Candy and chocolate shops

We asked you to tell us about any terrific candy or chocolate treats you have discovered overseas (outside of North America and the Caribbean). Whether a brand-name product or something from a confectionery, we wanted to know specifically where you found it, how much it cost and when you were there. Responses appear below.

If you have something to add, write to Sweet Confections, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818, or e-mail editor@intltravelnews.com (please include the address at which you receive ITN).

The “best of the best” chocolate factory is in Tasmania and the best candy shop is in Budapest! From all of our travels, these are my choices.

• In December ’04 my husband, Dave, and I took a week-long driving tour in Tasmania where, along with friendly people and beautiful scenery, we found the Anvers Confectionery, Pty., Ltd. (9025 Bass Highway, Latrobe, TASMANIA 7307, Australia; www.anvers-chocolate.com.au). A Belgian, Igor Ivan Gerwin, founded the factory many years ago.

We stopped for a “chocolate” break here on our way from Launceston to Devonport on Highway H11. Tasmania is very cleverly divided (by color code) into touring routes. Anvers chocolate factory is located on the “red” Tamer Valley Trail.

There is a shop, a small dining area and the factory itself — all in a wonderful park setting. We sat outside at an umbrella-covered table. Dave had a mug of hot chocolate made with white chocolate — very different and very delicious! I had to beg for a sip. I had a delicious chocolate cake confection.

When it was time to leave, I bought small boxes of mocha walnut and hazelnut fudge — truly the best I’ve ever had. The prices were very reasonable, and it was fun to tour the factory.

• We visited Budapest in April ’05. I made inquires about a marzipan store that I had heard about and was advised to visit the Szamos Marzipan Outlet (V Parizsi utca, 3 Budapest, HUNGARY; phone 317 3643), located on the Pest side of the Danube. The store is very well known; I asked in a tourist store for directions and was easily directed.

Szamos is an elegant and beautiful European candy store. It also serves the very best ice cream in Budapest. There are long lines of customers in the spring and summer when they serve their delicious ice cream.

The store’s vast array of goodies is mind-boggling. There were cakes and many assorted candies and confections — it was difficult to keep my mind on marzipan. The marzipan is formed into all kinds of shapes: fruit, veggies, people, etc.; I chose different kinds of fruit. As I chose each, they were placed carefully into elegant gift boxes for my friends. What fun!

Our saleslady was a very courteous and helpful young woman. We had a charming conversation while she helped me focus on my selections.

Arlene Swinford

Sequim, WA

Okay, I travel to Sydney, AUSTRALIA, quite frequently for business and I NEVER miss making a stop at the shop Bon Bon Fine Chocolates at the QVB (train stop “Town Hall”) to get passion fruit white chocolate bonbons.

They are exquisite! They are my “Welcome to Australia” gifts for friends when they visit and, if I have the willpower, my “Thank you” gifts when needed when I return home. I don’t remember the price, but it doesn’t matter. They are just so good!

The shop’s other confections look amazing, but I can’t pry myself away from the passion fruit and white chocolate. Yum!

The shop is on the first floor of the QVB, or Queen Victoria Building, right near the entrance; visit www.qvb.com.au for hours of business.

Julee Roth

Snowmass Village, CO

My family and I traveled to GERMANY on a Christmas markets cruise in December ’04. On this trip we discovered Ritter Sport chocolates. We purchased several full-size candy bars (16 squares each) and tried them when we got home. All were fantastic, especially Knusperkeks (chocolate-covered biscuits) and Vollnuss (white chocolate hazelnut).

In December ’05 my family and I took another Christmas markets tour, this time visiting Germany and Austria. We started our trip in Nuremberg, where we found a Woolworths store located near the Christmas market in the Hauptplatz (Main Square). We purchased about 10 full-size Ritter Sport bars for €0.75 (near 91¢) each.

We mentioned our love of Ritter Sport bars to our program director, Anita, who suggested a store called Müller in Regensburg, Germany, which was our next stop. Located in Regensburg’s main shopping area, which starts at Neupfarrplatz, Müller has three levels and is similar to Woolworths. The top level had the best Christmas candy display I’ve ever seen.

We purchased two boxes of Christmas Ritter Sports (about €2.30 each). Each piece of chocolate was one square, and they came in such flavors as Lebkuchen (gingerbread), Vanillekipferl and tiramisu. We could not find any of these flavors in full-size Ritter Sport bars; however, the full-size bars were available in special Christmas flavors, such as Vanille Likör, Irish coffee and feinherb á la mousse au chocolate (€0.69 each).

Diane Harrison

Creve Coeur, MO

We went to Fassbender & Rausch Chocolate Shop (Charlottenstrasse 60, D-10117 Berlin, GERMANY; phone +49 0 30 20 45 84 40, fax +49 0 30 20 45 84 41 or e-mail gendarmen markt@fassbender-rausch.de or visit www.rausch-schokolade.com), near Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt, in December ’05.

They have wonderful candy and cookies, priced from €1 and up. The candy is deliciously displayed.

The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 to 6 Saturday and noon to 6 Sunday.

Barbara Woltz

Greensboro, NC

On a trip to Brussels, BELGIUM, in April ’03, we assigned ourselves the task of finding the “best” chocolates in town. What a delightful chore! We sampled chocolates at all of the major chocolatiers. The ones we liked best were from Pierre Marcolini. There are several locations of this confectioner, but the shop we visited was at Place Sablon (1 rue des Minimes, Place Sablon, 1000 Brussels; phone +32 [0] 2 514 12 06).

We like very dark chocolates, and these were intensely chocolate. Some had interesting flavorings to the truffle center, like violet (my favorite) and jasmine.

The prices were about $40 a pound at the time. I have no doubt prices have gone up because of the weakness of the dollar.

Kathie G. Larsen

Seattle, WA

During a birding trip to JAPAN in January ’99, we came to rely on the small convenience stores that are found all over the country. We rushed into them to find snacks and lunches to carry with us during our van rides from one bird-watching spot to another. We never knew what the small packages would contain, but we opened them gleefully and shared the contents with members of our group.

Lots of them were salty snacks that would be good with beer, but I found the prize: Kasugai Sumiyaki Coffee Candy, manufactured by Kasugai Seika Co., Ltd., in Nagoya, Japan. It is the best I’ve ever tasted.

Each package contains 18 individually wrapped coffee candies that are the equivalent of sweetened and hardened espresso. The flavor is strong, and two candies (52 calories) are more satisfying than larger quantities of other candy or dessert, so I feel like I’m dieting by having these candies rather than ice cream or a candy bar!

I bought all I could and had some sent to the States by my daughter, who was then living in Japan. On a hunch, I looked in a candy store in Chicago’s Chinatown and discovered, for just under $2, the very same package! The candy is also carried in Japanese groceries that I have visited. Try it!

Lynne Carpenter

Winnetka, IL

Cadbury’s Choclairs are a favorite of mine, but they are not available in the U.S. per Cadbury USA. Each consists of a creamy chocolate center wrapped in a hard caramel/soft toffee.

I first found them in the Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA, airport in 1999, as a “lollipop” on a stick, for less than the equivalent of 25¢ each. I used up all of my surplus rands on them on my way back.

Everywhere I traveled after that, I checked stores and confectioneries for them (Australia, Canada and much of the Vienna-to-Budapest Danube area). Finally I found them again, this time as wrapped sweets, in a travelers’ rest stop/gas station in SLOVAKIA on the Czech Republic border. A box of about 36 cost $7-$8. Tasty and habit forming!

• Nothing, however, beats the dark chocolate with hazelnut “bark” in any candy shop in Brussels, BELGIUM (unless it’s See’s Victorian toffee made in California).

Carol Baker

El Paso, TX

My all-time global favorite for chocolates has to be Prestat (14 Princes Arcade, Piccadilly, London, SW1, UNITED KINGDOM; www.prestat.co.uk) in London. They make the best handmade chocolates, especially truffles, that I’ve ever eaten, as well as other superb candies such as fruit fondants (French creams).

Prestat has been in business since 1902 and has a royal appointment to Her Majesty the Queen. Unfortunately, they do not ship abroad, for quality control reasons. However, anyone visiting London should definitely drop into their shop. It is just a few steps down the block from Fortnum & Mason, and the tube stop is Piccadilly Circus or Green Park.

For long-distance drooling, look at their website.

Susan Jerrick

Portland, OR

Our absolute favorite chocolate in the world is sold at Puccini Bomboni (www.puccinibomboni.com) in Amsterdam, the NETHERLANDS. There are two stores in Amsterdam (one at Staalstraat 17 and the other at Singel 184, near Anne Frank’s home) and one in Haarlem.

If you want to bring some bonbons back to the States, go there the day before or the day of your departure, as their fresh chocolate (the filled bonbons) lasts about a week to 10 days. The flavors run the gamut from pepper to caramel and from tea to grapefruit. They also have a wide array of chocolate gifts and delectables that are not filled (and thus have a much longer shelf life).

The staff speaks English and is helpful. They packaged our bonbons beautifully and gave us suggestions for where and how to store same on our return trip home.

If we had only an hour in Amsterdam and could stop in only one place, Puccini would be it. By the way, the chocolate in Paris, Brussels and Switzerland takes a backseat to the delectables sold at this shop.

Debbie Brezinsky

Lombard, IL

When we were in Florence, ITALY, in the fall of 1999, we found a wonderful chocolate shop very near the cathedral. We bought “salami” — lucious chocolate with hazelnuts that was shaped like a salami and wrapped with string as a real salami would be.

When we went back to Florence in 2003 we tried hard to find that shop, walking in planned rings around the cathedral. We never found it. Does anyone know if it still exists or if it went out of business?

Marsha Caplan

Boulder, CO

In March ’05 I was in Madrid, SPAIN, for a week with my daughter and, of course, we had to go to a chocolateria for churros y chocolate. The best can be found at Chocolateria Valor (at Calle Postigo de San Martin #7). To get there, take the metro to the stop at “Callao.” The shop is the third in on the right.

The menu of chocolate drinks and desserts is large, and prices vary. There is also a kiosk in the back where you can buy various kinds of chocolate (by weight) to bring home. Delicioso!

A bonus — the shop is close to the Puerto del Sol, which is the center of Madrid and near many sights and great shopping.

Gail Riba

Clearwater, FL

I was in Manisa, TURKEY, in August ’05, and many of the people I came to know there recommended a local candy made of sugar and spices. The spice in this toffee-like candy reminded me of clove. The candy is called Manisa mesir macunu.

It was delicious, and it’s supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities. (I can’t swear to the latter.)

Produced only in Manisa, this candy is sold in shops throughout Turkey. A box of five sticks cost about $3.

Stephen Jeffries

Centennial, CO

We discovered a “chocolate factory in the vineyard” in Provence, FRANCE, in mid-October ’05. What goes better with red wine than chocolate!? Chocolaterie Artisanale Bernard Castelain (Route d’Avignon, 84230

Chateauneuf-du-Pape; phone 04 90 83 58 90 or e-mail magasin@ castelain.fr), on Route d’Avignon, is a large factory shop with free admission and chocolate tasting.

Many types of chocolate and sweets are available. My favorite was Amandes Chocolat Noir, almonds densely covered in dark chocolate, at €5.80 for 6.3 ounces. Many liqueur-filled chocolates were also available.

Hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. (3 in summer) to 7 p.m., Monday to Saturday. It’s closed the first week of January and the week of August 15th.

It’s a great place to get gifts for family, friends and yourself! Très, très bon!

Sherry Sturges

Williamstown, NJ

Our favorite sweets place is any Migros store in SWITZERLAND. They always have a huge rack of store-brand candy bars, of which our favorite is Tourist. (We like to think the name refers to hiking and adventuring rather than riding on a tour bus.)

Tourist bars come in dark, milk and white chocolate and are stuffed with whole almonds, hazelnuts and raisins. They are delectable. The milk chocolate bar also comes in a very oversized version. Every time we go to Switzerland, friends and family beg us to bring a few home.

(My husband is in the background hollering not to tell you this, as there won’t be any left for us.)

Elizabeth Johnson

Lees Summit, MO