An expedition into the world of chocolate
From confectioner to unique visionary. Miracles also happen in south-eastern Styria. Provided you believe in them. Josef Zotter did exactly the things he was convinced of. He reinvented chocolate and his company is now a centre of excellence for chocoholics. What is today a world of experience, a chocolate factory and an edible zoo and 500 colourful varieties of chocolate was at some point simply an idea. One among many. But it caught on and grew. Now it stretches from the tranquil village of Riegersburg across the whole of Styria, and even more, the whole world. His chocolates have even made it to Shanghai and the USA.
Cheese, grammels and algae
He is creative, Josef Zotter, the way he sits there in his chocolate factory and invents new flavour combinations, which are then transformed into delicious treats with many unusual ingredients and packaged in crafty loops by Andreas H. Gratze. His unconventional approach to product development: up to 90 chocolate varieties are launched on the market every year without testing them. "Eight to nine of them work well, some are mid-range and some have to be taken off the market - and end up in the graveyard of ideas." So the chocolate becomes a collector's item. No matter whether filled with pineapple, nut, pumpkin or even grammels. It is not for nothing that the Zotter story is taught at Harvard University as a case study for lateral thinkers: it is a unique success story.
By the way: The Zotter World of Experience is an entertaining destination for young and old. With brand new tasting stations such as the chocolate robot serving delicious organic confectionery, bubbling nougat fountains and hip varieties with sugar alternatives, there is plenty to nibble on here.