When in Rome, do as the Romans do. And when in Belgium, do as the Belgians do—eat chocolate!

Eating chocolate in Belgium is like having pasta in Italy, or croissants in France, or fondue in Switzerland. In order to fully maximize our experience, we created our own DIY Chocolate Tasting Tour in Bruges, Belgium.

The rules

You don’t have to create rules, but we decided to set some standards before we started popping rich desserts into our mouth. 

We selected five locations and decided to buy three pieces of chocolate at each location:

1. One piece of dark chocolate with caramel (to share)
2. Jana gets to pick one piece of her choice
3. Brett gets to pick one piece of his choice 

We would use the dark chocolate with caramel as a measure to compare one location to the other. 

After our tour, we would each select which:

• dark chocolate with caramel was our favorite
• piece of chocolate was our overall winner
• chocolate was our second favorite.

 The chocolate shops

If Bruges is so well known for chocolate, how in the world did we narrow down to only five locations? Lots of research! But don’t worry, we did the research so you don’t have to!

Here are the five locations for our DIY Chocolate Tasting Tour:

1. Chocolatier Dumon
2. The Chocolate Line
3. Confiserie de Clerck
4. Pick a random chocolate shop 
5. Cote d’Or (from a grocery store)

(If the map isn’t working, try this link.)

 A quick note about “The Chocolate Mafia”

The Italian mafia isn’t the only group in town, because Bruges has it’s very own Chocolate Mafia. That’s right, there is an underground group who determines the reasonable price for chocolate: currently €2.80 per 100 grams. 

If a shop charges more than that, it’s either gourmet or overpriced. And be cautious if someone charges you too much below this price—it’s possibly poor quality chocolate instead of a stellar deal.

Our DIY Tasting

First stop: Chocolatier Dumon

1. Dark chocolate with caramel
2. Jana: Milk chocolate with buttercream and caramel
3. Brett: Dark chocolate with coffee

Second stop: The Chocolate Line

1. Dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt
2. We shared: Milk chocolate with lavender
3. We shared: Milk chocolate with bacon

Third stop: Confiserie de Clerck

1. Milk chocolate with caramel
2. Jana: White chocolate with peanut butter
3. Brett: Dark chocolate with vanilla cream

Chocolater de Burg

Note: We decided to pick a random chocolate shop along the way to try. This made us realize how good our first three chocolate shops were, as the taste here just didn’t meet the standard of the others! If you take this tour, pick a random place in town!

1. Dark chocolate with caramel
2. Jana: Dark chocolate with raspberry cream
3. Brett: Speculoos

Cote d’Or (from the grocery store)

Note: Try to buy this brand because it’s one of the best brands that you can buy in grocery stores! A central supermarket is listed on our map above, but you can get this in most grocery stores.

1. Dark chocolate bar

The results

Jana’s favorite: milk chocolate with buttercream and caramel from Chocolatier Dumon

Jana’s runner up: bacon from The Chocolate Line

Brett’s favorite: dark chocolate with caramel from Dumon

Brett’s runner up: milk chocolate with caramel from Confiserie de Clerck

Highest quality Belgium chocolate: Chocolatier Dumon

Best chocolate at a reasonable price: Confiserie de Clerck (P.S. This place has family-run for over 90 years!)

Most unique chocolate: The Chocolate Line

Our verdict: Don’t skip Dumon! 

…And you should probably stop by Confiserie de Clerck too!

Looking for a stronger caffeine fix?

For a great brew, check out Cafune, which is on the opposite side of the street from Confiserie de Clerck. Brett rates it as the best place in town!

P.S. Tag us on Instagram @aplinsinthealps if you go on a DIY Chocolate Tasting Tour!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCdBd_QDZmw/

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You may also like our DIY Dutch Food Tour in Amsterdam.