To live up to that kind of consumption, Belgians also start their day gorging on the good stuff, choosing between a traditional breakfast of chocoladekoek (chocolate croissant) or bread smeared with chocolate paste. But many are thinking, why stop there? Why merely eat chocolate when you simultaneously drink it?

Enter Queztal, a chocolate cafe where the chocolate is for the sipping. With over 2,000 chocolatiers throughout the country, the addition of three more could easily go unnoticed, if it weren't for the actual lines of people waiting to get their hands on a proper hot chocolate.

It is worth the wait. Behind the counter one woman is quickly scooping chocolate sauce into a cup and blending it with steamed milk to make a rich, warm and completely satisfying indulgence. There are four types of melted chocolate temptingly on display (white, light milk, milk and dark), plus 15 designer hot chocolates on the menu, making it hard to choose just one.

Most opt for the house specialty, the Queztal. This has four scoops of chocolate - one of each flavour - and is so rich that one nearly waddles away from the cafe. There are some with cinnamon, others with cardamom; the menu is extensive and creative.

I was in awe of the Chili, where a scoop of hot chilli powder and a squeeze of honey are added to the milk chocolate. The flavour of the cocoa overwhelms any pepper taste, but the heat remains, allowing for the most literal interpretation of hot chocolate I've ever had. It warmed me to my toes.

"I'm trying to redefine how people think of drinking chocolate", says Vincent Verschooris, the Ghent- based owner of the Queztal franchise - also located in Leuven and Antwerp. It is a fixed idea that it is ‘just hot chocolate'. I had to change the way people drank chocolate, and my menu shows this."

Enter nine types of chocolate milkshakes, five kinds of chocolate sundaes, plus the various chocolate/ coffee combinations, and you can drink a different kind of chocolate for weeks on end. As an additional temptation, every drink is served with a large sample of the house specialty dessert - a homemade chocolate brownie.

t is a chocolate lover's heaven, and Verschooris is pleased with the association. "When I was a kid, I loved [the book] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember thinking how amazing it was that this one family would share one bar of chocolate a year, and that it was the most rare and precious thing. So this cafe is a temple of chocolate, and Queztal is its god."

The name of the café is after the Guatemalan god of chocolate. He starts discussing the history of chocolate and the types of cocoa beans used, but my eyes have glazed over - I've happily slipped into a chocolate coma.

You can get your fix at Queztal from noon every day, seven days a week. This is a place where they understand the meaning of cravings.
www.chocoladebar.be
— Courtney Davis

Pictured: A Baileychoc, a Ti Amo or a Mexican from the god of chocolate bars, Quetzal

Pure and Simple

Whereas Queztal specialises in drinking your chocolate, one intimate Antwerp spot wants to feed it to you whole, washed down with the best cup of coffee in the city.

Some say the arrival of big international chains - such as Starbucks - is proof of the rising influence of coffee culture in our nation. While in fact, it's the ever-growing independent coffee places honouring the culture of a true barista that mark the growing popularity of coffee around here.

Bar Choq is one such cafe. According to owner Jens Oris, it's "just a regular coffee bar, but one that lays an emphasis on high quality." He is selling the concept - and himself as its originator - a bit short.

Oris drew inspiration from bars and cafes he visited abroad. As a coffee afficionado, he favours filtered coffee, espresso shots and cappuccino: "I like pure products best."

But Oris lives in the land of chocolate and realises the need to combine the sweet and the bitter. That's why you'll find chocolate muffins literally bursting apart from the centre with chocolate chips. And cappuccinos that look almost like ice cream sundaes. And the Golden Girl, a huge cup of coffee adorned with a web of sugary caramel and served with a golden spoon. "People are instinctively drawn to sweetness," he says.

Oris invests a painstaking amount of time and energy in finding the best coffee blends and roasts and figuring out the best way to serve them. He's constantly on the look-out for innovations. "We're currently switching from espresso to filtered coffee", he explains. "The difference between both is the grinding, which is reflected in the taste and texture of the coffee. I'm also trying to improve doses, and I look for the best suppliers. Six months ago I started working only with fresh, full-fat milk, but not everyone can deliver that."

Since its opening in 2008, the cosy and slightly quirkily decorated Bar Choq quickly became a favourite meeting place with Antwerp's shop hoppers and creative crowd: exactly how Oris intended. "I see the bar as a place where people come together. It's not a work environment; it's like a home away from home."
www.barchoq.be
— Stéphanie Duval

Saints to the left, sinners to the right

Walking up Kerkstraat from Tervuren's marketplace, one is presented with a choice: to the left, this small, Flemish town's beautiful church; to the right, the prospect of liquid heaven in the form of a cup of dreamy hot chocolate.

As I push open the door to the cosy tearoom, which is filled with the aroma of pralines from its extensive and enticing chocolate counter, I feel like one of the naughty villagers in Lasse Hallström's movie Chocolat. And I haven't even ordered yet.

Hanna Stübener opened Chocola in 2005. Before that, she had run a small gift shop on Brussels' trendy Zavel; but when rents skyrocketed there, she found her perfect little patch in Tervuren, where she wanted to do "something different".

Her house specialty is the Choco Maison. A mug of steaming milk arrives on a platter with two bowls of chocolate chips - one dark, one milk. She told me how to combine them for the perfect mix, but I gave into temptation and tried as many combinations as one mug would allow.

My guilt is assuaged when I discover her cocoa treats come from Tienen-based Kim's Chocolates, winner of a Belgian award for being the most energy-saving business in Flanders. Stübener's goal is to sell artisan products that are natural, ecologic and with a good price/ quality ratio.

Aside from the array of chocolates on sale, Chocola also has a selection of patisseries, the most famous of which is the cheesecake, made by Les Tartes de Françoises in Elsene. If you need to justify a trip there with some savouries, she also serves salads, quiche and spaghetti.

After supping up and munching through a praline (I try Stübner's personal favourite, the Praho, which has crispy bits inside), I leave the warmth of this quiet haven and scurry impishly past the church.
— Emma Portier Davis