Make your own Funky Chocolate in Interlaken, Switzerland

Spend some time making delicious Swiss chocolate at the
Funky Chocolate Club in Interlaken  (Taylor)

INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND – Listen up you health food fanatics: According to the brochure for the “Funky Chocolate Club” in Interlaken, Switzerland, “Chocolate comes from cocoa, which is a tree. That makes it a plant. Therefore, chocolate counts as a salad.” Yeah Chocolate!

Ask just about anyone what Switzerland is famous for and chances are the answers will be, cheese, mountains, watches, scenery, cuckoo clocks and, of course, chocolate. Now the first five might be obvious choices, but since Switzerland doesn’t have cocoa beans why is their chocolate so famous?

Funky Chocolate also makes
its own delights  (Taylor)

The answer, of course, is because Switzerland makes up for its lack of one resource with an abundance of another, which is cows.

Simply import the cocoa beans, and the rest is history.

Now people who enjoy interactive travel can get a true taste of Swiss chocolate at the Funky Chocolate Club in Interlaken.

It all began when two college friends, Tatiana and Michaela dreamed about opening their own chocolate shop. It was a natural idea considering their mutual passion for chocolate, so their conversations frequently ended with discussions about their chocolate inspiration.

Preparing a fresh batch of Funky Chocolate  (Taylor)

After going their separate ways for a while, their paths crossed again in Interlaken.

By June, 2014 the dream had become a reality as the two entrepreneurial chocolatiers opened for business and never looked back.

Children love making their own
chocolate creations (Taylor)

Not only do Tatiana and Michaela make their own chocolate delights, but they also hold daily workshops where they teach visitors the history of chocolate and then let them make their own delicious creations.

Big kids have fun too
(Taylor)

Workshops are held daily at 2, 4 and 6 pm and reservations are required. Each session lasts approximately an hour and everything you need from aprons, chef’s hats and the ingredients are supplied.

Under the happy guidance of Funky Chocolate’s professionals, you not only learn techniques, tips and tricks of tempering the chocolate, but melting, pouring and filling the molds with your own personal designs which you can later take home to share with family and friends.

Chocolate in its natural state before it becomes "Chocolate"
(Taylor)

The Funky chocolatiers will teach you everything you need to know about tempering, but consider that even a bad day in the world of chocolate is never worth losing your “temper.”

Cocoa beans are the main ingredient
(Taylor)

In 2000, a movie titled “Chocolat” starring Juliette Binoche told the story of a single mother and her six-year-old daughter who open a chocolate shop in rural France. Over time the townspeople begin to recognize that there was something joyfully mysterious and magical about the chocolate. By the end of the movie, chocolate had turned the entire village into a place filled with joy.

Tatiana and Michaela have taken that story and turned it into a living workshop where nobody ever leaves their store without a smile, though there may be a few brown smudges at the corners of their mouths.

Making chocolate is addictive...so is eating it  (Taylor)

To build your own chocolate magic the price is 65 Swiss francs for adults and 59 for children between the ages of 4 and 14. The shop is located at Jungfraustrasse 35 in Interlaken, which, given the famous Jungfraujoch that towers over the city, makes the site easy to remember.

Interlaken itself gets its name because it is situated between two beautiful lakes; the Lake of Thun and the Lake of  Brienz. Lake steamers ply the waters of both lakes each day with spellbinding vistas and scenery not to mention  countless nearby villages or along the shores such as Thun, Spiez, Brienz and Meirengen to mention a few.

The Lauterbrunnen Valley is a waterfall paradise  (Wikipedia)

There are also numerous day trips which include trains to the Jungfrau, Schilthorn, Brienzer-Rothorn and Schynige Platte.

For a valley filled with seemingly thousands of waterfalls, the magnificent Lauterbrunnen Valley is unrivaled.

The end result after all the creatures were stirring  (Taylor)

But at the end of the day, there is always that Funky Chocolate that beckons your sweet tooth. Once you savor the taste of your own homemade concoctions, you will immediately know why Swiss chocolate is “udderly” delicious.