These balls will not disappoint.
There was no missing the signs for Mozart Balls when Jimmy and I visited Salzburg, Austria earlier this month.
Up and down the streets of Salzburg’s Altstadt (Old Town) district we found Mozart time and time again blatantly flaunting his kugels from the curb.
Each ball begins with a green pistachio marzipan center covered in a layer of nougat. That creamy, nutty center is then pierced with a small wooden stick and coated with a thick layer of dark chocolate. The stick is removed after the chocolate hardens, the small hole covered with chocolate, and the decadent confection wrapped in blue-silver tin foil. Mind you, each step of the manufacturing process is meticulously done by hand, as has been the practice for more than a hundred years, resulting in a perfectly round ball – no flat bottom.
The search was on for confectionery Paul Furst’s Mozartbonbon, as it was originally called, back when marketing favored a more delicate approach to sales. When Furst later changed the name to Mozartkugel, Mozart Ball, sales of his chocolate truffle took off. This guy obviously had his finger on the pulse of Salzburg’s confectionary desires. So much so he won a gold medal award in Paris in 1905 for his Mozartkugel. More recently, at the second international truffle competition during the confectionery fair OKONDA in Wels, Austria, the Furst family's Mozartkugel was once again awarded a gold medal.
We had to have the first Mozart ball, the Furst ball! Our quest took us up and down the quaint, narrow streets of the Altstat (Old Town) district for the better part of an hour. I confess; we were easily distracted by all the sights and sounds of this charming city within a city.
When in Rome, or should I say Salzburg, do as the Austrians do – go out into the cobblestone streets of Old Town with a marvelous Mozart Ball and savor the moment in all its glory – the history, the people, the music, the magic, the chocolate.
Isn’t that what life, and travel, is all about?