Turning chocolate making into a hip new art
Every country has its label, French win the perfume award, where chanel is a lifestyle, Italians are the fashion people with the best taste of style, designers are popping up like mushrooms after rain, one better the the other one, Japanese are the new technologies, USA is iphone country…and let me tell you something, perhaps you didn’t know, Belgium is the winner of the best drug in the world, Chocolate, being a chocolate capital of the world, it’s a magic place where you literally breath in chocolate air, getting a heady hit of the dark delicacy.I won’t say that’s the only country that produce a lot of chocolate, no , don’t get me wrong, this business has been in Belgium for more than a century, its population can easily stomach more than 15lb each of chocolate annually, Brussels as a capital has the biggest number if chocolate factories than any other city on earth…they say, chocolate has a special drug in it, happy drug, we do eat chocolate in times of stress, pain, sadness, so basically it’s a pain killer, chocolate is a natural analgesic, and it’s not just imagination, researchers have found that eating chocolate, causes the brain to release endorphins, chemicals that make us feel good.
Chocolate was invented by American women, but to improve it, many countries for centuries have worked for it, in Belgium it was brought from Mexico back in 18th century, a time, when it was turned from a drink into a hard sweet treat, chocolate bars have maintained a pretty consistent form: long bars, truffles and pralines, Pierre Marcolini is probably the only Belgian chocolatier, that controls every step of the process, starting from choosing the best bean and roasting it to creating his exquisite Grand Cru boxes, featuring single squares made from beans from a specific origin, Marcolini turned chocolate making into a hip new art.
Belgium is also called “God of chocolate”, annually helding the most delicious festivals of all, Chocolate festival, including all the biggest names of industry, chocolate masters such as Godiva, Neuhaus and Leonidas, all the chocolate lovers can not miss this festival, where everything is about chocolate, you can learn how truffles are made, but sure it’s up to you, you easily just stick with tasting drinking at the chocolate bar. The little ones can get involved into chocolate competitions, all the prizes naturally will be chocolate goods. The chocolate masters admit, that lately people are start pay attention to the ingredients not always choosing the cheapest option, willing to know about the purity of the product. But , it’s not just about the best grade chocolate, it’s about finding the finest ingredients to make it taste heavenly and unique.
