Brussels Chocolate Trail: Praline Paradise

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1. 1. Wittamer

   🎂 Wittamer has been on the Place du Grand Sablon since 1910, run by the same family for four generations. It is a pâtissier as much as a chocolatier, and holds a royal warrant. The pastry shop and the chocolate shop are separate doors on the same square. If you only do one thing here, the macarons are the better bet.

2. 2. Pierre Marcolini

   👨‍🍳 Pierre Marcolini works the way a wine producer does: he buys cocoa beans at origin and roasts them himself, which almost no Belgian house still bothers to do. The result is darker and more bitter than the national norm, and the shop is priced accordingly. Buy two or three pieces rather than a box; the point here is to taste the difference, not to stock up.

3. 3. Neuhaus

   🎁 Neuhaus really did invent the praline — the filled chocolate shell — in 1912, and the ballotin box to carry them home in two years later. The founder's family were pharmacists; the shop began by coating medicine in chocolate to make it palatable. The flagship in the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert has been trading since 1857.

4. 4. Choco-Story Brussels

   🍫 A museum about cocoa: where it comes from, how the Maya and Aztecs used it, and how Belgium ended up making its name on it. There are demonstrations of praline-making through the day, and you taste as you go. It sits a couple of minutes from the Grand-Place, and it is the one stop on this route that explains what you are eating everywhere else.

5. 5. Leonidas

   💰 Leonidas is the everyday one, and Belgians buy it without apology. It is sold by weight from open cases, priced a fraction of the boutiques, and there is a branch on most high streets in the country. Ask for a mixed 250 grams and point at what you want. The manon blanc, white chocolate with fresh cream, is the classic order.

6. 6. Hotel Novotel Brussels City Centre

   🏨 A central hotel, useful here as a fixed point rather than a destination. It sits within a short walk of the Grand-Place and most of the shops on this route, which is the whole of its relevance. If you need a break, the cafés on the surrounding streets are better value than the lobby.

7. 7. Mary Chocolaterie

   🎀 Mary has held a royal warrant since 1942 and still makes its chocolates by hand. It was founded in 1919 by Mary Delluc, unusual then for a woman running a business of this kind under her own name. The style is old-fashioned in the best sense: softer fillings, less design, more butter. Boxes are made up in front of you.

8. 8. Mary chocolatier

   🍫 The original Mary shop, on the rue Royale, opened in 1919 and looks it — glass cases, dark wood, and staff who will let you take your time. It is a short walk uphill from the Grand-Place and far quieter than the shops around the square. A good last stop: buy the box here rather than at the first place you passed.

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