Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

group Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABInBev). This emerged in
2008 when the US-American Anheuser Busch Group
(“Budweiser”) was taken over by the Belgian-Brazilian
InBev Group. Today the Group’s headquarters are in
Leuven, Belgium, while Bremen is still responsible for
managing the Group’s German business.
Bremen also has a long tradition as a wine city. Already the
celebrated poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe enjoyed
the good wines from Bremen’s Ratskeller. The privy councillor
attributed healing powers to certain types of wine
such as port, Madeira or muscatel. One of Goethe’s close
friends, the Bremen doctor Nikolaus Meyer, occasionally
provided a “box of healing wine”. Following Goethe’s heart
attack in February 1823, Meyer even managed to organise
for Bremen council to donate wine for Goethe’s 74th birthday
from the city town hall’s famous Rose cellar, consisting
of twelve bottles of a 1624 Rhine wine.
The oldest wine still in the cellars today dates back to
1653. Only the cellar master and the mayor have the right
to try a few drops of Rose wine, but this is a right they
don’t exercise. In fact, it was only during the state visit by
the English queen in 1978 that she was allowed to try a
thimble-full. 650 German wines are stored in the Ratskeller
vaults. For centuries, Bremen has also been involved in
trading with Bordeaux wine.
through to the finished product are performed in the
company’s own factory in Westerstraße. The cocoa beans
are roasted batch by batch in the global roaster and then
ground with the other ingredients until super-fine.
The chocolate mass is subsequently stirred for 72 hours in
the conche to produce a particularly delicate, melt-in-themouth
result.
Many other frequently SME companies in the food industry
have helped the branch to generate annual turnover of
around 4 billion Euro with a workforce of 8,000 to 9,000
employees, making it Bremen’s Number Two, second
only to the car industry. The Food and Beverage Industry
Bremen (NaGeB) association founded in 2011 aims to
make this potential more visible. “The fact that the food
industry’s share here is twice as high as the national average
verifies Bremen’s special position in this branch of the
economy”, says Hasso Nauck, chairman of the association.
He sees the historic roots in the trade relations of the
Hanseatic League and Bremen’s ports. He also views the
branch as a vital innovation motor thanks to its high proportion
of research. This applies equally to chocolate or
cornflakes, beer, coffee and fish fingers.
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A good drop of red wine goes down even better with a
piece of meltingly smooth dark chocolate. Chocolate of
course preferably by Hachez from Bremen. Hachez was
founded in 1890 by the Belgian chocolatier Josef Emil
Hachez. Today Hachez is the only German premium manufacturer
where all steps from roasting the cocoa beans