This card full of chocolaty goodness arrived last week from Germany. Thanks, Lilly.
Must have been this card that got me stuffing my face with chocolates and sweets (and Nutella, heheh) the past week. I can't see which brand the chocolates on this card is but they are supposed to be from Belgium. You've probably eaten those seashell chocolates from
Guylian and
Côte-d'Or bars, but Belgian chocolates aren't all about these mass-produced goodies. There are quite a few Belgian gourmet chocolatiers, many of which are now exported worldwide. Among the better known names are
Leonidas,
Godiva and
Neuhaus. More fancy ones include
Wittamer and
Marcolini, my personal favorite when I was living in Brussels 10 years ago :P. I remember going into Marcolini's and getting a rich hot chocolate while choosing my pralines. They have great modern lovely packaging and you can get more experimental, exotic flavors apart from the traditional favorites.
Belgium produces 172,000 tons of chocolate every year (many chocolatiers still make them by hand) and there are more than 2,000 specialty shops throughout the country. Prices can range from €30 to €58 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), according to the
Antwerpt Tourist Guide. It says Belgians eat an annual average of 11.03 kilograms (24.3 pounds) of chocolates - making them the number two country in per capita consumption of chocolate, according to the
International Cocoa Organization.
The history of Belgian chocolates dates back to the 19th century under King Leopold II's rule, during which Belgium colonized some parts of Africa. This gave it access to cocoa plants, which led to the development of a Belgian chocolate industry.
Chocolate is like a religion in Belgium. You see chocolate shops everywhere and there are numerous museums that detail the history of the confection, among them the
Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate. Here a link to a list of
chocolate museums, tours, events and chocolatiers at the Visit Belgium website.
The yellow flowers are tulips. Nice! Reminds me of my drives through Belgium and Holland. The pink and black/white one is actually one stamp. Issued on August 12, 2010, it commemorates the intercontinental flight that German pilot
Elly Beinhorn made in 1935 from Gliwice (now in Poland) to Ye ilköy in Istanbul and back to Berlin - all in one day. She flew 3,470 km (2155 miles) in 13.5 hours. Beinhorn made a trip around the world in 1931-32 but her plane was disassembled and shipped at certain points, so she didn't circle Earth at the controls of a plane. See a
map of Elly Beinhorn's round-the-world journey.
The first woman to fly solo around the world was American
Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock in 1964, in single-engine airplane The Spirit of Columbus. She made the 22,860 miles (36,790 km) journey in 29 days, with 21 stopovers.
Related links
Chocolate (wikipedia)
belgiumchocolate.com
by liberal sprinkles
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