Mozartkugeln sind köstlich

The first time I bought a Mozartkugel I paid 1.75 euros. It was our first night in Salzburg and we had successfully ate at Burgerista, where I had accidentally started crying from the stress of traveling and lack of food and water throughout the day. We were walking back to our hotel from the restaurant, admiring the shops lining the road and the mountains cloaked in twilight in the distance. We passed an ice cream shop, and we stopped because we wanted to get the novelty ice cream dish, Spaghetties. Spaghetties is vanilla ice cream shaped to look like noodles with strawberry jam on top to look like tomato sauce. Unfortunately it was too cold and they did not have the spaghetti ice cream, which was okay because we were still very full from our dinner. Instead of buying the ice cream, Olivia, Katie, Abbie and I each bought one of the small chocolate balls covered in blue and silver foil. We did not know specifically what the Mozartkugels were made of, but we knew they were chocolate and that was enough.

Olivia unwrapped hers right away. She said it was green inside, which was a little strange, but then we discovered it was pistachio flavoured. I had put mine inside my backpack and waited until we got back to the Airbnb.

The Mozartkugels were created in 1890 in Salzburg by Paul Fürst. It was named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born in Salzburg. They are made of pistachio marzipan and nougat covered with dark chocolate.

I first heard about the Mozartkugels when I was talking to a girl in my London ward who served her mission in the Salzburg and Munich area. She made a list of things we should do there in my phone and she wrote down the Mozartkugels. “Make sure to get the silver ones,” she told us. “The gold ones are made for all the tourists and aren’t as good.”

When Abbie and I first saw them, we couldn’t remember which colour she told us to get. “I’m pretty sure it’s the silver,” Abbie said. I agreed with her. We were confirmed later that the silver was indeed the better one when we saw tourist shops with all the red and gold. Mozartkugels are a very Austrian thing, especially in Salzburg because that’s where they were founded and that’s where Mozart was born. In the grocery stores, there were even more Mozartkugel products; ones shaped more like tablets than a ball. Olivia bought one and I thought it kind of tasted like a taco, which she thought was silly.

Salzburg was a little less friendly than in Munich, Germany, but people were still nicer than in Paris. It was a new experience to know nothing of the language at all, because in France I knew at least 50% at all times but in Germany and Salzburg I knew not one bit of German. I think I finally learned from context clues that french fries are pommes.

A cheese shop in Munich.

The Glockenspiel in Munich.

In Salzburg, there was a river running through the city. There were beautiful, picturesque mountains. At one point, we were looking into the distance and it looked like a backdrop of a set, like somebody had painted a giant piece of cardboard and hung it up behind the shops.

The second time we bought Mozartkugels was at the shop they originally came from. Before we went there, Abbie and I were 90% sure that the blue and silver ones were better, but we were 100% sure after going to the shop and not seeing a red and gold chocolate sphere in sight. Everyone bought another one and Olivia bought more her family so she they could taste a little bit of Salzburg. The first time I tried the Mozartkugel, I was surprised at how much I liked it. I had also never had a chocolate like that before.

The Mozartkugel reminded me of how we have treats very specific to America, too. One time when we were in the North of England we stopped at a small grocery store and there was a small container of candy labeled, “Taste of America,” filled with tootsie rolls and smarties and other cheap American candy. We also have a completely different selection of crisps in the US than I’ve found here in London. The only brand that is the exact same is Doritos, and even then they’re similar but not the same. Food really is an indicator of culture.