Repatriation efforts continue, Bronze Age archeological find, Czech chocolate company

0:00This is Radio Prague International coming to you from the Czech capital. Hello and welcome to Radio Prague International. I'm Sierra Krieger Wolf and in today's program we'll start off with coverage on efforts to repatriate hundreds of Czech tourists currently stranded in the Middle East. Before moving into a lighter story this half-hour, about a 3,000-year-old spearhead mold found in a backyard in Moravia. And to finish off, an interview with two Prague-based chocolateeers on the secret to making good chocolate. All that and more, but first Ian will be with the news. News Czech President Petr Pavel made his first address to the lore house in the current legislative period on Tuesday.

1:00The head of state called on government and opposition MPs not to give up on finding consensus when it comes to security issues and other matters. Mr. Pavel said there was no justification for a stagnation and defense spending by contrast there are a number of major reasons why it should be increased, he told deputies. The recently appointed coalition government aims to reduce Czechia's investment in defense this year. The president also said the conflict in Iran would impact Czech security and prosperity both indirectly and directly. The state should not scare the public, but neither should it pretend that nothing of significance was going on, he said. The first plane carrying tourists from the Middle East since the US-Israeli attack on Iran arrived in Prague in the early hours of Tuesday. The smart wings plane, with around 200 seats, had carried passengers from Muscat in Oman. Some of those on board had been on holiday in Oman itself, while some others had been in Thailand.

2:01Another smart wings plane arrived from Oman at around 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday. According to the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, voluntary registration system, known as Drozd, there are around 6,600 Czechs in the Middle East. Roughly 650 people have been seeking repatriation in view of the security situation. The Czech Ministry of Sport Boris Stjastny had to make a complicated journey back to Prague from Dubai after conflict broke out in the Middle East. Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Mattsinka told journalists. The new site Naveki.CZ quoted Mr Mattsinka as saying his motorists, party colleagues journey to Czechia had taken him through Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Italy. The largest internet company in Czechia, Sesnam.CZ, has filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister André Babish, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Sesnam says Mr Babish has repeatedly made false accusations that the firm failed to

3:04pay withholding tax of around 900 million crowns in connection with the payment of dividends and is thus guilty of tax evasion. Responding to the move the Prime Minister said media outlets owned by Sesnam founder Ivo Lukaciewicz were guilty of lies and manipulation that he planned to prove this. The public prosecutor's office in the Bavarian city of Vidin has charged the owner of Roth International and an employee of its subsidiary in Czechia with illegally exporting hundreds of tons of waste from Germany to Czechia. The two man faced charges of exporting waste, some of which can be classified as hazardous without a permit. A new mental health tram began running on Prague's public transport system on Tuesday. The interiors of the wagons contain contact information for organizations that provide psychological support to members of the public. The tram will run on different lines in the Czechia for a period of seven weeks, and

4:07is part of a citywide campaign named Help Is At Hand. US singer Susanne Vega is due to the performance prize Archa plus venue on the 15th of July this year. The organizers announced on Tuesday. The performer who has appeared in Czechia several times will play hits such as Tom's diner, as well as tracks from her latest LP, flying with angels. And finally the weather should be mainly bright in Czechia on Wednesday with an average high temperature of 13 degrees Celsius, similar weather is expected on the following days. My name is Ian Willoughby and that's the end of the news. That was the news and will turn down to current affairs. The first repatriation flight from the Middle East brought back close to 200 Czech nationals late on Monday night. For hundreds of others waiting to be picked up, conditions on the ground and in the air are changing by the hour. Danielle Lasarova has the details.

5:09A small twings plane landed safely at Prague's international airport late on Monday night bringing back the first batch of tourists who were holidaying in the Middle East with one of the country's travel agencies. They boarded in Moscow at Oman after being transported there by buses organised by their travel agency. Thousands of others are waiting their turn amid growing uncertainty and continued bombing in the region. At a press briefing in Prague on Monday, Foreign Minister Petr Matiga announced last minute changes and attempted to clarify the situation both for those stranded in the Middle East and their families back home. We are on our way to Prague. Originally, two Czech government aircraft were scheduled to depart on Monday to pick up Czech citizens at Oman Airport in Jordan and in Egypt's Sharme al-Shaykh to collect tourists arriving overland from Israel. However, Jordan closed its airspace on Monday and the people travelling overland from

6:11Israel needed more time to get to Sharme al-Shaykh. So as not to lose precious time, we decided to fly to Oman instead of Egypt, heading to Muskat Airport where Czech citizens arriving overland from Dubai are beginning together. Once the group travelling overland from Israel to Egypt arrives, they will be picked up by a military coser aircraft in flown home. After the smaller Airbus returns to Prague from Jordan, it will fly to Egypt for the rest of the group, the Foreign Minister said, and if the capacity of the two smaller aircraft proofs insufficient, the Ministry will dispatch a second military coser plane to Sharme al-Shaykh. The Foreign Minister appealed to all Czech citizens in the Middle East to register with the Ministry's travel database, Drost, and follow the recommendations made. He said that the carrier smart wings used by the majority of Czech travel agencies was organising around six flights a day to bring back clients and would continue to do so

7:16for as long as needed. According to Muttink, our travel agencies are organising bus transport from Dubai to Muskat and taking good care of their clients. Government repatriation flights, he said, are for those who did not travel with a tour operator. There are around 6,000 registered Czech nationals across the region, with a majority, roughly two-thirds in Dubai or elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates. The Minister urged those citizens who are in high risk areas and were not with a package tour to stay put and not try to travel on their own but to adhere to the advice of the local authorities, although Dubai Airport is closed for the time being, with its air defence, Dubai is still safer than other destinations, he said. The Minister once again stressed the importance of registering with a Drost travel database which helps the authorities to assist their citizens in the event of a crisis. Thank you Daniel La Zorova for that report.

8:20Check archaeologists say they have identified a remarkable Brown's age artifact discovered years ago in a village garden in South Moravia. But one seemed to be an ordinary stone has now been confirmed as a 3,000-year-old mold used to cast bronze spearheads. Ruth Frankova reports. The story actually started nearly two decades ago. In 2007, the owner of a house in the village of Morkówki in South Eastern Moravia noticed a rectangular stone sticking slightly out of the ground in his garden. The stone formed part of the foundations of an old barn and, at first glance, did not seem unusual. But when specialists from the archaeological institute of the Moravian Museum examined it more closely, they realized the stone had once served a very different purpose. It was, in fact, a casting mold used to produce bronze spearheads, explains Milan Salash from the Moravian Museum.

9:22It is a casting mold technically called a matrix for a bronze spearhead. As we can see, it's a fairly regular rectangular stone slab. On the dividing surface of the mold, on one side, there is a very precisely shaped and very well-preserved negative impression used for casting a bronze spearhead. What makes the object even more remarkable is that the stone itself does not come from the Czech lands. According to Antonin Prichistel from the Faculty of Science at Masarig University, the material was brought here from quite a distance. The object was definitely brought here. We determine that it is tough, a volcanic rock typical of the Carpathians. The area it most likely comes from is the south-eastern slopes of the book mountains in eastern Hungary. Experts say transporting such a stone over that distance would have been rather unusual

10:29at the time. The mold itself also reveals what kinds of weapons were being produced in the region during the bronze age. These types of spearheads characterized by ribs along the blade and a sharp ridge on the socket are common in the Carpathian region. It was essentially serial production. As we can see, the mold was used very intensively. Possibly dozens of spearheads were cast from it. To use the mold, two identical halves would be placed together and secured with copper wire. The mold would then be placed upright and the casting core inserted to create a hollow space inside the spearhead. The wooden shaft of the spear would later be fitted into that hollow. Researchers also analyzed traces left in the stone using a spectrometer to determine

11:35the composition of the metal used in casting. The tests detected copper and tin, the two key components of bronze. Warriors of that time carried both offensive and defensive equipment, including shields, protective leg guards known as grieves and bronze helmets. According to Mr. Salash, they probably looked very similar to the warriors described in Homo's epics. Troy Warriors have the same equipment. He even writes that they carried two spears into battle. They always kept one in reserve. When a warrior threw a spear from a distance, he lost it, so he had another one ready. Although the stone itself may not look particularly impressive, it tells an important story. It shows that 3,000 years ago, weapons were already being produced in Moravia on a large scale, using technology that had travelled from far away.

12:37That was Ruth Francova's report. You're listening to Radio Prague International, where it's time for today's main feature, in which Ruth Francova talks to two chocolate makers from Prague about the secrets to making excellent chocolate. Chocolate and Asparagas may not seem like an obvious pairing, yet one Czech chocolate maker has proved they belong together. The Prague-based company Steiner and Kovarik recently won gold at the International Chocolate Awards for its wide chocolate with Asparagas, while also taking silver for its classic Misha chocolate. I spoke with its founders Sylvie Steinerova and Betr Kovarik about how this unconventional idea came to life, what the awards mean for them, and how a small Prague venture has grown into an internationally recognised brand. I started it with my friend, he is Irish, also Peter, by the way, and we were searching

13:38for a hole in the market, so it was not so political as it might seem now, and we found it in souvenirs with the Prague pictures, because in that time it was 2005, there was this bad habit with all the bad souvenirs from China. So we thought let's make some really lovely souvenirs with Prague motives and with very good chocolate. So that's how it actually started. So we run like that for several years, and then 2011, I've met with Peter, the one which is here, and we decided to put together our names, but we wanted to go international, so the brand is actually Steiner and Kovarik, because we would like to have it like a pronounceable for people all around the world. And I finished with my business part of the shop and let it to Peter, and I started to be more in products and designs and stuff like that, so there was how briefly started.

14:41And of course, since 2005, Steiner and Kovarik has become a truly international chocolate brand, award-winning chocolate brand, and we'll definitely talk more about the award-winning products, but first I wanted to ask about your recent decision to buy a piece of Amazonian jungle in Bolivia to grow your own cocoa. What led you to that, and is the cocoa that different from other regions? Well, this part of Amazonia, it's unique because it's not destroyed yet, so it's in very original shape, and of course it's different because there is, like in the whole planet earth, very little places where you can find the natural wild cocoa, and we wanted that. That's why we decided to go here, but it was like lucky coincidence. We didn't plan to buy a plantation or a piece of jungle in Bolivia.

15:43We thought one day it would be lovely to have our own cocoa plantation, and we've met the right people to help us to go on with that vision, and that's why this happened, actually. But it was planned a long time ago, but of course it's not easy to find some place where you start to grow your own cocoa, and the growing of cocoa is very complicated, so for this reason it's not just too easy to buy some land and to tell we are starting to make it, but because we have been lucky and we met the people, so I was mentioning before we started to make it. So can you actually walk us through this journey of your chocolate from harvesting the cocoa pods all the way to the finished chocolate bar? It's actually a very complex journey, and you really start from seeds, because if you want to have the certificated flowers, so you are certain of the origin.

16:43I told before we wanted to have the wild cocoa, so we planted really from the seeds, which takes quite a long time because from the seeds to fertile plant it takes around three to five years, so you can get your first harvest after this long time, and we decided to plant it in a jungle, so like the original way, how the cocoa normally grows, because cocoa is originally from Amazonia, and all the other places where the cocoa now is available is because people bring it there. So we decided to do it really, really the original way. So once we are harvesting, we have to harvest a deep in the jungle, so it's going to be really fun. Then after the harvest, there is coming the process of fermentation for the wild cocoa. It's around four days, where you have to really keep eye on the process because it's very dangerous. It might happen something you don't want to happen.

17:44And after that, you have to dry it on a sun for a few days, which is in Bolivia, really rather difficult, as it is a very humid place. After this process, actually the processing in the country of origin is done, and there is coming the part where you have to take the beans to Czech Republic or other places, which is sometimes even more difficult than the process before, as Bolivia is really like very specific country, and there are not many transport companies who are working with that country because it's difficult to get the things out of the country. So we have very limited options. So then let's say after three, four, five months depends how long the process takes. It's actually the process of making chocolate itself. You have to check the beans and take the bad ones if there are any out of the batch, and then you roast it. The roasting, this is very, very important process because beside the fermentation, it actually

18:50forms the final taste of the chocolate. That's the most important for the taste. So I imagine it's similar to coffee, mate. Exactly. Exactly. But cocoa, you roast very short time and for very low temperature. Let's say we should be around 110, till 120 degrees, not to destroy all the good stuff which are naturally in the beans. And you roast it like basically for a few minutes, like 10, 12. Maximum 15 depends on the size of the beans. After that, you put it into a special machine which is called Vinover, and from that machine you actually separated the shelves which goes away or you can make a nice tea out of it, or you can use it as a fertilizer. And the small parts of the beans are broken, shelf-less, it is called nips. And from those, you are already ready to make chocolate. We decided to make the chocolate the very original way, so in a stone mills.

19:51So actually you take those nips, put it into the stone mill, and then you slowly are adding other ingredients which if you have very high quality chocolate, it should be only sugar, or some better alternative of it, like panella, or coconut sugar, or something really more healthy than the normal one. And then you may add also dried milk, if you have a milk chocolate. And that actually should be it, if you are not making any special flavored bars. So that is very like a good rule, how to recognize really, really high quality chocolate. So let's talk in more detail about what kinds of chocolates you produce. As many of your products have won awards, and I know that you produce so-called biohacking chocolates. So I was wondering what it means. So what kind of ingredients do you add? It's not needed to put there any ingredients, because in the bean usually you have at least 50% of cocoa butter, because if you do not separate the bean on cocoa butter and

20:56cocoa powder, still you have there a lot of butter. And this melanger is helping to slowly process the cocoa bean in a way that's still all benefits of the cocoa, still in the chocolate. And chocolate itself is for me functional and longevity product, because you have there like primary source of magnesium, there is phenyl ethylamine, but is hormonoflav, there is argonine, but this natural viagra, it's a lot of different chemical, but natural chemical things you can find in bean. And if you add there another great longevity product like, for example, medicinal mushroom or herbs like moringa or asparagus, now we want the medial with asparagus, you can even because of the butter, which is in chocolate, you can even increase the benefit of another product you put there.

21:56It means that you are not eating just chocolate or medicinal mushroom, you put it together and you can multiply the benefits of these two products. So we just like to use this chocolate functionally, if we can, we would produce just this. We would like to make the guilty pleasure chocolate, but of course people still they like to have a lot of sweet and pralines, because for example pralines, we like to make pralines, but if you eat like three, four, five pralines per day, it's not so benefiting your body, but if you eat, for example, one chocolate bar with lines main, the medicinal mushroom, it's really helping you in many ways and in the same time it's helping you with the cognitive function of your brain. We have maybe like 15 products like that, like with corded herbs, with oyster mushroom, with moringa, ginger, etc. But even the normal materials, like for example blueberries, it is also a superfood, so

22:59as I, we like to work with superfoods a lot, because there are really, really plenty of benefits in the chocolate, if you don't destroy it by processing. You mentioned the award-winning asparagus chocolate, so I was wondering how long does it take to produce the final product, how much experimenting does it involve, and who decides about which ingredients you are going to use? Like normally we just come on this idea or Peter brings it from his travels, because he travels a lot, so for example from Japan we brought strawberries in chocolate, like I mean whole strawberries, or Sakura omonsia, but this one chocolate with asparagus, actually it came from our very well-known chef Pavel Sapik, who was cooking for example for a pulp or for some celebrities, and he has a very famous dessert, called tartelet with asparagus,

24:01strawberry and astragone, and he approached us if we would be able to produce chocolate like this. So we were thinking about it, together with our technologist, and we thought, well this is really challenging, so we want to do it, and we tried it, and it came very well. I have to say that usually, like if we decide to do some chocolate, it is not like we make a lot of samples, or we try a lot, somehow, even with me and even with our technologist, her name is Veronica, and she's really, very good in her job. So somehow the information is coming from somewhere, I don't know if it's like a you know, from universe or whatever, but somehow it always comes like you should do it like this, so we try, and usually it really works. If we try too much, we are never really satisfied with the result, but if like you have the idea and suddenly you do it, this is always the best. Which markets

25:08are you mainly exporting to these days? Right, now we concentrate on the other part of the world, so we go west, except Japan, but if you take it from the other side, it also kind of west, right? We recuperate a lot with Japan and Korea, and now like the US, USA, we want to open shop there in Washington DC, we already have building, we have found it, and now we are somehow finalizing how to find the money, what will be the strategy, but we believe that in the mid or maybe the end of 2026, we open shop in Washington DC in very, very nice place. Yeah, and we are in Germany, so that's like already. We decreased the amount of countries we are exporting, now we are really more focusing countries, we like, we want to be there, because still you have to put a lot of effort every country has different kinds of clearance and sanding logistics, so for this reason we have like four

26:14countries plus Bolivia, where we have our own jungle. But really after COVID it changed a lot, because during the COVID it was really difficult to get anything anywhere. So yeah, I wanted to ask you how important is it for you winning these international awards, how important is it for your business? I'm not sure if it's so important for the business because there are many chocolates, they sell a lot and they don't have any awards, so I wouldn't say it's important, but for us it really matters, because it's like behind, there is like, do I do it really well, do I do it the best I can do it, and this is like the confirmation that we are doing it really the best we can. Finally, after all those years in the business, what keeps you going, what fuels your love for chocolate? First of all, we really love what we are doing, right? It's cliche, but we love it. No, we really love it. We love chocolate and we love the work around. Sometimes it's a disaster if

27:15I don't know, you always have some, you know, how to say it nicely, things which doesn't go as you planned. A lot of fuck ups, it's normal. Yeah, that's my head on my mind. But on the other hand, there are successes like this, and if people come to you and they say, oh my gosh, the chocolate is so beautiful or it's so tasty, that's why I am doing it. Like our main, let's say, mission to make people more happy, because I think when people are more happy, so then there are less words. They're not making stupid videos. Okay, thank you very much for coming and talking to us. Thank you very much. It was lovely. Thank you very much. And thank you to Sylvie Steinnerova and Peter Kovagik, the owners of the Prague-based chocolate company Steiner and Kovagik, and to Ruth Frankova for that delectable interview to end this half-hour from Prague. And should you like to contact us, our email address is English at radio.cz, and you can follow RadioProg on Instagram, Facebook,

28:20and X. We're always happy to hear from you. This is Cyr Krieger Wolf saying thanks for listening and have a beautiful rest of your day. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful rest of your day.