by : Tania Machowska

Belgian Chocolates are the best, and please dare to say that they are the best in the whole world.

What better present then a box of chocolates to buy when visiting Belgian. Brussels and Antwerp has many little chocolate gift shops and it is hard not to walk in.

These days you can go online to order your box of chocolates, from producer to your front door, in 40 different countries, even in Belgium, although it is more charming to get them at a chocolate shop or at the bakery, the offer in pralines is as variable as the cakes, bread and sandwiches you can buy.

Jean Neuhaus arrived from Switzerland in 1857 and he settled himself together with his brother in law who was a pharmacist in Brussels at the Konningine galerij (Queens gallery), a very well known gallery at the centre of Brussels, in fact he first covered gallery in Europe. They opened a pharmaceutical bakery, initially it was the intention to give a sweet flavour to medicines that had an awful taste, it was a fantastic idea and it leaded to the revolution of the bonbons. The little chocolate factory was a fact, in 1912 Jean (the grandchild of Jean Neuhaus) baptised the bonbons into ‘praline' , chocolate creams.

A few years later, Balottine, Jean's wife discovered the best way to represent the praline, she putted them into a little box that gave the bonbons a real luxurious appearance.

Neuhaus, Leonidas, Callebaut, Meurris, Cote d'Or, Guylian, Godiva are all well known chocolate brands and they all have been in hands of Belgian producers, put that was a long time ago, for example Godiva is now in hands of the American producers of Campbell, the soup.

Callebaut is the producer of chocolate to big companies, it has been in hands of the Callebaut family, in 1987 Swiz company Suchard is the owner now.

Leonidas isn't the most expensive chocolate and it exists from 1970, when a Greek-Turkish family came over to Belgium, they settled in Genth where they opened a candy store, and although Jean was a female doctor she found her amusement in chocolate and eventually Leonidas came on the market.