BELGIUM: Chocolate lipstick and edible massage cream set to spice up Valentine's Day

Record ID: 586660

  • Title: BELGIUM: Chocolate lipstick and edible massage cream set to spice up Valentine's Day
  • Date: 14th February 2010
  • Summary: 13-YEAR-OLD BELGIAN, AXEL, TRYING THE CHOCOLATE LIPSTICK LIPSTICK ON AXEL'S LIPS 30 AXEL KISSING HER FRIEND, 13-YEAR-OLD MANORE AXEL, MANORE, AND ESTHER, 13-YEAR-OLD GIRLS AND CHARLOTTE, 14, AT THE COUNTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) AXEL, 13-YEAR-OLD BELGIAN GIRL LICKING HER LIPS SAYING: "Its tastes very good! (Q: would you use it with your boyfriend?) I don't have a boyfrie
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVADWYNFMUUZ89JVBJ9FK95D7YTE
  • Story Text: Belgians claim that the Flemish city of Brugge is Europe's capital of chocolate.
    True or false, with 52 chocolatiers, Brugge can boast having more chocolate makers per square mile than anywhere else in Belgium and probably the world.
    So couples looking for something to give to their loved ones on Valentine's Day are well served in this city.
    This year, the annual chocolate fair on the city's main square happens to fall on the Valentine's weekend. To mark the day of love the Brugge Chocolate Guild covered two mannequins in chocolate at the fair's entrance. They called them Romeo and Juliette.
    The president of the Brugge Chocolate Guild, Dominique Persoone, has his own shop further down the road from the main square.
    Its called the Chocolate Line and is famous here and abroad for its array of 'foody' chocolates. Persoone was a cook before turning his hand to making chocolates and among his strangest creations are chocolates laced with fried onions, olive oil, wasabi or tomatoes and basil.
    The chocolates are not just a gimmick. Persoone says he cares about quality and his shop is one of only three chocolate boutiques in the Michelin Food Guide of top restaurant and food institutions. He says this is because of his unique combination of aromas and also because he only uses high quality Origin chocolate - high grade cocoa beans from Latin America and Asia.
    In the days leading up to Valentine's Day the Chocolate Line's workshop is busy with moulding the chocolate hearts that lovers regularly buy at this time of year.
    The fact that Brugge has a high turnover of tourists has helped Persoone gain international recognition. Tourists from neighbouring Netherlands or as far away as the United States come here to sample his quirky chocolate mix.
    One visitor, Dutch national Lilian, skipped out of her hotel behind her boyfriend's back to buy him a special gift.
    Persoone says chocolate is the obvious choice for lovers not just because of the myths but because science has finally proven it stimulates the production of happy pheromones.
    And for those who want to spice things up a bit, Persoone has come up with a line of chocolate lipstick and edible massage cream which could work wonders on your partner on Valentine's Day.
    He says he came up with the lipstick idea after a scientist friend of his told him most lipsticks contain tasteless cocoa butter. So he decided to give it a flavour.
    He offers it to customers in restaurants to enhance the taste of a famous Belgian desert known as 'Dame Blanche' or White Lady - vanilla ice cream on top of chocolate sauce.
    But you don't have to be all grown up to enjoy it.
    Thirteen-year olds Axel, Manore, Esther and Benedicte tried out the sensuous chocolate line and were clearly impressed.
    Axel said it tasted very good, but when asked if she would use it with her boyfriend, she said she didn't have a boyfriend.
    Persoone's edible chocolate massage cream was born when his wife became pregnant. She was using almond oil on her belly to stop getting stretch marks. He decided to add chocolate for its anti-oxydant properties, lavender to help relaxation and dried mint powder for a hint of freshness.
    Persoone also caters for top gourmet restaurants Oud Sluis and Hof van Cleve.
    The shop opened in 1992 and in 2005 Persoone worked with photographer Spencer Tunick, famous for photographing a mass of nude bodies across the globe.
    In one of Tunick's diptych Persoone covered the bodies, one lying in a small Brugge street the others in a concrete building, with streaks of dark and white chocolate.
    You all know what to do now for a happy Valentines.
    "For a happy home!" says Lilian.
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