Want to Snort Chocolate Like The Rolling Stones in Belgium?
A Belgian chocolatier, Dominique Persoone (aka “The Shock-o-latier”), has created a device for snorting chocolate, inspired by the role of the nose in tasting food. It’s called The Chocolate Shooter and the only place to get it is at The Chocolate Line (for about €45 Euros, $60 US Dollars).
Know what’s funny here? The Chocolate Shooter actually started off as a joke.
Persoone and his colleagues were catering a surprise party for The Rolling Stones, and he designed a dessert involving raspberry and chocolate. The twist here is that he decided to have the people snort it instead of having them eat the chocolate.
Ever since that night, it became a popular demand, so he started producing and distributing to the public. He sold more than 25,000 of them since then.
Besides, The design of the shooter was inspired by a device that his grandfather used to fire tobacco up his nose.
Why Snort Cocoa Powder?
Usually, people can detect only a few flavors when they taste something on their tongue. These flavors tend to include sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami (savory). In contrast, the human nose can detect more than 1 trillion different scents.
Snorting chocolate is “another way of tasting it,” Persoone said.
A Hit of Cocoa
After learning about this on the Internet, I knew I had to try but at the same time I didn’t know what to expect.
As I enter The Chocolate Line, I approached a male employee behind the counter and told him that I was here for the Shooter. He was so kind and quick to get the device. He wrote a nice introduction to the whole thing to me and explained the history behind the shooter.
The Shooter is basically a tiny catapult, with two small, spring-loaded spoons.
So, here’s how it works: you load cocoa powder into the miniature spoons and position it under your nostrils, hit the release, and snort hard. “You load it like a gun, putting very little cocoa powder on the machine … Then, you push, and pfffff! The powder blows in your nose,” Persoone told Live Science.
In a blink, the Shooter was loaded and it was right front of me. The employee positioned it right under my nose and he pressed release.
The shooter flung cocoa powder up into my nostrils. Whoah!
Such a zingy, tingly and fresh feeling in my head. I got a little lightheaded after the snort. From there, I could taste the chocolate going through my nostril and then down my throat.
It was like my brain could tasted the chocolate itself. It was very rich and I couldn’t believe it.
Definitely a mind-blowning experience for me!
I’d definitely recommend you to try it! More like a MUST-TRY experience!
Tasting Chocolates
I also had a chance to taste samples of their unique flavors in their chocolates. They blew me away. I tried: Citrus, Apero, Bacon, Apple, Skull, Poni William, Honey, Sake, Brasil, Asian Confetti, Keylime, and Lemongrass.
Can anyone here guess my favorite?
Drumroll…
Yes, the bacon one is my favorite. It had milk chocolate with almond praliné and crispy bacon with quinoa. I was warned that it had a strong salt flavor prior to tasting.
Spicy is one of my weakness in food. I love spicy food and that first bite of the bacon one was just perfectly spicy for my taste, especially in chocolate. I could still taste the crumbs of bacon inside. It was well-balance in spicy and sweet flavors. This was only the third I tasted out of 12 chocolates, and it was instantly on the top of my list.
Be sure to try bacon when you taste their chocolate when you’re in Brugge, Belgium.
Chocolate is Rock ‘n’ Roll, indeed!
If you’re in town, be sure to stop by this place to try the Shooter.
However, you can buy it at the shop for €45 Euros ($60 US Dollars), or you can order it online for the same price plus the costs of shipping and handling.
The Chocolate Line
- Address: Simon Stevinplein 19, 8000 Brugge Belgium
- Operating Hours: (Open 7 days a week)
- Sunday-Monday: 10:30am-6:30pm
- Tuesday-Saturday 9:30am-6:30pm
- Email Address: info@thechocolateline.be
- Website: http://www.thechocolateline.be/en/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thechocolateline
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/persoonedomi
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/dominiquepersoone
Dear Calvin
Thank you for your great article and telling about the shop.
I just want to point out the our e-mail address is info@thechocolateline.be There is a small typo in the message above.
Kind regards
Cindy