Choco-Laté

Choc yourself in Bruges

It might seem a bit odd, but when autumn hits Bruges, the strong and cold wind, blowing over the city’s small waters most of the time, is one of nature’s most beautiful gifts. First of all, it makes you feel cold, your nose starts running and your cheeks are red. Thus you feel like having a hot chocolate. Secondly, the wind spreads the perfume of chocolate all over the city, forcing every choco-heart to skip a beat.

But where does that scent come from? Having more than 45 chocolate shops and ateliers in its tiny city centre makes Bruges the Mecca for chocolatiers. These craftspeople are responsible for making the city smell so good, and they also try their hardest all year long to surprise the sweet palates of visitors to the city.

To keep all local and overseas chocoholics as their biggest fan, they need a secret weapon: new and dazzling creations, ranging from tiny flavour bombs to huge sculptures made from that lovely but bitter bean. To confirm this chocolate fairy tale, the festival Choc’in Bruges crowns the city as the world’s Capital of Chocolate – all November long.

The centrepiece of the festival is Choco-Laté. The city of Bruges and the Choco- Story Museum combine efforts to organise this huge chocolate fair set in the historical and very characteristic belfry of Bruges. You can treat yourself to a taste feast, with chocolates, refined and savoury chocolate dishes and sweet drinks.

Moreover, you can participate in several workshops and demonstrations that teach you how to make your own pralines. This year’s promising class taught by the Sweets Companies’ Workshop shows how to make fresh cream truffles based on sweet milk chocolate, dipped in dark chocolate.

But if your (by that time) less enthusiastic stomach should take over from your happy brain, which has been releasing too many endorphins from all that chocolate over the last hours, then you can also watch chocolate body painting or artists turning the raw material into art while they prepare their products live. Or you can surrender to some “chocolate wellness”.

Last but not least, learn more about this year’s central cultural theme: the Kuna Indians. Living in the eastern part of Panama, these Maya descendants use cocoa in many mysterious ways that benefits their health. Who knows, you might leave the belfry with the recipe for eternal youth.