Here's Where Aldi's Chocolate Really Comes From

Aldi has achieved cult status in the U.S., with fans creating their own online clubs devoted to the Aldi Finds aisles, and shoppers even naming the company among their most-loved grocery stores. Many house brand products have their own devotees as well, including its surprisingly wide variety of chocolate. While the stores do carry some name brands, like M&Ms, a good deal of the chocolate, especially the bars, are sold under the names Moser Roth and Choceur. Aldi is well-known as a German company, so do these house brand chocolates also come from Europe?

It's challenging to find info about where Choceur chocolate comes from — the company originated in Belgium, but its products are manufactured in Germany. Moser Roth chocolate is actually produced by the company August Storck KG, or just Storck, which is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, while the main production site (i.e., the actual chocolate factory) is located in Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia. Moser Roth used to be a standalone chocolate company, but it was eventually sold to Storck in 1967, who revived the brand in 2007 to make candy exclusively for Aldi.

Moser Roth first came to be when a baker by the name of Wilhelm Roth, Jr. started a business in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1841; he left the company in 1876. A candy maker by the name of Eduard Otto Moser, who operated in the same city, then joined forces with the Roth company in 1896, combining the two establishments. It chugged along until the 20th century, when World War II began and a fire broke out in the factory, destroying it completely.

Still, Moser Roth managed to rebuild and continue operations, though it was bought and sold numerous times throughout the years after the war. As mentioned, the Storck company finally purchased the candy company in 1967, taking over the factory. It was in 2007 that Storck then opted to bring back the old brand name Moser Roth to produce a chocolate line that would only be sold at Aldi stores.

While Storck might not seem like a familiar name, certainly not on par with Mars or Hershey here in the U.S., they produce some pretty famous candies themselves, too. These include Werther's Original, Mamba, and Knoppers, which are, not coincidentally, also sold at Aldi locations in the U.S.