Bruges attracts some people by its charm, canals network and the spell of its narrow streets and neat apartment houses. Others are drawn to Bruges by the perfection of Belgian chocolate or cuisine. We were lured by another typical Belgian product – beer. It has been well-known for us since ever. Today more and more often we reach for wine but beer is still something that we like. Especially since beer sector has undergone a serious revolution. New hopes, new types of beers appeared bringing to the beer craft new flavours to be discovered.

Going to Bruges we planned to take part in Bruges Beer Festival. It was its 8th edition we had a chance to visit. Maybe because we are not connoisseur or experts, we just simply like beer, we were impressed by over 300 beers from 80 breweries.

Our first impression was that it was some kind of beer geek convention but in fact the atmosphere reminded  a family gathering. We expected Ola to be the only child there and were even wondering if it will be appropriate to take her there. It was. Not only we met other kids there but some of them were way smaller than Ola. Not to mention dogs which visited the show as well. We noticed many international participants. People from all over te world invaded Bruges to follow up the novelties in beer sector, discover new tastes and enjoy well known ones. We were surrouned by enthusiasts with their noses in teku glasses smelling for new aromas and discussing about beer and its advantages.

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We started with a kit for 20 euro with two tasting glasses and 8 tokens, each for 150 ml of liquor.

At the begining we tried some belgian style beers, we spent a lot of time at the stand of Delirium Tremens with their characteristic pink elephant. We couldn’t have passed by Kwak – a type of Belgian beer served in specialy designed glasses and typical Belgian tripel beer. From the wide range of dark beers dad espacially liked Muurken. And of course we had to try some barley wine and russian imperial stout from White Pony Brewery. Those were good things!

Besides beer there was some food at the fairground. Nothing special but some snacks for all those who got hungry after having couple of glasses of the liquor. There was also an arena for presentation of cooking by some Belgian chefs. And it was the place where mom and Ola spent most of time. After having her own dinner Ola enjoyed some samples of food cooked on the stage. She seemed to appreciate chefs’ skills as was looking for more!

We took teku glasses home as souvenirs, maybe next year we will visit the show too and get another ones.

In the afternoon when some serious quantities of beer have been consumed the atmosphere became more cheerful. It even spreaded to the city. Suprisingly even in our hotel we found some people from the fairs continuing the fest in a really well equipped bar.

We can reccomend hotel Cordoeanier as it is located in the very center of the city and has good range of beers.

Now comes the time to talk about something really good – chocolate. Poor Ola has no idea yet, how delicious tastes she is missing. Belgium somehow became a spectialist in matters of chocoate since when the coca came first to Europe in 16th century and its chocolatiers became masters in this art of producing sweet pralines. It’s a paradise for those – like Ola’s mom – ready to give up everything for chocolate.
Passing on and on the Bruges’ shop windows full of chocolate from white to dark, with nuts or without, plain or decorative pralines we decided to visit local musem of chocolate to find out what is the story of this delicious sweetmeat.
[photosetgrid layout=”3″] [/photosetgrid]Museum is called Choco-Story and is located 2 minutes away from the main square in Bruges – Grote Markt. It is run by the owners of Belcolade chocolate factory. We were expecting a lot visiting this museum. We imagined a modern institution with chocolate figures, participation in production process, with hovering in the air the smell of chocolate, with tempting chocolate products around us. Buying the tickets (8 euro/ person, kinds under 6 free) we have not yet figured out what kind of place we are entering. Together with the ticket we got a chocolate bar and were directed to the lift. We passed the huge chocolate egg and went up.

When we got on the first floor we saw small glass cases filled with some stuffed animals and archeological finds. So it’s this kind of place… Further it was even worse, there were some dishes and more archeological items displayed. All that accompanied by white and brown boards in three languages: Dutch, Frech and Englich. Yawning of boredom we decided to focus on the story. Maybe we will find out something interesting…

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So the origin of cocoa is Central and South America. We have always associated cacao with some little beans, only here we realised how it grows. So those little beans are hidden in an oval-shaped orange pods growing on the trees. The shells are quite big because they are upi to 30 cm long nad can weigh even 0,5 kg.[photosetgrid layout=”12″] [/photosetgrid] Cocoa beans were firstly used by Aztecs as a currency (15 green peppers = 1 bean) and Mayans as an offer to gods. Both of them used them also to prepare bitter and spicy drink. It was something special, reserved for elite of the society, often for important events. 16th century brought the seeds to Europe and here the drink changed into a sweet beverage. Spanish were first who added sugar and honey to the drink. Thanks to this move it got popular accross Europe. How did it get the name „chcolate”? It came from Central American Indian’s language: kakawa (cocoa) + atl (water).

The process of chocolate production is in fact way more complicated than this name would suggest. Before  being used for chocolate making, cocoa beans have to be fermented. This necessary step brings up their flavour. Leter on they are dried, roasted and cleaned. Such prepared beans are ground into a paste which is supplemented with sugar, powdered milk and cocoa butter. That’s still not the end of the procedure. Next steps involve refining (proces of cleaning from unwanted color or smell) and conching which means heatig and blending to elliminate any wrong aromas still left. The requested texture is obtained by adding different amounts of cocoa butter or lecithin.[photosetgrid layout=”3″] [/photosetgrid]

Visiting the museum we got some practical information too. We have always known that dark chocolate is the most healthy and beneficial for people but have never wondered why. Now we know: ingridients of each type of choloate are different. White chocolate for example contains: 29,5% of cocoa butter, 25% of powdered milk and 45% of sugar! While dark consists of: 67,5% of cocoa paste, 7% of cocoa butter and only 25% of sugar. The difference of sugar content is significant. To compare, milk chocolate is made of: in 10% of coca paste, in 20% of powdered milk, in 24,5% of cocoa powder and again in 45% of sugar. So now you know – having to choose any type chocolate always reach for the dark one.

Today the biggets producers of cocoa are African countries like Ivory Coast and Ghana.

These are all basic information about cocoa and chocolate you need to know. So if you thought about taking your little one to the museum to find out something about chocolate make sure to have a stroller or something because surely he or she will fall asleep. If you were worried that your baby after visiting museum will want nothing but chocolate for dinner, don’t. There is nothing, maybe beside the giftshop, that will make him or her think only about this best sweet ever.