top of page
The Best Places to Eat Haggis (10).png
Search

Silky Chocolate in Bruges

Writer's picture: muna ahmedmuna ahmed
BRUGES BELGIUM

Bruges was the leading commercial center of Europe in the 15th century, famed for its wealth and luxury products. Its later poverty ensured that its buildings remained miraculously untouched, while its extraordinary paintings bear witness to the elaborate craftsmanship of its jewelers, dressmakers, and cabinet-makers. The skills of its fine chocolatiers can still be sampled today.


Bruges still looks and feels like a medieval city. Trapped in time, its network of cobbled streets are lined with stepped-gabled facades and threaded with mirror-still canals that reflect the spires and towers of the skyline. In the early 1500s, vital trade transferred to Antwerp, and for centuries Bruges quietly decayed, remaining largely untouched by the industrialization that transformed other Flemish cities. So its glory days were already over when the Spaniard Hernán Cortés first brought cocoa beans to Emperor Charles V in 1528. Charles V ruled over many countries in Europe, including Belgium, and it was his governor, the Duke of Alba, who first introduced chocolate to the country. The Belgians at first consumed it as a drink, in much the same way as the Mayans and Aztecs had produced xocolātl. It was not until the 19th century, when British and Swiss chocolate-makers experimented with cocoa beans, that the modern form of hard chocolate was invented. It was the Belgians, however, who invented filled chocolates. Jean Neuhaus of Brussels was the pioneer, creating his first pralines in 1912 and selling them in boxes still referred to as ballotins. Belgian chocolatiers have been working on techniques for filling chocolate ever since, conjuring up little gems using ingredients such as fruit and nut pastes, liqueurs, marzipan, and fresh cream. Meanwhile, the base ingredient – Belgian chocolate itself – has acquired a worldwide reputation for its outstanding quality. Carefully sourced from top-quality cocoa beans, it contains a high percentage of cocoa solids and valuable cocoa butter – a volatile oil that provides the remarkable cooling sensation as the chocolate melts in the mouth. Similar high standards have been brought to the subtle blend of cocoa butter, milk, and sugar that lies behind the famous Belgian white chocolate. In the 19th century, Bruges was rediscovered by travelers and antiquarians, who recognized the unique survival of its historic fabric and set about preserving it, mixing in a fair dose of Neo-Gothic fancy to reinforce the mood. Bruges, restored and revived, is now one of the most popular tourist destinations of northern Europe, and this has brought a new era of prosperity back to its old streets, visible in the elegant shops, numerous boutique hotels, and excellent restaurants. The city’s feel for consumer luxury today recalls its golden age and the fabulous, gilded ballotins from its chocolate shops have become the treasure caskets of the modern age.




6 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page