Note to start: This story was written up based on my experiences from a trip I made here in a pre COVID world. This means you will see photos with lots of people with no masks and no social distancing (remember that?). I have noted at the end whether they are currently open (for takeaway or delivery) but it is best to visit their website for up to date information. I think we all need a bit of arm chair travelling at the moment so I thought I’d still share these to inspire current hot chocolates at home and future trips. Enjoy!
Many believe that the best chocolate comes from Belgium. Everyone I spoke to in Belgium was, of course, pretty adamant about this as well. And while there is good chocolate to be found in many cities around the world, Brussels is one of those rare cities where you are just surrounded by chocolate. It isn’t necessarily all good, but there is something for everyone.
Belgium’s love affair with chocolate started in the 1600s. By the 1800s several brands, still famous today, were founded including Cote d’Or and Neuhaus, followed by Callebaut, Leonidas, Mary and Godiva. These brands all have storefronts on, or around, the Grand Place which is the main square in the centre of town. There is a festival here in the spring where they cover this large square (well, it is rectangular) with over 500,000 begonias, arranged in intricate designs. Usually it is just filled with people. The square houses the stunning City Hall and a series of guild houses including the Maison du Roi. It is also registered as a World Heritage site. I like to stand in the middle and just take it all in, or set yourself up at one of the terraces and order a beer (a reminder that these pictures were taken pre-COVID).
Brussels has many chocolate tours that you can sign up for that will bring you through the dozens of chocolate shops. It is worth doing, since without the stories behind the different stores, and knowing their specialties, they all look pretty similar. Neuhaus is one of the most famous brands. Jean Neuhaus started off as a pharmacist (after failing the medical exam twice because he could not bear the sight of blood). At the time, chocolate was seen as having medicinal properties (I still think it does) and, much to the delight of his customers, he would cover medicine in chocolate. This actually led to his grandson developing the praline, a chocolate filled with non-medicinal fillings, which is very famous today.
Neuhaus is committed to 100% sustainably sourced cacao (they call it Honest chocolate on their website which doesn’t really mean anything when it comes to sustainability). They source UTZ Certified certified cocoa and are a signatory to Beyond Chocolate, a partnership for a sustainable Belgium chocolate industry working to end deforestation and provide a living income for cocoa growers. They also state that they are looking to make their cacao production 100% traceable (which I would have thought it would have to be already to be 100% sustainably sourced). They also state that 100% of their ingredients are of natural origin, including flavours and colours, and that they are palm oil free.
I was just planning on passing through when I saw a sign out front saying that they had “reinvented hot chocolate”. Now, as you can imagine, for someone like me that is a huge deal. It stopped me dead in my tracks and I quickly walked in to find out more.
I asked the man at the counter who, after a moment of confusion, walked over to read the sign himself. Obviously, he didn’t know this mindblowing fact. The reinvention seemed to be that they had added a hazelnut praline (made by caramelizing hazelnuts and then blitzing them) to their standard milk hot chocolate which, I’ll admit, I really enjoyed (although I was secretly hoping I would hate so that I could just have a go at them about their marketing). I wouldn’t say it was reinventing hot chocolate, but I enjoyed it.
You can walk in any direction from the Grand Place and you will find something interesting. There are plenty of shops offering all the famous Belgium delicacies including waffles with whipped cream on top, fries (Belgium, not French), mussels and of course beer. The city has a lot of street art so don’t forget to look up for masterpieces sprayed and painted on walls. Say hi to the Manekin Pis, a famous little sculpture apparently based on the story of a little boy who put out a fire by peeing on it (although there are many other competing stories about him), and hence saving the city. He is dressed in a different costume depending on the day of the year. There is also another sculpture just off the Grand Place (Everard t’Serclaes). They say that if you rub it you will get good luck and protection from sickness. I fell for that when I was 20, rubbed it and got a bad cold a few hours later. I obviously rubbed it the wrong way.
Verdict: While several of the chocolate shops on the Grand Place offer hot chocolates to take away during the winter, when I was there only Neuhaus had this option. Hazelnuts and hot chocolate go perfectly together. A nice treat. Neuhaus, Grand Place 27, Brussels, Belgium
