“Belgian Chocolate”, what is it anyway? I would like to start a few posts on this to many a magic and indulgent combination of words.
Sure our country has a bespoken heritage and history when it comes to chocolate, but why really is Belgian Style different from other countries? I think there are 2 things that need some explanation: what is that Belgian heritage about and what should the word ‘chocolate’ cover. Already the word “chocolates” leads to a lot of confusion. Chocolates, chocolate, confections and pralines are really not the same, though in English I feel these subtle differences aren’t always put clear. But let’s keep that for later and focus on Belgium.
How Belgium became ‘Chocolatic’
The Spanish not only brought cacao beans from the Americas to our continent, but were also responsible for the spreading through all of their conquered regions too. The first traces of cocoa were found in Ghent in 1635 in the Baudeloo abbey, only many years after Belgium was annexed with the Spanish imperium.
The strange link between Belgium, a small country for way from the equatorial cacao belt, and chocolate is not one to be too proud of at first from a historical point of view. The Belgian chocolate industry took off during the mid 1880’s, when the grasping king Leopold II of Belgium colonized Congo, a territory eighty-six times bigger than Belgium itself.
With the blood spilling colonization and despite the warfare, Belgium entrepreneurship got itself an easy way in to Africa’s cocoa grounds and were able to maintain the cocoa importing connections. With a steady and stable import of raw cacao, local business had the opportunity to find creative and innovative ways to develop chocolate products and businesses.
From the beginning of its introduction in Belgium, chocolate was considered a perfect gift. Even before the colonization of Congo, a Belgian company Berwaerts, was the first one to sell chocolate as tablets, pastilles, and figurines since about1840. Also world famous Callebaut was founded in that era, in 1850 by Eugenius Callebaut as a brewery in Wieze, where the company still has its HQ. Other Belgian chocolate companies soon were created and chocolate lovers will recognize a few names amongst Meurisse, Callebaut, Neuhaus, Cote d’Or, Jaques, de Beukelaere, Victoria… all together with lots of small brands that have gone away.
With the 1958 World Expo in Brussels Côte D’Or tempted everyone’s taste buds through a big event, through which Belgium’s reputation in chocolate became even more known worldwide. Especially for the world fair, Cote d’Or launched a brand new product, “Dessert 58″. This was a praliné filled milk chocolate and it was a hit right from the start!
Before we further explore the worlds of “praliné”, chocolates and “pralines”, in a next post I will dive deeper in which contemporary brands are putting Belgium on the map, and how they do so.
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