Sawade Berlin – Christmas

Christmas at Sawade tastes like baked apples and roasted almonds

For the holidays, Sawade fills chocolate balls with wintry flavors, hangs pine cones and golden nuts on the tree, and places 24 pralines behind advent calendar doors. This is joined by bonbonnières, marzipan loaves, and the Berlin Christmas pâté, much of it alcohol-free and everything made in Berlin-Reinickendorf.

Christmas at Sawade is the peak season for Berlin's oldest praline manufactory and begins weeks before the first Advent, when the kettles in Reinickendorf are filled for nougat, brittle, and truffle filling. This page contains the complete Christmas assortment of the house, intended for the weeks from St. Nicholas Day to the turn of the year. It ranges from a single foil-wrapped chocolate ball to the advent calendar, and up to a bonbonnière with which you can cater for an entire coffee table.

Baked apple, speculoos, and roasted almond

The Christmas chocolate balls weigh 16 grams each, are individually wrapped, and come in bags of five or as a mixed box of ten.

Things get wintry with baked apple and roasted almond, the caramel note of which is reminiscent of a fairground. These are joined by classics like fine marzipan, nut nougat, vanilla caramel, and leaf brittle, while eggnog and "Knickebein" (fondant-filled chocolate) take over the spirited part. These are also created as spun hollow bodies in-house and are only filled after cooling.

The mixed box of ten contains fine marzipan, roasted almond, leaf brittle, nut nougat, and nougat crisp side-by-side in pairs, completely without alcohol. The gift tin with fifteen chocolate balls also adds speculoos and is likewise alcohol-free. This allows even the youngest guests at the gift table to reach in before the coffee has even finished brewing.

From tree decorations to advent calendars

Pine cones made of roasted almond, golden nuts, and bells hang on the tree, wrapped in colorful, golden, and purple foil.

This tree decoration doesn't need a box in the attic after the holidays – it is simply eaten up. The house's advent calendar gathers 24 pralines behind as many doors, designed by Clare Owen, whose motifs have characterized the Christmas edition since 2025. Thus, the wait for Christmas Eve turns into 24 small ceremonies, one behind every door.

Between the years, chocolate mushrooms take over as good-luck charms for New Year's Eve, exams, or new beginnings. Their little stalks are tucked into silver foil, and the red cap shines brightly; they are available in bundles of five.

Bonbonnières and pâtés for the festive table

For the large table, the bonbonnières are ready, above all the Advent wreath with 25 pieces. In it, ten pralines alternate with 15 truffle stars, in which cinnamon, cappuccino, and cognac set the tone.

The praline box with twenty pieces, on whose lid Clare Owen's musicians are playing, comes across as somewhat more restrained – all five varieties inside remain alcohol-free. For a small greeting for St. Nicholas Day, the "Angel" box with ten pralines from the same edition is sufficient.

The Christmas pâté layers nougat, maraschino cherries, and leaf brittle under a torched marzipan cover. This Berlin specialty measures about ten centimeters in diameter and is cut into thin slices at the table. Alongside it, the marzipan loaves hold their ground as classics in two sizes of 125 and 250 grams, or refined with orange or pistachio.

Everything the house produces during the rest of the year, from butter truffles to "Königin Luise," can be found in the entire Sawade assortment. In the spring, the ball then gives way to the egg, over in the chocolate eggs for the Easter basket. That is how Christmas tastes at Sawade. Year after year, since 1880.