Single-Origin Tasting at a Bruges Chocolate Atelier

Belgian chocolate is a serious thing and Bruges is its cathedral city. The claim is legitimate: the Belgian tradition of pralines — filled chocolates with ganache, marzipan, caramel, or cream centres — was invented in Brussels in 1912 by Jean Neuhaus, and the country developed a rigorous production tradition around high-cocoa couverture chocolate, tempering technique, and fresh cream ganaches that has no true equivalent. The large commercial houses (Leonidas, Neuhaus, Godiva) are fine. The small artisan ateliers are where the real work happens.

A proper tasting at a chocolatier's atelier begins with origin: where were the beans grown, and how? A Madagascan Valrhona single-origin dark chocolate has a fruity tartness. An Ecuadorian Arriba has floral notes. A West African Forastero has the deep bitterness associated with 'standard' dark chocolate. Then blending, then tempering, then the ganaches — fresh cream with herbs, spirits, or fruit, with a shelf life of two weeks before the humidity wins. Watch the chocolatier work. Ask questions. Buy only what you will eat in three days.

Bruges itself is impossibly picturesque — a near-perfectly preserved medieval city of canals, guild houses, and belfries that looks unchanged since the Flemish Primitives were painting there in the 15th century. It is also heavily visited, especially in summer. Come on a weekday in November or March, when the tour groups are thin and the city reveals its interior life: the real square with its chess games, the tasting rooms, the little boats of residents crossing the canals with their groceries.