Creamy, glossy chocolate is stirred, dripping from the spoon. You can literally smell the cocoa when you watch the chocolatière Vianne at work in the film “Chocolat”. The Germans fell for the sensuality of chocolate in 2019 with a per capita consumption of 9.2 kilograms. Chocolate lovers can also experience the magic of “Chocolat” in Munich. A compass on the trail of the Munich Vianes.
Sama Sama chocolates
A sweet, buttery scent welcomes visitors to the “Sama-Sama” at Westenriederstrasse 21 welcome. If you pass the small manufactory on the right, you walk past all sorts of pretty structures made of chocolate and floral decorations to the praline counter, which tempts with handmade raw food pralines. They look like little tarts, almost like a fairy. The owner and self-proclaimed chocolate magician Wilhelmine Raabe developed this design over the years. In the search for new specialties, the in-house raw food praline was created – from an experiment with dried and candied fruits and chocolate. “I’ve always been a free spirit,” says Raabe today. The experiment became a sure-fire success. Especially when the movie “Chocolat” hit theaters. The Munich tabloid journalist and cinema owner Michael Graeter asked her to develop a praline for the screenings of the film, the “Venusnippel”, a chocolate drop with chili. Today it is one of around 250 praline creations that Sama Sama has to offer. Buttery and creamy balls, glitter and gold leaf, decorated with candied flower petals or pumpkin seeds. “I think there is an artist slumbering in every human being. One in this way, the other in that.” Decorating is her style.
Kerstin Weise’s greatest nightmare is that a customer asks her a question about chocolate that she can’t answer.
(Photo: Robert Haas/Robert Haas)
Chokoin chocolate gallery
The beauty of chocolate presented the “Chokoin” (Nordendstraße 52) in front of a mixture of Bauhaus style and baroque stucco design with soft beats in the background. “The best chocolate from all over the world” is the motto of the owner Kerstin Weise. When the former stewardess decided to open a specialty store for the candy, she started reading all about it. Because Weise’s biggest nightmare was and is that a customer asks her a question about chocolate that she can’t answer. She attended further training courses and got to know the practice in chocolatier courses. Today, when someone comes into the store, they can count on comprehensive advice. Weise prefers to obtain her goods from small manufacturers from all over the world and is always on the lookout for something special. Same with the pralines. Together with her trusted chocolatier, the owner keeps experimenting with components from hearty cuisine. In addition to the classic chocolates, there are also those filled with blue cheese or saffron cream. “Both the visual and the taste is always something special,” says Weise.
Jelly
Marvel at the beautiful things – that should be possible in the shop café GötterSpeise.
(Photo: Robert Haas/Robert Haas)
“Where the gods shop” is in that Shop café GötterSpeise (Jahnstraße 30) in the Glockenbachviertel. Shelves, tiered stands and baskets full of colorful chocolate goods are placed around a corner of several rooms. In between there are cups and decorative items. Sweet chocolates and homemade cakes tempt you in several counters. “Everyone can just indulge and look,” says owner Priti Henseler. The abundance of her shop reflects her deep appreciation for chocolate. This affinity comes from their childhood in India. High-quality chocolate would have been hard to come by there: “It was like someone giving you gold.” A moment of wonder, a moment of time for beautiful things, that’s what Henseler wants to give her customers: “We won’t save the world with chocolate, but that it’s about something else for a little while,” that’s important to her. Losing yourself in colorful macarons, flower-shaped sesame pralines and melt-in-your-mouth caramel chocolate is what makes the place a godsend.
Munich chocolate shop
The pralines are made in the manufacturing area of the chocolate shop.
(Photo: Josef Obermeier)
Look through the window to see liquid, glossy chocolate being molded into the shapes of animals and cars of the Munich chocolate shop (Viktualienmarkt section III, stand 18/19). Thea Gamringer and Kathrin Fertl are standing behind the window behind the chocolate bar. Her realm, the manufacturing area, occupies the largest part of the shop. The last few meters are packed with packed chocolate, which smells sweet through the foil. The shop is the Munich branch of Confiserie Josef Obermeier from Lengmoos and brings the fine chocolates to the state capital. “Finding something special in a small shop” is what makes this shop so charming for Fertl. Pretty gift sets, for example, but the pralines in the shape of snail shells and maple leaves are a treat for the eyes.
Walter Corde’s chocolates
Unique selling point: At Walter Cordes you can get pink ruby chocolate.
(Photo: Gwendolyn Büntig)
Who would have thought there were a whole bunch of women behind a company called Walter Cordes? Ingeborg Ruchner took over her father Walter’s company in 1985. At more than 80 years old, she still works in the praline production together with her daughter Doris. Ruchner’s granddaughter Gwendolyn Büntig and her sister take care of the online shop and shipping. Mutual help and trust in the family business is as important to the women as the quality of their handmade chocolates. Doris Büntig makes the sweet bites with a lot of love and passion and develops new varieties: “The smell alone somehow satisfies me. To create something with it that is of such high quality and I like it too.” A unique selling point is the fruity, pink Ruby Chocolate, which Büntig also uses for broken chocolate and pralines. In the two Munich branches at Wasserburger Landstrasse 252 and at Plinganserstrasse 37 on Harras the small treats can be purchased. The appetizers that lie in the white and gold round counter, be it yoghurt truffles or plum hats with rum, arouse cravings.
Elly Seidl
Handcrafted chocolates have been available from Elly Seidl since 1918.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
A traditional Munich company, that is Elly Seidl. In 1918 the confectionery business was founded by Barbara Grathwohl, who dared to break out with the sweet devotion. Not much has been handed down, but as a banker’s wife, founding her own company must have been an extreme step towards independence for Grathwohl – even if she didn’t name the shop after herself, but after her daughter Elly and her own maiden name Seidl. After the Second World War, the company started its own praline production, which was taken over by the daughter and her husband. “At home in the living room”, according to the current managing director Maximilian Rambold. His father had supplied the company for decades and finally took it over in 2000. The quality standards have been the same for more than a hundred years: “That has definitely always been one of Elly Seidl’s mottos,” says Rambold. This quality is then offered for sale in bars and pralines in the branches with fine wooden designs (main store Am Schützeneck 10). If you don’t like pralines that are too small, Elly Seidl is the place for you.
Chocolate school Kerstin Spehr
Kerstin Spehr makes such unusual pralines as pear-pink-pepper or orange-caramel-balsamic.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
The shiny and polished pralines are lined up in the showcase like pieces of jewellery, chocolaty animal figures stare with wide eyes at a wall with chocolate bars with candied blossoms, fruits and pistachios. Kerstin Spehr’s Pralinenschule (Schulstraße 38) is kept simple with the exception of an artistic shop window and lets the carefully manufactured goods speak for themselves. The passion of the owner and pastry chef Kerstin Spehr for chocolate is great: “Smells good, tastes good, feels good on the tongue, you can make other people happy with it.” Exactly 20 years ago she opened the shop. She has been giving courses for 16 years and has also co-written four books with chocolatey recipes. Nonetheless, nobody will copy her praline jewels. Unusual varieties such as pear-pink-pepper or orange-caramel-balsamic have a real taste explosion ready.
Confectionery Barbara Krönner
The Barbara Krönner confectionery in Murnau is clearly specialized in chocolate.
(Photo: Claudia Becker)
Barbara Krönner was born into chocolate. Her family worked with chocolate as early as the 19th century. 22 years ago Krönner in Murnau with her own pastry shop (Obermarkt 8, 82418 Murnau am Staffelsee) made independently. She thanks the film “Chocolat” that interest in chocolate has increased. In 2015 she opened a chocolate factory with a café on Seidlstrasse. She also sells chocolates she makes herself in a large, multi-tiered counter in the pastry shop. She gets her chocolate from Felchlin in Switzerland. Not only the quality is important to Krönner, but also the social aspects. She has been working closely with Yayra Glover, the first organic cocoa cooperative in Ghana, for five years and has thus developed her own chocolate. Muhum is the name of the variety, with cocoa from Ghana and milk from the Berchtesgadener Land – a chocolaty word fusion of Murnau and Suhum, the cultivation site in Ghana. Krönner is also socially involved in the African country and is planning to build a women’s shelter there. “As a self-employed entrepreneur, I naturally also see what happens to us women.” If you nibble on a bite from Krönner, then the praline tastes like a good conscience and quality.