Choco-Late Chocolate Festival
Offers Tastings, Workshops and More

The bi-annual Choco-Late Chocolate Festival is held in the old Belfort Museum in Brugge's lively medieval town square.

My son, Nick and I, drove to Brugge recently to experience the Choco-Late Chocolate Festival in this city often called the 'Venice of the North.' Known for its medieval architecture, Venice-like waterways, and easy-to-walk-around streets, Brugge is carving out a reputation for world famous Belgian chocolate too.

This event celebrates Belgian chocolate with four days of chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Winding through the ancient Belfort Museum, you find chocolate in every form and fashion.

Chocolate artisans create, craft and sculpt as you watch, making both small and large edible masterpieces. From the tiniest mouth-watering chocolate delicacies and the whimsically wild creations, to the larger than life chocolate sculptures, it's clear that chocolatiers are artists in their own right.

Booth after booth of craft and industrial chocolate producers display their products, offer free samples and chocolate for sale. We saw friends Abdelhak Menouni from Planete Chocolat and Mike Blavier from Chocolaterie Duval. Others we recognized and hope to feature soon include Leonidas, NewTree, and sugar-free chocolatier Cavalier.

Brugge chocolatiers were abundant. Chocolatier Duman (just off the Brugge Grand Place) crafted beautiful white swans placed at the Belfort entrance. Chocolatier Edouard was there, crafting his delicate creations and offering them for taste and sale.

The ambassador from the cocao-bean producing country Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) offered samples of rich hot chocolate in her brightly-colored booth. Many of the cocoa beans used to make Belgian chocolate come from countries like Ivory Coast and the Belgian Congo in Africa. It was great to see the cocoa bean producers represented, for without them there would be NO Belgian chocolate!

Belcolade, the primary corporate sponsor of Choco-Late, was there in full-force. Their marketing department was available to answer questions about their chocolate and offer unlimited samples of several of their varieties of couverture chocolate disks (one of the forms chocolate is delivered to chocolatiers).

We watched children paint with chocolate and viewed a chocolate painting gallery growing by the hour.

The festival also offers a discount to 'Choco-Story', the excellent Brugge Chocolate Museum as well as a "chocolate walk" which includes the city's landmark chocolatiers such as Leonidas and Godiva.

The event is organized and sponsored by the city’s bakers, chocolate makers and the Bruges Chocolate Museum in co-operation with the hospitality sector and the city of Bruges.

Truly, the Choco-Late Chocolate festival is like no other and one that only Belgium could host!

Important Information:
Choco-Late Bruges takes place in late April or early May every other year at the Belfort in Bruges.

Location:
Museum of Bruges - Belfort
Markt 7
8000 Bruges

Opening hours:
The festival is open from 10:00 to 18:00.

Admission prices:
Adults: €10
Children: 6-12 years: €6; under 6 years: free

For more information see:
http://www.choco-late.be/