Swiss Watching trivia, No 28: Toblerone
August 28, 2010, 9 Comments
It’s famously triangular and sold in almost every duty-free shop, but did you know that Toblerone is only made in Bern? Every single one of the seven billion triangles produced annually comes from the factory just outside the Swiss capital. Its creator was Theodor Tobler, hence the name – a contraction of his surname and torrone, an Italian nougat – and its shape was inspired by a pyramid of dancers at the Folies Bergère. The Matterhorn had nothing to do with it, only later being added to the packet, replacing first an eagle then a bear as the logo. But looks closely and you’ll see the bear still there, hidden in the rock formation of the mountain. By the way, it’s pronounced Tobleron-e, with a short ‘eh’ at the end. I still have the urge to say Tobler-own, as most English people do. Sadly, what is probably the most instantly recognisable Swiss chocolate isn’t actually Swiss any more; since 1990 the company has been part of US food giant Kraft.
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9 Comments on "Swiss Watching trivia, No 28: Toblerone"
That is sad. Here I have been thinking that it was made in Switzerland and I bought it thinking that. 🙁
Janie, it is still made in Switzerland – every single chunk is produced here in Bern. It’s just the company is no longer Swiss. It was bought by Kraft in the 1990s.
i love it
I can’t remember where, but I saw once that Toblerone, was for Tobler number one (Tobler 1), but no Swiss in this time could pronunce “one” in the english way, so it becames “one”, like “ohne” in german. Is this true?
I don’t think so. The name is apprently a contraction of Tobler and torrone, Italian for nougat, which is pronounced to-rro-ne. I think it’s only English speakers who say Tobler-own without pronouncing the -e at the end!
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