2006Bicentenary of Estonian Confectionery Industry - Set

One of the oldest branches of the Estonian food industry, confectionery, marks its bicentenary this year. The name of Lorenz Cavietzel, a confectioner of Swiss origin, is found in the records of the Tallinn City Council in 1806 when he was granted permission to open the town’s first confectioner’s shop at No 16 Pikk Street. The shop changed owners several times and finally the Baltic-German Stude family made it famous all over Estonia and farther afield, above all with its exclusive hand-made chocolates and marzipan figurines. Numerous new confectionery shops opened at the beginning of the 20th century. The most successful of them were Kawe Ltd, Brandmann’s, Ginovker’s and Klausson’s confectioner’s shops and OÜ Riola. All private companies, including Stude’s, were nationalised in 1940 in connection with the Soviet takeover and change of state order. As a result of several mergers only one confectionery maker remained in Estonia by 1962, the Kalev confectionery factory. Privatized about ten years ago, AS Kalev now carries on the old confectionery industry traditions, producing hand-made marzipan figurines and select chocolates.