How it began
Jean Neuhaus, a Swiss immigrant, opened an apothecary shop in 1857 in the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert in central Brussels. With his son Frédéric he spent more and more effort on confectionery until sweets displaced the pharmaceutical products. In 1912, the year Frédéric died, Frédéric's son Jean Neuhaus II created the first filled chocolate bonbon, which he called a praline. According to the company's history it was an immediate success.
Before it existed
The Neuhaus shop began by coating medicines in chocolate to make them easier to take. Liquorice, guimauves (similar to marshmallows) and dark chocolate tablets then joined the display counter, so that chocolate was sold there mainly as solid tablets or as a coating. Before the ballotin, chocolates were handed to customers in paper cornet bags, in which the delicate filled pieces were easily crushed.
How it works
A Belgian praline is a chocolate shell enclosing a soft center. Belgians use the word for any chocolate shell filled with a soft fondant center, and the original Neuhaus version is described as a chocolate cream ganache inside a chocolate shell. The shell protects the filling and lets the maker vary the center, which is what distinguished the praline from a solid chocolate tablet.
How it spread
In 1915 Louise Agostini, the wife of Jean Neuhaus II, devised the ballotin, a gift box that protects the pralines and presents them attractively. The design was registered on August 16, 1915. Jean's son-in-law Adelson de Gavre later ran the business and created new pralines such as the Caprice and the Tentation, first shown at Expo 58 in Brussels in 1958. Shops opened across Belgium and abroad, and the first Neuhaus boutique in the United States opened in New York in 1999.
Where it stands today
The praline is the signature product of Belgian chocolate, and Brussels has been at the forefront of the chocolate business since its invention. Neuhaus reports more than 1,500 selling points in 50 countries, with all products still made at Vlezenbeek near Brussels, and it has held a Belgian royal warrant since 2000. The ballotin remains the standard cardboard box for packaging pralines in Belgium, and newer chocolatiers define themselves partly by departing from the traditional praline.
