All over Vienna, and apparently all over Austria there are chocolate companies selling chocolate balls filled with marzipan with the name and image of Mozart all over them. My knowledge of Mozart is fairly limited, all I know is he wrote lots of great music, and he had a tendency to over-endulge in food, women, and gambling. So when I saw these chocolates I wondered if maybe the treat is based on a chocolate that was popular during Mozart's time. Maybe it was even a treat that he enjoyed himself.
As it turns out the use of Mozart is simply a marketing stunt, a very old marketing stunt, but just a marketing stunt. The chocolate were developed more than a hundred years after Mozart's death and there is no evidence of any treat like this existing when he was alive. In fact the technique for making the origionals (they are said to be perfectly round with no flat edges) probably didn't exist while he was alive.
It's interesting, how marketing a candy with a popular musician is not something new. Mozart was very much the popular musician of his day, and he continues to be popular. Even merchandise created more than 100 years ago that used his name and likeness continues to sell well, mostly because it uses his name and likeness. It just makes you wonder if our great grandchildren will be eating Cherry Garcia ice cream and telling tales of a the great minstrel of days of yore.
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