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 [原创]Chocolat for Valentine's Day, part 1 |
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parisparis
头衔: 海归少将
声望: 讲师
加入时间: 2004/09/04
文章: 1996
海归分: 276207
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作者：parisparis 在 海归茶馆 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
Chocolat is made from the bean of tropical cacao trees. The beans were first cultivated by old civilizations such as Maya and Aztec and was introduced to Europe by Columbus. It was widely cultivated in tropical region of Africa too, since that was the first continent that was colonized by the Europeans.
Sorry, no much time, so I write part 1 first. Slow in Chinese input, so English here and any translation is welcome.
People here are more interested in how to get good chocolat, so let's go directly to the key topic: good brands and where to get them.
There are three nations which generate the top tier chocolates: Belgium, Switzerland and France.
Section 1. Belgium
Why Belgium excels in chocolat production?-- For people who are not familiar with the European history, it is important to point out this nation was for long time controlled by the French-speaking people and its largest colony, Zaire(now called Republic of Congo, whatsoever, one unstable African nation) was rich in cacao bean production. The weather there was perfect.
No waste of time on hot chocolate. Let's talk about brands.
1. Godiva
A premium brand, definitely the top tier one even in Belgium. It is excellent in both taste and artistic design.
Up till now, nobody has ever asked why the box uses the a lady riding a horse as the trademark, even though I have shown it to many different friends.
https://www.chocolatefestival.co.uk/images/godiva-logo.jpg
And she is riding the horse naked too...
The legendary lady Godiva was a noblewoman in Coventry before William's conquest of England in 1066. She was not happy with the oppressively high tax rate her husband imposed on the tenants. He joked with her and promised to give a relief if she could ride naked through the main street of the city. To his great surprise, she did that to help the poor people and her husband did fulfill his promise later.
She was so beautiful that anybody who saw her body were blinded forever...
(kidding--luckily, Jian Bin MM is not lady Godiva. Otherwise, many gentlemen on this forum will lose their eye sight forever...)
Godiva seems to be a local patron in certain British legends....
Now go back to our business: it makes chocolat in different forms--chocolat bar, dark chocolat, white chocolat, hot chocolat and assorted chocolat in fine boxes. The best one is the last one (personal opinion).
Where to get it?
1) in Belgium--easy, business districts in large cities all have their stores.
2) in America-- sorry, you have to go to nice shopping malls to look for its stores. One small box easily costs 40 or more, 3 to 4 times the price they charge in Belgium. Anyway, Americans are very unsophisticated when it comes to chocolat. They are cultivated by the mass-marketed Hershey chocolat and clearly have "no taste" (as my French or Belgian friends will tell you). They might deserve that...
3) in China? -- no idea. Friends in Beijing and Shanghai, please add here.
I talked to one store manager in US and was told that all American Godiva were actually made in US, but with the secret recipe from Belgium to ensure the authenticity and freshness.
I do not think they can do that in China, given our little regards for IP. Therefore, I expect the imported chcolat does not taste as good as in Belgium.
For people in other places, just go to www.godiva.com and with a major credit card, it is within your reach easily.
More to come, but I pick the most expensive one to start first. Anyway, in order to show your true love at this crucial holiday, nothing send "stronger or better signal" than a VERY EXPENSIVE gift at some crucial holidays....
作者：parisparis 在 海归茶馆 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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 [原创]Chocolat for Valentine's Day, part 1 -- parisparis - (3876 Byte) 2007-2-07 周三, 05:38 (6423 reads) - 发张照片赠兴
 -- 小丫无名 - (9 Byte) 2007-2-07 周三, 09:37 (268 reads)
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