Sometimes it doesn’t matter how and where someone grows up. Sarah Henseler wouldn’t also be called Priti if her mother hadn’t taken her to Goa. The name Priti has its origins in Sanskrit and means happiness, pleasure, joy and love. Many years later, Henseler made these meanings her life and work motto. She has been running the “Götterspeise” shop in the Glockenbachviertel for more than two decades. It sells fine, high-priced chocolates, handmade pralines, spirits, teas, coffee and things to treat yourself or others. In a conversation with Henseler, 51, the words enjoyment and diversity are often mentioned. And with the adjective alive she describes her memories of India and how she feels about her business.
A few weeks before Easter, the shop windows on Jahnstraße shine in spring-like shades of orange and green. They are decorated with large bouquets of flowers, rabbits and vases in the shape of fish, with large and small lanterns. It all looks colorful and full of life. This is how Henseler remembers her time in India. At the time, she said, she was unaware of the poverty in this country. At that time there were still many fishermen in Goa and she believes there was enough food for everyone.
Henseler lived there for five years as a child. Soon after her arrival, her mother only called her Priti. Since then she has been called that for her family, friends and employees. This time shaped her, says Henseler. “The colors, the variety, so many crazy people. I grew up insanely free. With parties that lasted for days, and the kids were there too.” Because the Indian school system, which was still very English at the time, seemed too rigid to her mother, she sent her daughter to schools based on the Summerhill principle. There was no pressure. “You could learn or not,” says Henseler. While in Germany children of her age were fighting to get into high school, she and her friends drove around on a small moped along the sea. The shock was correspondingly great when she came back. Henseler was just beginning puberty, around 12 or 13 years old, and couldn’t read or write properly. She then fought her way through high school, “always with a longing for something wilder and freer”.
After graduating from high school, she actually wanted to study theater studies, a numerus clausus subject. To bridge the gap, she worked as a flight attendant and took the opportunity to get discounted tickets for private trips. She couldn’t find her way to university. Henseler has lived in Detmold, Freiburg, Cologne, in Phoenix/Arizona and in Vietnam. In 1996 she came to Munich. At some point she knew that she wanted to do something that required her more than packing moving boxes over and over again. She started working in a publishing house, overseeing programming projects, then moved to Conde Nast Publishing and organizing events. Discontinuity was her companion for a long time. But at some point she said goodbye to her.
Chocolaterie inspiration came from the 2000 box office hit Chocolat starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Henseler borrowed money from friends to start a life as a shopkeeper. She had to replace the previous owners in Jahnstraße with a walk-in cooling chamber and much more, because strawberries and iceberg lettuce were still sold here at the time. For two years, Henseler offered healthy greens in addition to an initial selection of chocolates, until she no longer wanted to drive to the Grossmarkthalle at four in the morning. You need an incredible amount of energy to run a business anyway.
In the “Götterspeise” there are ideas for your own kitchen and gifts.
(Photo: private)
Even now, she usually arrives at the shop around half past seven in the morning before her employees and makes the schedules at home in the evening. She employs 30 people. People she likes to surround herself with. “Many individualists.” That doesn’t make it any easier.
Now Henseler still travels as often as she can. Before Corona, she visited India once a year, she was just in Marrakech to soak up some sun and visit a ceramics factory. One of their most unusual pralines comes from Morocco: the sesame flower, crunchy on the outside and velvety soft on the inside. This variety is otherwise only available in Berlin’s KaDeWe, says Henseler. Such exclusivity has its price. 100 grams of chocolates cost just under ten euros. That’s a lot of money, Henseler knows that too. But there are enough people in the Glockenbachviertel who can afford it. With her you can take a deep breath, pause, enjoy yourself. Her shop offers her a framework for the exuberant, colourful, lively, for the happiness she has always longed for. Since her childhood years in India.
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