17/05/2025

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Malaysian Paper

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Habbatus Sauda-inspired coffee in Malaysia

HALAL clean beauty and personal care brand Good Virtues Co has introduced a new way to enjoy the benefits of Habbatus Sauda – this time, through coffee. In a collaboration with Richiamo Coffee and Watsons Malaysia, the campaign brings together wellness, beauty, beverages and retail. The partnership introduces Malaysia’s first Habbatus Sauda-infused drink series, created with Richiamo Coffee and inspired by Good Virtues Co’s key ingredient. Launched with the campaign tagline “Rejuvenate Your Skin, Awaken Your Senses”, the collaboration reflects the essence of embracing inner beauty and wellness. Good Virtues Co offers a full range of personal care products for the face, hair and body and encourages you to “Celebrate Your Noor” – to embrace your inner light and radiate confidence among Muslim women. Richiamo Coffee’s Habbatus Sauda Coffee offers internal rejuvenation, enhancing beauty and wellness from the inside out. “Habbatus Sauda, which is known for its richness of natural nutrients, minerals and anti-oxidant, has been our key ingredient across all Good

Virtues Co products, and this collaboration allows us to bring its benefits to life in an innovative way. “This brings to light for all our consumers that self-care can be as simple as taking a shower and enjoying a cup of coffee to start the day,” said Citychemo Manufacturing Sdn Bhd commercial director Lum Chong Heng. The Habbatus Sauda drink series is crafted to bring the benefits of Habbatus Sauda in a refreshing and enjoyable way. With coffee and non-coffee options, each drink offers a comforting moment of nourishment, whether warm or cold and is now available for purchase at all Richiamo Coffee outlets. “As the first coffee brand in Malaysia to introduce Habbatus Sauda-infused drinks, this collaboration features an ingredient known for its goodness and benefits, especially in many Muslim homes. “Through this collaboration, we hope to bring a sense of comfort and familiarity in a new way – blending beauty, wellness and flavour into every cup to be enjoyed in life’s simple, everyday moments,” said Richiamo Coffee Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Muhamad Zamry.

Mozart chocolate balls Kerstin, an employee at Cafe Konditorei Fuerst, displays original handmade Mozartkugel chocolates at Cafe Konditorei Fuerst in Salzburg, Austria. – AFPPIC

o Austrian treat that leaves bitter taste A T a small high-end confectionery in Vienna, chefs put the finishing touches to one of Austria’s signature souvenirs: Mozart chocolate balls (also known as Mozartkugel) filled with marzipan, pistachio and rich almond and hazelnut nougat. Family-owned Leschanz still painstakingly makes the Mozartkugel by hand before putting them in their signature wrapping, featuring a portrait of Austria’s 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But Leschanz is in the minority these days, and with the number of brands rising, the chocolate balls beloved by tourists and locals alike are often no longer even produced in Austria. US food giant Mondelez, which owns one of the most recognisable brands, moved its production from the Austrian city of Salzburg – Mozart’s birthplace – to Eastern Europe last month, reigniting a heated and long-running marketing debate. “It is a shame, because Mozart (chocolate) balls are an Austrian product,” said head confectioner and owner Wolfgang Leschanz, 75. At his firm, 10 time-honoured steps are required to make one single Mozartkugel and about 20,000 of the delicacies are freshly made to order each year. Only one ‘original’ Invented by confectioner Paul Fuerst in Salzburg in 1890, the Mozartkugel became popular in Europe after winning a gold medal

at a Paris food fair in 1905. Fuerst’s great-great-grandson Martin now owns the business, which produces around 3.5 million handmade chocolate balls annually in Salzburg, still using the traditional recipe. Fuerst chocolates can now be ordered online for delivery across the EU. But with rising popularity have come imitators and an array of knockoffs, different fillings, wrappings, names and also competing claims and legal disputes. The Fuerst family had to fight for years for recognition of their “Original Salzburger Mozartkugel” wrapped in silver foil with blue print – including in the courts – because its progenitor made the mistake of not protecting his creation in the first place. Mozart chocolates do not have protected designation of origin status, a European protection for food-related products from certain geographical areas, such as champagne and parmesan cheese. Even German heavyweight Reber, which produces 500,000 chocolate balls daily just across the border from Salzburg, is allowed to call its Mozart chocolate balls “authentic”, even if it cannot use the term “original”. When contacted, Mondelez International, formerly known as Kraft Foods, declined to reveal where within its “European network” it began manufacturing the newly launched “Authentic Mirabell Mozartkugeln” in April. For decades, the group’s chocolates had been made at a plant in Salzburg but the facility closed last year after teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for years. Citing high cocoa prices and

rising costs for energy, Mondelez said its Mirabell brand was “a real gem” but the weight of the products had to be reduced slightly “to remain competitive”. Mondelez’s Mozart chocolate balls currently sell for about US$0.50 (RM2.14) a piece, while one of Leschanz’s handmade confections costs more than seven times that amount. The Pro-Ge trade union, representing more than 60 workers laid off when the Salzburg plant closed, criticised Mondelez’s “lack of transparency” about its new production site. “The supply chain of an egg can be traced better than that,” it said. Flagship product Viennese chocolatier Heindl also voiced concern about Austria’s emblematic confection being produced “somewhere in Eastern Europe”. “The Mozartkugel is a flagship product of Austria, just like the Sachertorte chocolate cake or the apple strudel or the poppy seed strudel,” claimed managing director Andreas Heindl, 63. “When someone comes to Austria, they want to take Austrian products home with them, especially when it is Mozartkugel.” Heindl, whose father founded the firm, said he could not imagine moving production abroad to save money, even with cocoa prices tripling hitting businesses hard. Leschanz likened Mozart chocolate balls produced outside Austria to a “souvenir cup emblazoned with Mozart’s portrait” that is bought in haste only for the purchaser to discover it says “Made in China” on the bottom. – AFP

Enjoy the benefits of Habbatus Sauda in your coffee.