Answers to the question “What did you fancy the most in Berlin?” usually include the East Side Gallery, the Brandenburg Gate, the many parks in town or, from a non-tangible point of view, its shocking, impressive history, which one can feel on every corner of the city. Indeed, when coming back from a trip, we all take a favourite in our backpack of memories.
Travel guides, with limited space, make many eventual favs visible but, at the same time, they keep thousands far from the visitor’s sight. I always recommend my friends and customers to include a very sweet place in their list of “Not to forget in Berlin”. Anyone said chocolate? Yumm!
In a corner of Gendarmenmarkt, the most “French-like” square in Berlin, Fassbender & Rausch shines in its own right. Although far from being an art gallery or the amazing sixth floor of KaDeWe, the visitors’ mouth waters in the presence of a hugh variety of tasty, colourful sins. No, it is no art gallery, but it kind of looks like one: through its windows, symbols of Berlin like the Reichstag and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church can be seen in chocolate, family size…
The descendents of the Rausch and the Fassbender, who started their career in the business of chocolate back in 1863, joined forces in the late 20th century. As a result, the current store at the Charlottenstraße 60 (U2 Stadtmitte), is not just a shop where chocolate can be bought, but also a restaurant and a cafeteria where one can enjoy a variety of products, all of them made of course with the same common base. “Chocolate makes you happy” is the motto of the store, and no doubt this is true for most of us, isn’t it?
But Berlin harbours another cathedral for chocolate lovers (and food of any type and origin, actually). I already mentioned KaDeWe, the department store in the Schöneberg district, absolutely worth a visit! Under its roof, a big buffet/cafeteria with great views on the city, and one floor underneath, the temple! Indeed, its Feinschmecker-Etage, KaDeWe’s gourmet department on the sixth floor, offers a huge range of delicacies for all tastes. Now, if we focus on chocolate, you do not want to miss the area devoted to this “sweetened food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree”, as Wikipedia explains it: all possible brands are offered to the visitors, in such a beautiful environment that taking home a couple boxes will be inevitable. Try and test yourself!
Oh, bitter, aromatic happiness!