Sweet tooth’s heaven: Maison Cailler

Are you sweet-tooth? Do you like chocolate? If the answer is yes, Maison Cailler is a place to visit. This chocolate factory is located in French-speaking part of Switzerland, in a tiny village of Broc in canton Freiburg.

Maison Cailler

The visit begins with interesting interactive tour which takes you through the history of chocolate, beginning with the Aztecs, all the way to the today’s Swiss chocolate industry.

Exhibit explaining the history of chocolate production in Switzerland

The second part of the tour is about how the chocolate is made. Visitors can touch and smell the ingredients, learn about different stages of manufacturing process and see the final stage of production of Cailler Branches chocolates. Those chocolates can also be tasted soon after they come out from the packing machine.

Machine producing Cailler Branche chocolates

The tour concludes in the degustation room where you can treat your sweet-tooth to as much Cailler chocolate and pralines as you can eat. It feels like a reward after the tour.

Inside degustation room

There is also a shop where you can buy not only all of the chocolates you’ve eaten at the degustation room, but also a broad variety of chocolate-related souvenirs, (i.e. aprons, T-shirts, cups etc.)

The wall of chocolate

The Maison Cailler is open 7 days a week, all year round. During the weekends it can get very busy. Luckily, most of my visits were during the week, when there were not many visitors and we’ve had to wait just a few minutes for our tour to begin.

 

Panel explaining what is Cailler chocolate made of

You can also attend the workshop at the Atelier du Chocolat or have a drink at a coffee shop. There is also chocolate-themed playing ground for children.

Tiny Maison Cailler made of chocolate

I have visited Cailler chocolate factory at least four times, since its existence came to my attention and will probably visit again in the future when some of my sweet-tooth friends will come to visit. Well, I might not wait that long. It came to my attention the factory was recently renovated, so I will have to check if the Maison Callier is still as fun and delicious experience as it used to be.

Vintage posters

Useful information:

• Entrance fee: 12 CHF (adults) / 9 CHF (students & seniors)
• Opening time: summer season (April-October): 10 am to 5 pm / winter season (November – March): 10 am to 4 pm
• The tour is available in different languages: French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic.