Grocery Note:
Mozartkugeln
17 August 2018
For the second time in a row, Schaller & Weber hasn’t had any Mozartkugeln for sale. When a man in ordinary clothes whom I’d never seen before asked me what I was looking for, he didn’t know what Mozartkugeln were. It did seem, however, that he actually worked in the shop.
I never imagined…
And when I say that they didn’t have any, I mean that they didn’t have the Reber brand, either, which I shouldn’t have bought no matter how desperate. I buy only Mirabell. The Mirabell are said to come from Salzburg (although they’re made under the aegis of Mondelez now), while the Reber come from Vienna. Ironic; the ones that I liked should not come from the town that Mozart hated.
So I went online. The first comment was enough to put me off. (The astronomical shipping fee hadn’t been.) The candies took a month to arrive, were old and pale tasting, with the foil wrappers stuck to the chocolate — I could easily imagine this immense and expensive (considering) disappointment. Another commenter said that he ought to have waited for winter, which is of course quite true where candies are concerned, and probably an explanation of the high freight.
A Mozartkugeln bonbon is not unlike the planet earth, layers of different treats enveloping a center of pistachio marzipan. Well, the marzipan is not molten, and neither is the earth covered in chocolate. When I was a boy, I was always buying Three Musketeers bars and then wondering why. It’s the same with Mozartkugeln — they still taste somewhat weird. But it’s the weirdness that brings me back.
Until the problem clears up (if it ever does), I shall have to take the few Mozartkugeln that I still have out of the dish on the sideboard. Sometimes, Ray Soleil is bold enough to help himself to two!