The Belgian Chocolate making

"While holding between your finger this half an ounce of happiness, think about the long way to obtain this mouthful of pleasure, delight of gods."

The chocolate as row material.

The chocolate is prepared from the seeds of the cocoa wich is a tree bearing large seeds pods. Most of these trees, initially discovered in America, are now growing in many equatorial countries.

After the gathering, the cocoa beans are dried by the sun and sent to the chocoalte manufacturers. In the factories, the seeds are roasted and crushed to obtain the cocoa powder. They are also squeezed to make the cocoa butter.

Then the chocolate is produced by the mixing of the above powder and butter and the addition of sugar and milk powder.

The proporton of each component will deterimine the chocolate color.

The black chocolate can contain up to 70% of cocoa.
The milk chocolate containd more milk powder.
The white chocolate is only made from cocoa butter, suger and milk without cocoa.

The artisans choice

The decoration is still today manufactured by hand.

The chocolate manufacturers take care to select the best cocoa as well as the finest components in order to produce the Belgian chocolate - or " praline "- filling.
Indeed, the chocolate quality is determine by the cocoa seeds choice and the components quality which give it all its characteristics (its parfume, its color, its touch, ...)
The Belgian artisan manufactures almost all the " praline " by hand, especially the decoration. And it becomes a unique articles as he gives a personal touch to all of his creations thanks to his long experience. Then, the " praline " follows the distributioon channels before taking its place amongst the finest luxe products.