MOZART BALLS A SUBLIME SALZBURG EXPERIENCE

I thought I’d go with something light today after all that heavy fare over the Thanksgiving weekend.  And I have just the thing for you – Mozart Balls! 

These balls will not disappoint.  

These look like Christmas ornaments. We were looking for chocolate truffles.

You were expecting something with a little less sparkle?

There was no missing the signs for Mozart Balls when Jimmy and I visited Salzburg, Austria earlier this month.  

If you ask me, Mozart seems a little bored with his balls.

It seemed the Salzburg locals are quite proud of their connection with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; both his Salzburg roots as well as the delectable, chocolate-covered nutty flavored balls that bear his name.  
 
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. 

Jim & friend Jerry getting some pointers on how to sweet talk the girls.

His balls seemed as popular and exceptional as Mozart's classical style compositions.

We may have come late to our groupie status, but friend Joan and I plan to have a ball.

Alas, we were told, buy only the best, the hand made Mozartkugels, the ones wrapped in blue-silver tin foil.  All the rest (usually wrapped in red-gold tin foil) were cheap imitations of the original exquisite tasting chocolate truffle created in 1890 by Salzburg confectionery Paul Furst.  
  
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.

Could this be Salzburg's Time Square?

We saw Mozart’s birthplace; but no Mozart Balls.

We're looking for blue and silver - no yellow.

We saw Mozart in the town square, looking very regal if not slightly stoned; but no balls. 

Mozart looks like he might be searching for some balls too.

Our saga was rapidly becoming a musical.  We passed this kind looking gentleman playing his violin twice during our travails.  I’m not sure if we were lost or if he was on the move.  Were we ever going to find those blue-silver tin covered chocolate balls with a creamy, nutty center?  

I didn't see any silver-blue balls in his violin case. We moved on.

Of course we were!  And we did.  I wouldn’t be  here today sharing my story if we hadn’t.  I simply endeavor to tell a story as earnestly as Furst sought to sell his bonbons.   

Something tells me we might have struck gold - I mean silver; blue-silver balls.

Pavlov had his dogs; Josef had the Mozart Balls.  I started salivating immediately as  the crowds parted and the smell of chocolate enveloped my senses. 

I hadn’t seen so much chocolate since Willy Wonka’s scrumdidilyumptious Chocolate Factory.  Okay, maybe a wee bit of hyperbole.  But Josef had the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory beat for sure; the yummy chocolate store Jimmy and I visited several months ago while in Colorado. 

So much chocolate, so little time.

I wandered the aisles in search of Mozart's blue and silver balls, the anticipation building.  

I was like a kid in a candy shop. Oh wait! It was a candy shop!

And suddenly like fireworks, the world stood still as the blue-silver tin foil confections filled the sky (okay, filled one corner of the confectionary).  I stood there, weak in the knees, moments away from the culmination of one of life's sublime experiences.

Here's the real deal!

Jimmy was definitely in his own world by the time he got his hands on his Mozart Ball.  He takes his confections very seriously.

Earth to Jimmy! Are you there?

I was giddy with delight.

Not my best picture. Seriously though, I'd give my Mozart Ball a thumb's up, not the finger.

It was all a glorious, classy, PG-rated fun afternoon!  

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?