A really yummy postcard from Belgium! The stamp's glue was supposed to taste like chocolate and guess what, the stamp actually smells like chocolate! It brings really good memories to me because I used to have a belgian neighbor while growing up and he made and sold chocolate... I was his faithful client
Belgium is famed for its high quality chocolate and over 2,000 chocolatiers, both small and large. Belgium's association with chocolate goes back as far as 1635 when the country was under Spanish occupation and during the early 20th century, the country was able to import cocoa from its colony, the Belgian Congo. Today, chocolate is very popular in Belgium with 172,000 tonnes produced each year, and widely exported.
What makes Belgian chocolate unique is the quality of ingredients (many aspects of its composition are regulated by law) and adherence to traditional manufacturing techniques. In particular, vegetable-base fats are not used. Many firms produce their chocolates by hand which is very laborious and explains the prevalence of small, independent chocolate outlets which are also popular with tourists. Famous chocolate companies, like Neuhaus and Guylian strictly follow traditional (and sometimes secret) recipes for their products.
Merci Katrien!
I wrote about those chocolate stamps on my blog - here you can find whole series http://czarrymarry.blogspot.com/2013/04/pocztowka-na-weekend-3.html
ReplyDeleteWhen I bought it, I had a feeling that I bought real chocolate!
That presentation looks so yummy! :P
DeleteI was pretty impressed the stamp still smelled like chocolate when I got it