International chocolates

Those of you who have met me, know that I’m an ardent ambassador for Belgian chocolates. Whenever I go abroad, visiting friends, I never travel without a few boxes of these delicacies in my suitcase. I even once sent a small box of chocolates to a blogger friend who lives in Pennsylvania (Remember Mark, from 'Our Simple Lives' - he stopped blogging little over a year ago - mind you, not because of the chocolates, I hope). So far, nobody has ever refused a box of Belgian chocolates … or maybe people are just being polite!

Usually I wouldn’t promote ‘foreign’ chocolates, but today I’m making an exception. Not because these chocolates are superior to our Belgian produce, but because I find the box and texts on it most intriguing.

Yesterday, I had some time to spare while doing my usual shopping. I idly wandered around our local supermarket, occasionally stopping to take a closer look at some unfamiliar items. With the upcoming holidays, luxury products are beginning to appear on the shelves. A ‘tête de rayon’ usually occupied by items ‘en promotion’ (on sale), had been taken over by an totally eclectic range of products, ranging from boar pâté, over butter biscuits from Brittany, Italian stuffed peppers, Spanish olive oil, etc … to these Grand Marnier stuffed chocolates. They seemed like a nice after-Sunday-lunch treat for my mother, so I dropped a box in my shopping trolley. I didn't pay any attention to the name or origin of the box. Back home, I opened it and tried one of the 15 chocolates it contained. Still, I didn’t pay any attention to the text on the box.

Later that afternoon, I was busy in my kitchen when I noticed the product’s brand ‘Laroshell’. Then I saw that the chocolates were described as ‘Pralinen mit Grand Marnier’, the translation of which came in two languages: ‘Chocolates with filling Grand Marnier’ and ‘Chocolats fourrés Grand Marnier’. Not exactly correct, but comprehensible to English and French consumers.

The least that can be said about these goodies is that the manufacturer is ready for the European market! The brand name ‘Laroshell’, is obviously referring to the town of La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast. The ‘Pralinen mit …’ is German and the French and English translation speak for themselves.

And judging from the text on the back of the box, this manufacturer is determined to conquer the rest of the world with his chocolates, which best ingredient is of course the famous French Grand Marnier liqueur. It shows the list of ingredients in no less than 18 languages, including Chinese and Japanese.

Oh, I almost forgot … the ‘Laroshell’ chocolates (Made in Germany) are pretty good. And ‘châpeau’ to the marketing chap who came up with the brand name!