On the Chocolate Trail

Visitors to Israel soon discover the impossibility of seeing all the sites, museums, beaches and stores, despite the small size of the country. A typical tourist visit of a week or two just cannot cover it all . Now, in addition, it is possible to add fun chocolate experiences to the rich mix of viewing impressive ancient sites, learning about the pioneering spirit of Israel’s founders, appreciating the natural beauty of its varied geography and absorbing the complex politics of the region. Mixing some amount of chocolate into these weighty matters provides a delicious respite. Specialty stores such as Chocolat with its Belgian Daskalides (in Jerusalem on Arlozorov), Emek Hashokolad with homemade Belgian chocolates (on Emek Refaim in Jerusalem), the luxury chocolate of Ornat available in duty free stores and on line, in addition to the readily available standby of Elite Strauss chocolate, certainly would seem to be enough.

	However, the highlight and must see is Chocolate by the Bald Man Max Brenner , named for its founders Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner , and opened in 1996.
Claiming to create a “new chocolate culture worldwide,” Brenner’s creative marketing and playful menu offer a very rich chocolate temptation indeed. Although the menu includes many healthy food offerings such as eggs, sandwiches and salads, and even reduced calorie chocolate and coffee drinks, beware.

The café dessert offerings such as the Milky Max of milk chocolate truffle cream with cookie bits in nougat with white chocolate bits and whipped cream with crunchy waffle balls or the chocolate pizza, entice the imagination as well as the palate. Supreme self control would be required to bypass the hot chocolate options served in specially designed cups called “Hug Mugs” or “Suckao” cups, the “Choctail” cold drinks/smoothies, the “Aphrodisiacs” (the liquor-added drinks), the “Max I Scream” (ice cream) options, the crepes and waffles, or the “Sweet Icons” (sundaes).

If that’s not enough to appeal to the inner chocolate lover in us all, the children’s menu should. “Choices from the Yummy Food” section include “Egg in a Nest with a Smiley Face”. From the “Sweetest Sweets” one could order “The World’s First Chocolate Hamburger”. The “Chocolate Potions Do-it-Yourself” hot chocolate brings a piece of hard lava chocolate chunk and volcano milk to drink with a straw. The brightly colored menus match the ambiance of the chocolaty setting with its imitation chocolate pipes running along the ceiling, its whirring white and dark chocolate mixers, its crates of cacao beans, not to speak of the real chocolate items sold in the store. A receipt for an item eaten in the café earns a 10% reduction off of a purchase in the store. The store shelves offer clever Max Brenner products including the “Suckao” cups, the “Hug Mugs”, many forms of Max Brenner chocolate including truffles and pralines, as well as small boxes of chocolate cleverly provided with space for birthday or special occasion greetings.

The Max Brenner on Rothschild, in a UNESCO-protected Bauhaus neighborhood the "White City " of Tel Aviv, bustled with families and groups of friends clearly enjoying the food, the treats and the décor on Shabbat afternoon. To my right, a table of teens sampled the chocolate syringe, readily squirting the sauce right into their mouths. On the floor behind me, a toddler played with the cacao bean display. At the sweets bar the staff lined up the colorful treats for delivery to the tables. After a satisfying and healthy lunch, my friends and I felt entitled, mistakenly, of course, to indulge in the brownie sundae dolled up as a Max Brenner “Chocolate Mess.”

Adding to five locations in Israel, eleven in Australia, the Philippines and Singapore, Brenner has also opened two sites in the States, in New York City. Recently acquired by Israel’s Elite Strauss Company, this expansion may be the result. To learn more about this “global chocolate culture,” which features nothing particularly Jewish or Israeli, see maxbrenner.com. The site also showcases several hip movies about chocolate, as well as a Christmas shopping catalogue.

The chocolate at Brenner is fabricated in Kfar Saba, using chocolate of various origins. The current dark chocolate craze melts away to nothing at Max Brenner. There are few, if any markings of cacao content, both white and milk chocolate are offered as readily as dark, and white and milk take their place alongside the dark in the décor and on the menu. No single origin chocolates are to be found there. Chocolate snobs would find that questionable, disqualifying the white as chocolate since it contains no cacao solids at all. But as the fictional Max Brenner writes in the newest menu, “chocolate is not just about taste.” Max Brenner does indeed unwrap the fun aspects of chocolate, removing it from behind the “do not touch” glass case of a stuffy chocolate store. Despite the homogenized quality of the chocolate itself, add Max Brenner to the long list of sites, especially in its homeland of Tel Aviv.