I guess there are some people who don’t like it, my mother included…Still, to this day I can’t get it!

One of the biggest and most popular chocolate companies in Poland is Wedel.

Wedel is Poland’s oldest chocolate brand and one of the oldest Polish brands still existing on the market. For over 150 years it has been associated with genuine chocolate, and the experience has brought about wide recognition both in Poland and abroad. What consumers appreciate the most is the unchanging, high quality of Wedel products. Every year brings new evidence of the brand’s popularity as consumers find it dynamic, innovative and rich in its offering. Significantly, Poles have a very emotional attitude to the Wedel brand—it is liked, trusted and evokes sentiments.

Quick history:

For 155 years, the Wedel brand has been a synonym for good chocolate. It was born out of the vision and passion for creating the best chocolate products possible. The company’s founder, Karol Wedel, was a pioneer—his chocolate factory, opened in 1851, was the first of its kind in Poland. Subsequent generations of the Wedel family developed and perfected the art. They built Polish consumers’ dearest brand, which has been the guarantee of a unique taste and top quality for many decades. The passion lives on, and it is likely that in another 50 or 100 years, Emil Wedel’s signature will still evoke a smile of joy and a fancy for delicious chocolate.

1851—Karol Ernest Wedel opens the first sweetshop in Warsaw, at the corner of Miodowa and Kapitulna streets. It specializes in chocolate and is quite unusual in the 19th century capital.

1869—Karol Wedel places a press ad: “As of today, each bar of chocolate from my factory will feature the C.E.Wedel company stamp, an each one-pound package will have my handwritten signature (…).” This tradition is continued by Emil Wedel, the second great ancestor of the chocolate makers’ family. And his signature becomes the logo of Poland’s oldest chocolate company.

1894—Emil Wedel relocates his operations to a new tenement at 8 Szpitalna Street. He opens a cake and sweet factory at the back, and Staroświecki Sklep i Pijalnia Czekolady Wedla (Ye Olde Wedel Chocolate Shoppe and Drinking House) at the front—the oldest chocolate drinking house still open in Poland.

1934—Jan Wedel builds and opens a new sweet factory in Warsaw’s eastern district Praga. This state-of-the-art pre-war Polish factory develops the recipes for Wedel’s famous Ptasie Mleczko, Mieszanka Wedlowska, or Jedyna chocolate.

1946—Wedel’s factory and company shops are nationalized. The company name is changed to “ZPC im. 22 lipca,” but “d. E. Wedel” is soon reattached to it.

1958—Renovated after the war damage, the Sklep Staroświecki i Pijalnia reopens.

1999—Wedel becomes part of the Cadbury corporation—the oldest chocolate empire in the UK.

Wedel makes chocolate bars in different flavors, chocolate covered waffles, pralines, hot chocolate and many more delicious things! Wedel also have little cafe’s where they serve their product along with chocolate drinks, desserts, summer chocolate refreshments.

There few places like that and make sure to visit one if you can. You can read a little more about it and find specific places on this website:

http://www.wedelpijalnie.pl/english/our_lounges/214

Have anyone been there? Let us know.

Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)