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producer profile "It confirmed we were on the right track," Schmerling says. "Other than MilkBoy, you will be hard-pressed to find real Swiss- made chocolate in America." At first, that sounds like a head-scratcher. Premium Swiss choco- late has a 200-year-old history (François-Louis Cailler mecha- nized chocolate production near Vevey in 1819). The country is fabled worldwide for its smooth, creamy bars and pralines. The Swiss are said to be the larg- est chocolate consumers on the planet; a 2014 study posited that the average person ate almost 20 pounds a year whereas the aver- age American weighed in at just 9.5 pounds per person. Brands like Lindt & Sprüngli (common- ly known as Lindt) are ubiqui- tous, yet Schmerling maintains that most Swiss chocolate sold in the U.S. is not manufactured in Switzerland, nor does it contain Swiss raw materials. Truly Swiss Schmerling markets six SKUs of MilkBoy chocolate from his headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, but all other aspects— other than growing the cacao beans—take place nearly 4,000 miles away in a Swiss facility he visits every five or six weeks. Born in Belgium and raised in Switzerland, this third-generation chocolatier is the oldest of eight children. His grandfather founded Schmerling's Chocolate, a kosher brand, in the 1950s, and his father took it over in the 1970s. It grew to become the largest kosher manufacturer of chocolate in Switzerland, catering largely to the European market. Cheese, cereal bars, and liqueur in chocolate and coffee flavors are also part of the kosher line. Schmerling thought he had plenty of time to explore the world and its possibilities before choosing to join the family business. "I was thrown into it more than grew into it," he says. After completing high school in Zurich, Schmerling stud- ied Jewish law at a yeshiva in London. "It was more of an intel- lectual career than a practical career," he says. Foreign languages were another of his strengths; he's f luent in German, English, and Hebrew, plus Yiddish, and a little French and Italian. In the mid-1990s, Schmerling came to New York City to further his studies and met and married his wife, Rochel. He had worked for less than a year with his family's importers and distribu- tors in the U.S. when his father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. "It fell to me to move back to Switzerland and run the com- pany," Schmerling says. "I never got the opportunity to go through the normal steps." His New York-born wife came home with him in 1999, and they planned to stay for one year to help out. It didn't work out that way. His father traveled often to the U.S. for cancer treatments and died at 53, in 2001. Schmerling was 25. The one-year stay in Switzerland stretched out to 13 years. Schmerling at first kept his focus on the kosher industry, as his father and grandfather had done. The company exported to 20 countries, their main market was the U.S. He got restless, searching for a challenge. Increasingly, he and his wife spent time in New York where her siblings lived and several of his siblings had relocated. They brought along their four children for holidays and summer vacations and felt torn when leaving. "We always talked about 'should we or shouldn't we move back?'" he says. "We missed being in New York, but we were both HIGHLIGHTS A springtime custom in Switzerland is for "milk boys" to lead cows in a procession up into the Alps where they roam freely and graze on lush grass for months. "Our first challenge was how do we reconcile a dark chocolate with a brand that's called MilkBoy? How can we bring in Alpine flavor?" Schmerling got the idea of adding essential pine tree oil to the blend. "If you close your eyes you can taste the Alpine air—earthy and refreshing." — 1950s Emanuel Schmerling's grandfather founds Schmerling's Chocolate, which grows to become the largest kosher chocolate manufac- turer in Switzerland. — 1970s Schmerling's father takes the helm at the family company. — Mid-1990s Schmerling comes to New York City and begins to work with the family's importers and dis- tributors in the U.S. — 2001 Takes over the family business when his father dies of a brain tumor. — 2014 Launches MilkBoy Swiss Chocolates in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, with the bean-to-bar con- fections made in Switzerland. — 2015 60% Cocoa Dark Chocolate with Essential Pine Tree Oil selected as a sofi finalist at the Summer Fancy Food Show 64 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com