Well, I didn't cover a single food during the past month of October--three of the posts were about horror movies, one was about the World Series, and the final one concerned a pumpkin liquor. So any readers who prefer my articles about consumables should be happy. Today I'll discuss two kinds of cookies (or biscuits) from the Bahlsen company, out of Germany--their Choco Leibniz flavor and their First Class kind.
Bahlsen is a moderately old company, as it started in 1889 in Hanover, Germany. Hermann Bahlsen took over a cake/cookie business owned by a H. Schmuckler and renamed it Hannover Cakefabrik H. Bahlsen. One of the firm's first products was a cake named after a famous Hanover resident named Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) *. According to their official website, Bahlsen won a gold medal at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. (Normally I wouldn't include a tidbit like this, but it struck me as a coincidence since I'm reading Larson's "The Devil in the White City," about killer H.H. Holmes and that Chicago fair.) Next, Bahlsen reportedly used the first assembly line in Europe at their factory in 1905, or 8 years before Henry Ford made this innovation famous in the U.S. But the most surprising informational nugget on the website was about Bahlsen's activities during the Nazi years in Germany. In 2019 they commissioned an independent historian, Prof. Dr. Manfred Greiger, to investigate their business's actions during this time. Greiger discovered that the Bahlsens were Nazi party members, and used over 700 forced slave laborers in their factories from 1943-45. Most of these workers were women from Nazi-occupied Poland and the Ukraine. Anyway, clearly Bahlsen committed crimes against humanity during World War II, but it's nice to see them own up to it at least, and even put it on their website. Cynics may say it was only because of heiress Verena Bahlsen's published online comments defending the company's World War actions, saying that they treated the workers well, etc. (Obviously these statements were false, and she did later apologize.) But, at least it's a start, I guess. I mean, probably every mid 20th century German company did some level of wrong during the Nazi years, but this is the first one I've looked at for my blog that actually addressed it. And I realize this tangent is much darker in tone than most of my posts about edibles, but I did notice it, and thought I'd discuss it a little. Moving back to food details, Bahlsen also owns several other brands, including Leibniz, Raw Bite, and Brandt(who I covered in my post on August 13, 2019). Finally, I was amused to see the citation, "Those who love cookies also accept website cookies" on their website.
Bahlsen Choco Leibniz, milk, crispy cookies: These were rectangular in shape, about 6 cm. by 4.75 cm. (or about 2.5 inches by 1.75 inches), that were a yellow cookie on one side, and brown chocolate on the other. "Bahlsen Leibniz" was embossed on both sides. So it was a cookie with a chocolate section, kind of layered. It was almost like an open faced Twix. They were quite good. The cookie part and the milk chocolate were both tasty. Would definitely recommend.
Bahlsen First Class, milk, crispy wafers with hazelnut praline: These cookies were square, about 4.75 cm. (about 1.75 inches) to a side. One side was chocolate, while the other was a yellow cookie with cross hatched waffle-like pattern. "Ohne Gleichen/First Class" was embossed on them. These were chocolate wafers, crunchy. I'm not a huge hazelnut flavor fan, so I didn't like these as much as the other kind. But they still were alright. If you like hazelnut, you'll probably enjoy them.
* Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was apparently quite the Renaissance Man. (Not quite literally, by most historian's time reckonings, but figuratively.) He excelled as a mathematician, diplomat, scientist, and philosopher. Even if Voltaire made fun of him in "Candide."
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