Marzipan

Recently I came across a story in Baltic Business News: the Kalev Chocolate Factory, maker of fine chocolates and marzipan for over 200 years and one of Estonia's best known brands, was sold to a foreign company. The buyer is the Finnish company Felix Abba of the Norwegian group Orkla. Read about it here.

As we Estonians do love our chocolates and marzipan, we sincerely hope that Oliver Kruuda, Member of KCF’s Supervisory Board, is correct: ”Felix Abba and Orkla is a strategic buyer with the competence and interest to develop the company and the business further”.

Can you sell the President? Of course you can! Visit the Marzipan Muuseum on Viru 4 in Tallinn for a better look! Or, check out the Kalev Marzipan Room on Pikk 16. You can learn the history of marzipan, sample and create marzipan figures at both museums. Photo by Anna Huimerind in Eesti Ekspress.

The Kalev Marzipan Room was was started by Otto Kubo, an employee of the Kalev Chocolate Factory, over 40 years ago. In 1806, Lorenz Caviezel from Switerland opened the original confectionary shop in the Maiasmokk Café building. (The Maiasmokk, owned by Kalev, is the oldest café bakery in the heart of Tallinn).

It has changed hands many times until Georg Johann Stude bought it in 1864 and expanded the business. Stude's products were popular outside Estonia: the company's marzipan figurines and handmade chocolates were in high demand at the court of the Russian tsar. Factory employees proudly note that these exclusive products are still being made according to the recipes and methods preserved from Stude's time. Read the Kalev Chocolate Factory story here.

The original Panis Martius or Marci Panis was sold in the Tallinn Town Pharmacy, Europe's oldest operating apothecary (1422). According to legends, an apprentice at the Town Pharmacy accidently concocted it as a remedy, perhaps against the plague. Jaan Kross also wrote Mardileib about this discovery.

Later in the 1500's, the Town Pharmacy would order molds from Arent Passer, a Dutch stonemason and architect who moved to Tallinn and created many beautiful stone effigies and entrance portals. The pharmacy would fashion beautiful martzipan cakes as fitting gifts for the guild masters and nobility. Photo from Eesti Instituut

Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal. It derives its characteristic flavor from bitter almonds, which constitute up to 12% of the total almond content by weight. It is believed to originate in Persia (Iran) and was brought to Europe by the Turks; however, Hungary, Italy and Spain also lay claim to it.

In northern Europe Lübeck and Tallinn compete for its origin. It was first sold as a remedy in both cities; the main confectioners J. G. Niederegger and Kalev were both founded in 1806. Niederegger marzipan is made from 100% raw paste with 0% sugar, Lübeck marzipan is made from 70% raw paste with 30% sugar and thus corresponds to the common designation in Germany fine marzipan.

Estonian marzipan is, according to Ülle Noodapera, a pharmacist at the Raeapteek (Town Hall) drug store: "not ordinary marzipan, but one made using a medieval prescription containing 72 percent almonds and 28 percent other ingredients that we will not disclose". Read more here. It is also a traditional cure for a broken heart; one dose of the wonder drug weighs 40 grams and costs just $1.50.

If you live in Toronto or Ottawa, you can get the wonder drug. There are 2 types of Niederegger, for baking and molding, available at $30.00 per kilo at Stubbe. Or, you can buy the coloured marzipan figures. Stubbe is a family business, started by Johann Heinrich Petrus Stubbe in 1845 in Meppen, Germany. They moved to Canada in 1989 and offer classes in creating fabulous chocolates and pastries.

In Ottawa, they are located on 375 Dalhousie Street - just steps away from the Estonian Embassy. Somebody should tell the new Kalev Chocolate Factory owners!