Taste Austrian chocolate in Shanghai

Zotter, an Austrian chocolate brand, has set up a stand in Shanghai to revive the Austrian chocolate art in China.

"This is the first outlet Zotter has set up outside Europe, but here chocolates are delivered from Austria," said Julia Zotter, general manager of the Zotter Organic Chocolate Shanghai Ltd.

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The stand, covering an area of 2,400 square meters at the Shanghai Fashion Center on the bank of the Huangpu River, contains a shop and a small facility that produces filled chocolates and chocolates "on demand," said Zotter.

Like in Bergl, Austria, the outlet has all 16 tasting stations with Running Chocolate, Drinking Chocolate online, Conching Time Machine, basic Chocolate Fountain and Cocoa Cinema. All the products are currently imported from Austria in organic and fair-trade process.

It only produces filled and individual chocolates locally, which visitors can mix on demand.

"On the first day of launch, a visitor ordered 100 individual chocolates for a wedding," said Zotter, adding that family celebrations are extremely popular in China and more will be ordered in the future.

She said the stand, costing 5.5 million euros in investment, currently has 40 employees which will go up to 80 when it opens seven days a week.

The outlet, she said, is expected to have 100,000 visitors annually after a half-a-year operation. They can taste 365 varieties of chocolate, learn a lot about chocolate and see how to make it, Zotter said.