserie and confectionery shop. A Konditorei typically offers a wide variety of pastries and is like a little café. In Germany and Austria it is a very popular custom to go to a Konditorei to have a cake and some coffee or hot chocolate mid-afternoon...
Fürst Salzburg]