Lindt & Sprüngli
Encyclopedia
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
and confectionery company.
History
The origins of the company date back to 1845. David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his son, Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann owned a small confectionery shop in the old town of ZurichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, to which two years later a small factory was added to produce chocolate in solid form.
Confiserie Sprüngli
Confiserie Sprüngli is a Swiss luxury confectionery manufacturer founded in 1836 and internationally known for its signature macarons called "Luxemburgerli".-History:...
. The elder brother, Johann Rudolf, received the chocolate factory. To raise the necessary finance for his expansion plans, Johann Rudolf converted in 1899 his private company into "Chocolat Sprüngli AG". In that same year, he acquired the chocolate factory of Rodolphe Lindt in Bern and the company changed its name to Aktiengesellschaft Vereinigte Berner und Zürcher Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli (United Bern and Zurich Lindt & Sprungli Chocolate Factory Ltd.).
In 1994, Lindt & Sprüngli acquired the Austrian chocolatier, Hofbauer, and integrated it along with its Küfferle brand into the company. In 1997 and 1998, respectively, the company acquired the Italian chocolatier, Caffarel
Caffarel
Caffarel is a chocolate manufacturing company with a long history, currently based at Luserna San Giovanni, Italy. It is now a subsidiary of Lindt & Sprüngli.-References:* - investor information, list of subsidiaries....
and the American chocolatier, Ghirardelli
Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is a United States division of Swiss candymaker Lindt & Sprüngli. The company was founded by and is named after Italian chocolatier Domingo Ghirardelli, who, after working in South America, moved to California...
, and integrated them into the company as wholly owned subsidiaries. Since then, Lindt & Sprüngli has expanded the once-regional Ghirardelli to the international market.
On March 17, 2009, Lindt announced the closure of 50 of its 80 retail boutiques in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
due to weaker demand in the wake of the late-2000s recession.
Lindt & Sprüngli has six factories located in Kilchberg
Kilchberg, Zurich
Kilchberg is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.Its coat of arms features a sky-blue shield with a trillium.Kilchberg is also the site of a regional cemetery.-History:...
, Switzerland; 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, ...
, Germany; Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Oloron-Sainte-Marie is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. The town of Oloron-Sante-Marie is positioned at the junction of two rivers and has a population of approximately 12,000. While not spectacular, it is a pleasant looking town, with an ancient quarter,...
, France; Induno Olona
Induno Olona
Induno Olona is a town and comune in Italy, in north-western Lombardy, 60 km north of Milan, in the Province of Varese. It has a population, in 2007, of c. 10,200....
, Italy; Gloggnitz
Gloggnitz
Gloggnitz is a mountain town in the Neunkirchen district of Lower Austria, Austria.Gloggnitz is situated in the south-western part of the Vienna Basin in Lower Austria. It is surrounded by the highest mountains in Lower Austria, Mount Rax and Mount Schneeberg...
, Austria; and Stratham
Stratham, New Hampshire
Stratham is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 7,255 at the 2010 census. It is bounded on the west by the Squamscott River. The town is the home of the only U.S. Lindt & Sprüngli factory and the headquarters of the Timberland Corporation.-History:Stratham...
, New Hampshire in the United States. The factory in Gloggnitz, Austria manufactures products under the Hofbauer and Küfferle brand in addition to the Lindt brand. Caffarel's factory is located in Luserna San Giovanni
Luserna San Giovanni
Luserna San Giovanni is a comune in the province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located in the Val Pellice about 45 km southwest of Turin....
, Italy and Ghirardelli's factory is located in San Leandro
San Leandro, California
San Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...
, California in the United States.
- The factory in Switzerland has now separated and become just Sprungli.
Lindor
Lindor is a type of chocolate produced by Lindt, which is characterized by a hard chocolate shell and a smooth chocolate filling. Originally it was a truffle ballChocolate truffle
A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache center coated in chocolate or cocoa powder, usually in a spherical, conical, or curved shape...
that Lindt & Sprüngli introduced in 1955. It comes in both a ball and bar variety as well as in a variety of flavours, each flavour having its own colour wrapper as follows:
| Colour | Flavour |
|---|---|
| Yellow/White | White Chocolate White chocolate White chocolate is a confectionery derivative of chocolate. It commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt, and is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance... |
| Red | Milk Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC... |
| Blue | Dark Chocolate |
| Black | Extra Dark (60% cocoa Cocoa solids Cocoa solids are the low-fat component of chocolate. When sold as an end product, it may also be called cocoa powder, cocoa, and cacao.... outside and dark chocolate filling) |
| Pink | Raspberry Raspberry The raspberry or hindberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus, most of which are in the subgenus Idaeobatus; the name also applies to these plants themselves... |
| Green | Mint Mentha Mentha is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae . The species are not clearly distinct and estimates of the number of species varies from 13 to 18. Hybridization between some of the species occurs naturally... |
| Black with green | Dark Peppermint |
| Orange | Peanut Butter Peanut butter Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground dry roasted peanuts, popular in North America, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and parts of Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia. It is mainly used as a sandwich spread, sometimes in combination as in the peanut butter and jelly... |
| Brown | Hazelnut Hazelnut A hazelnut is the nut of the hazel and is also known as a cob nut or filbert nut according to species. A cob is roughly spherical to oval, about 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm in diameter, with an outer fibrous husk surrounding a smooth shell. A filbert is more elongated, being about twice... |
| Brown and Gold (with print 'St Moritz') | Milk chocolate shell filled with sugared hazelnut chunks |
| Light Brown (with print 'Peanut Butter') | Peanut Butter Peanut butter Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground dry roasted peanuts, popular in North America, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and parts of Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia. It is mainly used as a sandwich spread, sometimes in combination as in the peanut butter and jelly... |
| Dark Brown (with print 'Café') | Mocha Cafe Mocha A caffè mocha or café mochaAs elsewhere in coffee naming, the Italian caffè and French café are commonly found, as are the hyperforeignisms caffé and cafè, which confuse the accents. Also, in Italian, the correct spelling is Moka, used both for the city and the Moka pot. "Mocha", by contrast, is... |
| Light Blue | Stracciatella Stracciatella Stracciatella is an Italian egg-drop soup usually said to be "alla Romana" , but also popular in Marche and Emilia Romagna. It is prepared by beating eggs and adding grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sometimes semolina, and then adding this mixture to boiling broth... : white chocolate shell with cocoa pieces with a smooth white filling |
| Gold with blue | Cinnamon Cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods... |
| Dark Green with red | Peppermint Peppermint Peppermint is a hybrid mint, a cross between the watermint and spearmint . The plant, indigenous to Europe, is now widespread in cultivation throughout all regions of the world... |
| Black with ghosts, white and blue snowmen, lime green with pink, purple, and yellow flowers and some butterflies, lime green with white and yellow flowers, or red with hearts | Milk outside with smooth white filling (seasonal flavour) |
| Purple/Pink with roses. | Milk chocolate outside with smooth dark chocolate, sugared hazelnut chunks, and rice krispies filling. |
| Light pink | Irish cream Irish Cream Irish cream is a cream liqueur based on Irish whiskey, cream, and other ingredients such as coffee, which can be served on its own or used in mixed drinks or as part of a shot or a whole shot. Irish cream is very popular in the United Kingdom and the United States. Irish cream typically has between... |
Most of the US Lindor truffles are manufactured in Stratham, New Hampshire
Stratham, New Hampshire
Stratham is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 7,255 at the 2010 census. It is bounded on the west by the Squamscott River. The town is the home of the only U.S. Lindt & Sprüngli factory and the headquarters of the Timberland Corporation.-History:Stratham...
. In Switzerland the chocolates are referred to as "Lindor Kugeln" which translates to "Lindor Balls" or "Lindor Spheres".
Seasonal confectioneries
Lindt also produces the Gold Bunny, a hollow milk chocolate rabbit in a variety of sizes available every Easter since 1952. Each bunny wears a small red ribbon bow around its neck. The bunny also comes in dark and white chocolate. The dark chocolate bunny wears a dark brown ribbon and the white chocolate bunny wears a white ribbon.Chocolates wrapped to look like carrots, chicks and lambs are made. The lambs are packaged with four white lambs and one black.
At Christmas, Lindt produces a variety of items including, but not limited to, a chocolate reindeer, which somewhat resembles the classic bunny, in addition to hollow European style 'Santa', 'Snowmen' figures of varying sizes, bells, advent calendars and chocolate ornaments. Various tins and boxes are available in the Lindt stores, the most popular being the red and blue. Other seasonal items include Lindt chocolate novelty Golf balls.
Other products
Other products that Lindt is famous for are its block chocolates. Current flavours from the Excellence range include:- Mint intense: dark chocolate infused with mint
- Orange Intense: dark chocolate infused with orange essence and almond flakes
- Black Currant: dark chocolate infused with pieces of black currant and almond slivers
- White Coconut: white chocolate with crisp flakes of fine coconut.
- Almond: white chocolate with whole roasted almonds and caramelised almond pieces
- Poire intense: pear flavoured chocolate with almond flakes
- Cherry intense
- Regular dark chocolate: available in 50%, 60%, 70%, 85%, 90% or 99% cocoa varieties
- Extra creamy: milk chocolate
- Toffee crunch: crunchy toffee bits wrapped in milk chocolate
- Caramel crunchy: studded with crunchy caramel
- Lindor: the famous balls but in cube form
- Pistachio: a creamy pistachio filling in milk chocolate
- Mandarin: a creamy mandarin filling in milk chocolate
- Strawberry: a creamy white chocolate strawberry filling in milk chocolate
- Strawberry margarita: 'capsule' form with strawberry and margurita filling
- Orange: a creamy orange flavoured filling in milk chocolate
- Cuba: 55% cocoa, single origin Cuba
- Madagascar: 70% cocoa, single origin Madagascar
- Ecuador: 75% cocoa, single origin Ecuador
- Vanilla: White chocolate with vanilla bean
- Coffee
- Chili: a 70% cocoa dark chocolate with red chili extract
- Raspberry Intense Dark: dark chocolate with pieces of raspberries and almond slivers
- A touch of sea salt: dark chocolate seasoned with sea salt
Their Petits Desserts range embodies famous European desserts in a small cube of chocolate. Flavours include Tarte au Chocolat, Crème Brulée
Crème brûlée
Crème brûlée , also known as burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel...
, Tiramisu
Tiramisu
Tiramisu, , , literally "pick me up", is an Italian cake and dessert.It is made of ladyfingers dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone, and flavored with liquor and cocoa...
, Creme Caramel, Tarte Citron, Meringue
Meringue
Meringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar, occasionally some recipes may call for adding an acid such as cream of tartar or a small amount of vinegar and a binding agent such as cornstarch found in icing sugar which may be added in addition to the corn starch which...
, and Noir Orange.
Lindt Chocolat Café
Lindt has opened six chocolate cafes in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, four in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and two in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
- Sydney - the first is located at Martin Place and opened in 2004, a second store in Cockle Bay WharfCockle Bay (Sydney)Cockle Bay is a small bay in inner-city Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the western edge of the Sydney central business district....
(2006) in Darling Harbour and a third on George StreetGeorge Street, SydneyGeorge Street is one of Sydney's most notable city streets. There are more high rise buildings and more ASX 100 companies located here than anywhere else in Australia, and is well known for being busy around-the-clock...
in 2007. A fourth store opened in Miranda Westfield, in Sydney's Sutherland Shire in November 2008.
- Melbourne - Lindt opened a flagship Chocolat Café at 271 Collins Street in July 2009 and a second store at Chadstone Shopping CentreChadstone Shopping CentreChadstone Shopping Centre is a super regional shopping centre located in the inner south-eastern suburb of Malvern East in the city of Melbourne, Australia...
in August 2009.
There is also planning in the earliest of stages for the first United States chocolate café in Wrentham, MA.
The café has rich hot chocolates which are available in dark or milk chocolate. They also sell crafted chocolates, cakes and ice cream.
Ice cream flavours include:
- Black forest: dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and sour cherry ripple
- 70% dark chocolate
- White chocolate framboise: white chocolate ice cream with raspberry sauce ripple
- Sable cookies and cream: a sweet cream ice cream with soft cookies swirled throughout
- Duo: hazelnut ice cream with chocolate chips
- Almond praline
- Vanilla bean