This Christmas, give the gift of candy produced in the middle of everyone’s favourite hipster Bezirk.
Candy Farm. Photo by Dustin Quinta
This Christmas, give the gift of candy produced in the middle of everyone’s favourite hipster Bezirk.OHDE: LITTLE LÜBECKOHDE Marzipan
This might come as a surprise, but with three manufacturers and 20,000 tonnes of almond paste produced per year, Neukölln is a veritable hotspot for marzipan – Berlin’s little Lübeck! Joining major suppliers Lemke and Moll, Iran-born entrepreneur Hamid Djadda recently opened his own factory on Schinkestraße, where he produces precious bites under the brand Ohde. Since November, they can be purchased at his own boutique on Uhlandstraße just off Ku’damm. It may seem far from home, but the location makes sense: it’s easier to get Charlottenburgers to pay €1 for a milk-chocolate-coated Rixdorferwürfel no bigger than a game die, or €20.80 for a pre-selected mix of 16 different square-shaped pralines (you can also mix-and-match, €1-1.40 depending on the piece). Of course, this is no average marzipan. Djadda’s paste boasts a whopping 63 percent almond mass, a mileage above the 50 percent found most other places. Other ingredients, like nuts, are imported from Djadda’s native Iran, organic when possible, resulting in beautiful bites coated in white, milk or dark chocolate. Freshly opened, the boutique still hasn’t got everything totally up to speed yet, but the ultra-tasteful packaging – Hermès orange and millennial pink boxes stamped with a war-horse-riding Prussian officer – hints at a timeless sense of refinement and tradition matched by the delicate pralines on sale. There’s a range of marzipan-less options, from fruit geleés to chocolate ganache, but the Rixdorf pralines come with the advantage of do-goodery: Ohde donates 30 percent of Rixdorferwürfel sales to a foundation supporting the Kepler-Schule, a former “problem school” in Neukölln that’s aiming to bring its students up to A level. If you’re going to go full German by gorging on marzipan for Christmas, you might as well do it with a clean conscience. – AHK Uhlandstr. 179/180, Charlottenburg, Mon-Sat 11-18CANDY FARM: RAISING THE BAR
Photographer Uli Jung and graphic designer Reto Brunner made their first candy bars three years ago on a spontaneous drunken challenge, but quickly realized they might be on to something. “You have two types of candy bars, cheap with lots of preservatives, or fancy but expensive,” says Jung. With Candy Farm, she and Brunner are attempt ing the middle road: using the highest quality ingredients money could buy, while keeping costs down by doing everything by hand. In April 2015, they started producing small batches in the seldom-used kitchen of Kreuzberg’s Fluxbau; this year, they moved to a Sonnenallee storefront previously occupied by a Syrian ice cream parlour. Here, they manufacture small bars in 14 different flavour combinations (six of which are vegan), all enrobed in dark, fair-trade organic Peruvian chocolate supplied by Lübeck company Lubeca and packaged in cute retro-looking wrappers. The only thing not currently done on site is cooking the caramel, but that’s about to change. “We’re currently still cooking at the old location, but in two weeks, we’re getting a special caramel steel pot delivered from the US.” Then it will truly be on. Standouts include Ciao Figaro (€2.80/30g), with figs, ricotta cheese and a balsamic vinegar reduction; Chili Passion (€2.90/30g), with passion fruit and just the right amount of scharf; and the vegan Cashew Royal (€2.90/35g), made with cashew milk the duo produce themselves. After Berlin’s Technical University asked them to produce mini-versions of their bars to be given as gifts to incoming students during orientation, they now do the same in the shop for €1.50 a pop. While they may look small, these dense, chewy, nutty treats are absolutely packed with flavour. A stocking stuffer that will leave you truly stuffed… and begging for more. – JK Sonnenallee 70, Neukölln, Wed 16-20, Thu 12-21, Fri-Sat 12-20
