Why the Swiss are skinny

The Frau once got an email from someone in England wondering if she could explain why the Swiss were so skinny.

The Frau gets a lot of strange emails.

Still, The Frau thought about it. Pondered it. Too many mountains? Too many cigarettes? But she never came to a real conclusion.

Until she made her first box of non-imported brownies and realized something:

One box does not fit all, fellow yodelers.

An American box of brownies would fill a normal-sized baking pan.

A Swiss box of brownies (see photo) won’t come close. That's why they include their own paper pan inside the package.

So now The Frau can explain why the Swiss are so skinny. Or rather, she’ll let her Swiss brownie package, which is supposed to serve 16, speak for itself.

En guete, mitenand.

The Swiss Chocolate Taste Test

You haven't really lived in Switzerland until you have done an official chocolate taste test. Thanks to my sister, recent visitor and ultimate tourist, my first Swiss chocolate taste test has been completed with the following result: My taste buds suck.

Her test consisted of blindly tasting various versions of dark chocolate to determine my preferred percentage of cacao: 50%, 60%, 70%, 85%, or 90%.

Results: the only chocolate I guessed correctly was 90% but not surprisingly, I liked them all. My favorite was the Lindt 70%.

Have you done a Swiss chocolate taste test? Do you need an excuse? I could use another one. So what are your favorite Swiss chocolates?

Switzerland: Wealth, Democracy, and a whole ton of Chocolate

I was in the Chicago airport a few weeks back and was a bit disappointed by the food offerings in the international terminal. There were basically three things to choose from: candy, alcohol, or chips. Now I'm no expert on nutrition, but I try to be one on Switzerland and guess what. In the pathetically slim food offerings in all of the international terminal at Chicago O'Hare, the Swiss dominated. Their chocolate was on the shelf. And not much else was.

You have to hand it to this country. They're smaller in population than the entire city of Chicago, and yet their products are on shelves in Chicago and around the world.

Yes. This country is facinating. Maybe you can tell I think so by the number of years I've been writing this blog now.

Anyhow, if you're new to Switzerland, considering moving to Switzerland, live in Switzerland, or just want to know more about the kind of people who eat (and probably sell) more chocolate than anyone else on earth, Expatica.com, a website for expats in Europe, is in the process of publishing a Swiss Survival Guide. Parts of the guide are already available online, including the introduction, which is written by yours truly. Read more about these rich, democratic, and traditional people here, in Welcome to Switzerland.