I never seriously considered adding beetroots to a hot chocolate until a couple of weekends ago when I tried one again. I knew it was a thing. It just wasn’t my thing. Last weekend I decided to give it a try at home. I bought a bunch of fresh beetroots from the farmers market and a bag of ridiculously overpriced organic beetroot powder from the supermarket and set out to do a few experiments at home.  What is a beetroot? It’s a red/purple/white/yellow ball with long red stalks and green leaves. You can eat it raw or cooked and every part of it is edible. When buying them, choose one ..read more

There is a reason why Starbucks never took off in Australia (none at all in Western Australia). We don’t need them here. There are excellent coffee shops everywhere. You may have to get in your car to drive to the supermarket, the doctor or school, but everyone in Australia has the right to be within walking distance of at least one coffee shop. At least that is the impression I get (and I’m sticking with it). While these coffee shops are all tiny, collectively they had the power to fight off a giant. This Australian right isn’t limited to city folks. Even smaller towns far, far away from the ..read more

Note that this hot chocolate was enjoyed pre COVID…it has just taken me a little while to share it here. I thought we all needed a bit of armchair travel right now, so I’m posting from older experiences I never got around to sharing at the time. I can’t say that I knew much, or had even noticed much about Qatar before I was booked on Qatar Airlines. Like many places one has never visited or had any connection with before, you don’t notice it, but then the moment it enters your life in some way, all of a sudden it then starts to form part of your radar. And once it is on your radar you see it ..read more

Note to start: This story was written up based on my experiences from a trip I made here in a pre COVID world. I think we all need a bit of arm chair travelling at the moment so I thought I’d still share these to inspire current hot chocolates at home and future trips. Enjoy! My last hot chocolate in Brussels was just a short walk away from the downtown area on Place Du Grand Sablon. This large square is only about a 10 minute walk from Brussels Central station, in the opposite direction of the Grand Place. This brings you close to the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts and the Palais de Bruxelles ..read more

It’s a short, 1-hour train ride from Brussels to Bruges. The train picks you up in the centre of Brussels and drops you off just a few steps away from the primarily pedestrian centre of town. You need to come mentally and physically prepared when you visit Belgium because there is chocolate everywhere and a whole lot of it is in Bruges. Most of the big chocolate names have smaller outposts here but don’t bother with them as you have probably already had your fill, or will while in Brussels. There is a lot of good looking chocolate, but be warned that not all of it is good so it is worth being ..read more

Note to start: This story was written up based on my experiences from a trip I made here in a pre COVID world. I think we all need a bit of arm chair travelling at the moment so I thought I’d still share these to inspire current hot chocolates at home and future trips. Enjoy! I had several hot chocolates in Bruges and, to be honest, most of them were not very interesting, not interesting enough to write up about here. I was running out of will power, wondering if I had reached the limit of hot chocolates any one person can put in their body before they go crazy and fall apart but still, I dec ..read more

Goodmorning! I’m going to be making a few little changes around here. From now on I’ll be sending out a weekly newsletter with a summary of recent posts, some travel tips and all the hot chocolate news from around the world you never realised you needed! If you are already subscribed you don’t need to do anything. You will keep receiving emails from me. If you subscribed using a WordPress.com account then you will need to re-subscribe by clicking here. Thanks for following! Giselle Chief Chocolate Sipper The post Subscribe to my new Hot Chocolate newsletter appeared first on Ultimate Hot Choc ..read more

Last week I wrote up a post about how the Netherlands is focusing more on its role in making the cocoa supply chain more sustainable. Through a series of national commitments, they aim to ensure that the cocoa that enters the Netherlands, which is substantial, is paying farmers a living wage and is deforestation and child labour free.  I hope this translates into individual chocolate makers also providing more transparency into where they are sourcing their beans and the stories behind the ingredients they use. At the moment, I found many craft chocolate makers I visited in Amsterdam pro ..read more

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Amsterdam lately. Well, not physically, but in spirit. As you can see from the past few posts, I have been reminiscing about my time sipping hot chocolate in Amsterdam pre Covid. A few weeks ago, I returned to Amsterdam (virtually) to attend Chocoa 2021, an event that brings together a range of stakeholders from across the cocoa supply chain to discuss sustainability issues. I’ll write up more about the issues discussed but thought I’d start by sharing just a bit of information about Amsterdam and Dutch chocolate. Over the past few years there has been ..read more

Keukenhof is the largest flower park in the world with a total of 7 million flowers. There seems to be almost as many tourists visiting as well. Regular buses leave the train station at the airport and arrive at the entrance 30 minutes later. The park is 32 hectares of flowers including a wide range of multicoloured flower beds as well as whole fields of tulips, as far as the eye can see: a total of 7 million flowers. The park, as it looks today, has been operating since 1950 although it was originally a castle garden started in dating back to the 15th century. A lot of these flowers, bu ..read more