Belgium Archives

A brand new interactive chocolate museum.

An afternoon in the company of Laurent Gerbaud.

Personalised messages made from fine chocolate.

Chunky fruit & nut chocolate from Belgium.

Milk chocolate with banana & nibs.

An exceptional Forastero from Cameroon.

Bean to bar chocolate from Belgium

Milk chocolates with a pistachio filling.

A gianduja bar from Belgium

Coarsely ground cocoa beans and sugar from Pierre Marcolini.

Chunky marshmallow cubes in 59% bean-to-bar chocolate.

A dark milk bean-to-bar chocolate with sea salt.

54% dark chocolate from Belgium with cacao nibs.

My favourite shop has expanded. This means more of the best from my local butcher, and of course a greater range of strange imported chocolatey things. Yes, that’s right, the Vietnamese butcher has moved to new premises – bigger, better, …

It's been a while since I tasted anything from NewTree, but this bar caught my eye when I was in Belgium earlier this year.

One of Belgium's big names in chocolate makes its first appearance on Chocablog in five years.

A selection of chocolates from Belgian chocolatier Elisabeth.

Lady Chefs showcases nine pralines by nine, well, lady chefs. There are two of each, marked by their initials, which are carefully embedded into lacy designs.

Whenever I travel I'm naturally on the lookout for interesting, good quality chocolate to bring back and review. Well, I also like to pop into a supermarket to see what the bigger names brands are doing in other parts of the world, and this 35g mini bar is the result of just such a foray.

Geert Vercruysse is a Belgian chocolatier & patissier based in Kortrijk, close to the French border.

We’ve seen lemon and pepper more than once, and I tackled a strawberry and pepper combination last year, but never orange and pepper. Until now.

These two Valentine’s Day pieces came to me from Belgian chocolatier Neuhaus. First is a heart box filled with nineteen pralines. Its red siding gives a modern look to the box’s top pattern of a lace pattern of grey-on-white.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m not much of a fan of chocolate spreads, but when someone offers to send me something with chocolate in it, I rarely (never) refuse. And so I came to be in possession of three …

You might not guess it from the name, but Jeff de Bruges was started by a Frenchman called Phillipe. Personally, I think I would have gone for “Phillipe de Paris” as a name for my shops because “Jeff de Bruges” …

When faced with a wall of chocolate in a shop, most of which is unfamiliar, it is hard to know which ones to buy. My head says I should go for a flavour which I either like a lot or …

Here we have the first of two bars I recently received from Galler. I’ve been accused of favouring Galler’s more exotic creations in the past (and I think I have) but this bar seems to have a promising lineage, being …

More from the Galler stable, this time in the shape of a more orthodox selection of milk chocolate pralines. Inside the long, thin tin you’ll find these. Perhaps it has something to do with the order in which I came …

When I received this tube of Mendiants from Galler, my first question (and probably one you’ve already asked) was “What are Mendiants then?” Luckily the answers are online (as ever) and so I quote from Wikipedia: “A mendiant is a …

Guest Chocablogger Catherine May takes a look at something fruity from Godiva… When I first saw this, I was immediately struck by the fact that there is no percentage of cocoa solids listed on this 45 gram ‘Dark Chocolate’ bar. …

This box, perhaps a more traditional offering for Valentines Day than a giant heart, comes from Galler. La Boite Ronde (The Round Box) is home to a wide variety of shapes and flavours, with a menu covering over forty items, …

Another in the seemingly endless parade of Galler chocolates, these minis are a step up from the previously reviewed Bouchée bars in terms of taste. Here we have that perfect little treat to go with your morning coffee, or possibly …

As far as I can work out, these are being marketed as one of those little self indulgent treats for grownups, or as a lunchbox filler for kids, and before anyone asks, ‘Croc’ does not mean that I’ve been eating …

White chocolate with thyme? What an odd choice for a flavour combination. Obviously, it was therefore my first choice for a chocolate bar to bravely pick up on our trip to Belgium. I do love white chocolate and I’ve had …

Walmart is filled with controversy, yet despite their questionability, they do have an impressive chocolate selection these days. The usual averages are there, but so are some nicer brands. I’d never heard of Hageland, a Belgian company, before; the five …

More from the Belgian chocolate manufacturer I will always remember for seaweed and seasalt and my first beetroot chocolate experiences. This time we have a fairly impressive cardboard tube in Galler orange. Nestled within is a cellophane bag containing 150g …

I picked this block up in Planète Chocolat on our recent day out in Brussels. It’s a square bar, very similar in size and shape to the Thorntons blocks, although this doesn’t have the weight printed on the label. It …

Disclosure: On Saturday, Shimrit and I were part of a small group of bloggers invited by Eurostar and their ‘conversation agency’ WeAreSocial on an expenses paid ‘Little Break‘ day out to Brussels. This is not an ad for Eurostar, but …

I can’t remember where I purchased this interesting looking box of chocolates, but it was either Tesco or Waitrose, so they’re widely available in the UK – despite the fact that they’re made in Belgium and the writing on the …

This selection of chocolates was sent over from Belgium for tasting courtesy of a young web entrepeneur called Thomas who has secured an exclusive web sales deal with a Belgian chocolatier by the name of Frederic Blondeel. As Thomas said …

Courtesy of Rainer and Oliver from Premier Food and Beverages is this lovely little chocolate spoon called Chau Colat from Belgium. It was morning tea time, so I rejected my usual choice of coffee to follow the instructions on how …

This is something I picked up ages ago whilst on my travels. It’s a 60% bittersweet chocolate with lemon and ginger (as you can see) and it’s a companion bar to the range I reviewed earlier this year- most of …

Like Ashleigh and Marie, my friend Jacqueline is a seasoned overseas traveler as well as an accomplished artist, businesswoman, parent and translator who has kindly taken pity on me and brought back some Belgian chocolate she considered a standout during …

Sometimes you can find good things at Costco. But, accompanying the low prices, the quality is often comparable. So when I saw this bag of over a pound for seven dollars, I knew it could go either way. But I …

Chocablog readers of a sensitive disposition may wish to stop reading here, because these are some of the strangest (and frankly, disgusting) looking chocolates I’ve seen in a long time. The box describes these as “5 fine Belgian flaked truffles”. …

Isis, the premium range from Italo-Suisse, is virtually unknown Down Under. They only rang a bell in my brain because they are made by the same folk in Belgium that make the Coles Supermarkets range of chocolate blocks. I’m still …

I’ll be honest with you right from the start – I’ve never liked the Guylian Seashells chocolates that seem to very popular gift ideas at Christmas time, Mothers Days and as ‘thank you’ presents. The icky blandness of the milk …

In contrast to my previous review of PureFlavour Raw chocolate, may I present Isis? This is a Belgian bar made by a company who have been making chocolate for eighty five years, and was bought from Waitrose. This bar is …

I don’t know about you, but I’d never heard of Duc d’O. They may be a premium Belgian chocolatier, but their wares haven’t made it as far as my corner of Finchley – until today. This little box of “Mini …

As I mentioned previously, those lovely chaps at Chocolates Direct sent over a pack of eight Dolfin Bars for review. Like their milk chocolate brethren, these four also offer a unique flavour from a different part of the world, and …

Although we enjoy our work here at Chocablog, it’s always heartwarming to receive positive feedback from a review. It’s even more heartwarming when a manufacturer or supplier gets in touch and offers more free samples for review, and those lovely …

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s winter here in the UK and in the run up to Christmas we are being assailed with spiced foods, comfort foods, and of course more and more ‘gourmet’ chocolate. Well, this is part of …

I found these Belgian chocolates in John Lewis – part of a fairly large display of Christmas chocolates – most of which I ended up buying. As it’s a small box, I think the easiest way to review them is …

There have been many claims that chocolate is good for you (and who are we to argue?) but this bar puts a new (age?) twist on it. NewTree is a Belgian chocolate manufacturer, producing high quality (and quite expensive) products. …