Gruyère, Switzerland

This has been one of my favorite posts to write, probably because every good thing turned into something great, from beginning to end.

Our original plan for visiting Gruyère was to car-camp at a local campground, like we did when we were in Innsbruck, but the day before getting there we decided that we wanted to be well rested.  We nixed the idea of putting an air-mattress in the back of our car, freezing our butts off, and getting little sleep.  First good idea turning great; what unfurled was the best AirBnB stay we could have imagined. Nicole's AirBnB farmhouse was wonderful, and so accommodating to our less than 24-hour reservation notice!  The farmhouse was in the most beautiful countryside, the picture below was on the hill right about her house and meadow, it doesn't even look real.

 The mountains look painted in:

Nicole had beautiful flowers growing around her property, a very impressive vegetable garden and cute furry bunnies.  I loved her Bernese Mountain dogs, I spent time rubbing their bellys; they were so friendly, and if we were to ever get a dog, we decided it would be a Bernese.  It's too bad she doesn't breed them anymore (one of her many hobbies), or else we would have gotten one on the spot!  I loved talking with Nicole about her garden (this year was my first garden attempt) and her hobbies like skiing, raising dogs, and when she used to make cheese. 

Cute little room, there was a little sitting area too that you can't see.  So cozy! 

We were going to drive 40 minutes into Gruyère for some authentic gruyère fondue when we were recommended a little restaurant in Montbovon for dinner.  It was the only restaurant in Montbovon, and it was the best fondue we had on the trip.  Second good decision turned better!

We enjoyed their local specialties.  Here's the bottom of the fondue bowl, we inhaled the best 50%vacherin fribourgeois/50%fondue with crusty bread, and had no problem eating our toast with gruyère and sweet smoked ham. It was delish!  The views of the medows were beautiful, and the people at the restaurant were so nice,;we were possibly the only Americans that had been there in a while (it was all french speaking) so they gave us some complimentary chocolates if we promised to root for the French in the world cup. 

I had told Nicole about our plans to visit the chocolate factory, and the gruyère cheese factory that Rick Steve's suggested. She chimed in with a great alternative.  Another good decision turning into something great.  She suggested that we wake up very early, and head up into the alps, where her cows were grazing on summer grass, and watch the real cheese monger with her cows actually make cheese the authentic swiss way.  We got up bring and early (6ish because cheese making is over by 9ish) had a wonderful homemade breakfast of fresh yogurt (from her cows up in the alps) and her son's honey, and set off to meet Mickael et Juliana for an amazing time.

We were really getting high up in the mountains

Swiss cheese comes from happy Swiss cows, sadly they couldn't tell us if we were going in the right direction.

There were a few times when I said to Jordan "this can't be right", we did take one small wrong turn... I had to use my charm and ask a few non-English speaking people about "rodomount devant" but we made it!

When we entered into the cheesemaking house, we heard the cows moo-ing in the back room.  I took a peek into their stable and look what I saw...

These are Nicole's cows that come up to the alps for three months (June, July, August) to make L'Etivaz cheese.  The cows are milked twice daily, and produce 180 gallons of milk per day.  With so many cows to milk, they are hooked up to a milking machine and fresh leche is pumped out of their utters.  The summer milk is what is used for L'Etivaz cheese since the cows are fed fresh alpine grass, which change the taste of the milk, and thus the cheese.

There are 70 families that are licensed to make L'Etivaz cheese, which is a form of gruyère that is made the old fashion way: over a wood burning fire in a copper pot.

Here's the size of the copper pot; it's bigger than Jordan and holds 700kg of milk from the night before and morning of.

Mickael and Juliana were quick to get to work, checking to test the elasticity of the cheese and temperature.  Once it hits 57 celsius the kurds are ready.  They closed all the windows and doors during the process, so the room was super smokey.  We smelled like a bonfire the rest of the day, but it was great!

While the curds were getting ready they did other preparations:

Labeling the cheese:

Washing and warming the rounds:

...and prepping the rounds; each will weigh between 55 and 65lbs.

When the temperature reached its peek they pull out the solids and separate the cheese from the liquid with a cheese cloth.

The liquid is so hot, but it didn't seem scalding on their hands... They must be used to it!

 It's pretty heavy.

Juliana is pressing the cheese into the rounds...What you can't see is that they are wearing rain boots because there is steaming hot liquid flowing out of their cheesecloth and onto the floor.

Mickael is pressing out the whey 

They wrap the cheese to keep it warm

Vuala 65 pounds of delicious cheese that will be aged for 4 months before being sold.  If if it is aged longer (for up to 3 years), it is considered an aperitif. 

They made a syphon to drain the excess milk.  It was pretty cool.

We had a perfect cheese-making morning, and it couldn't have been possible without the help of the Swiss.  When we headed down the mountian we found a fromagerie where we bought some L'Etivaz, which was delicious.  The high alpine grass really must be special! If you're interested in trying it Murray's cheese shop sells it at a whopping $36.99/lb.  If you do the math an entire round can sell for $2,340.00!

Our next stop in Gruyère was to the Cailler chocolate factory.  

We took a tour of the Cailler factory and museum.  Callier chocolates (Switzerlands famous brand) is now owned by Nestle (which is a Swiss chocolate company too, different division and chocolate than the NesQuick in the states).

We learned all about chocolate: where the cacao beans are harvested, how cacao butter is made, and the process of making Calliers best. 

Fun fact: they use 600,000 liters of fresh Swiss cow milk per month to make their chocolates

We also learned how to properly taste-test fine chocolate. Categories for tasting chocolates are based on very important criteria: look, hear, smell, feel, taste and after-taste.  Remember the theme of good things turning great in this post?!?  Well at the beginning of the taste-test they gave us one piece of chocolate.  We savored that little piece thinking that was all we were getting, but a good thing turned great when they let us loose in a room of their most famous and delicious chocolates and said, "you can eat as many chocolates as you would like as long as you stay in this room". Truly a Charlie and the Chocolate factory experience.  We ate chocolate until we were pretty much sick, and I may have snuck a few pieces out in my pocket.  

Jordan's favorite: Dark chocolate with a smooth creamy filling

Morgan's favorite: It had a creamy crunchy hazelnut filling sandwiched between some smooth milk chocolate

We didn't leave empty handed, we added a few bars to our chocolate collection back home

A picture of us in a chocolate-coma as we left the factory

We had a great time in Switzerland, what an adventure!  Great memories that we will look back on, and hope to visit again soon!