The Netherlands is probably one of the biggest fans of bread in Europe. A lot of tourists who get to swing by are enamoured with the assortment of their breads. Generally, their breakfast and lunch mainly consist of bread. That being said, you won't be surprised by the variety of bread and sandwich toppings you can find there. "Luxury" isn't the right term for it, you might want to lean toward "necessity".

Typically, breakfast consists of 2-4 slices of bread, and it depends on whether you'd like an open or closed-face sandwich. Margarine or butter is spread onto the bread in order for the toppings to stick. One sandwich will have a cover that is on the more savory side, and the other one will be on the sweeter side. Dutch children typically eat the savory sandwich first, followed by the sweet one which they usually crave.

And since they practically live and breathe sandwiches, they can be considered as masters of decorating bread toppings. Chocolate is included in their favorites list!

Dutch children always have it good. They sprinkle a generous amount of chocolate flakes or 'vlokken' on their sandwiches, which pretty much equals half a bar of chocolate. Chocolate vlokken can either be white, milk, dark chocolate, or the combination of all three.

Chocoladevlokken was released in the year 1955, which was the first ever product used in decorating a slice of bread. After around two years, chocolate hail was introduced.

It has been said that after having received some letters from a little boy asking him to yield a chocolate bread topping, Mr. De Ruijter came up with chocolate sprinkles or chocolate hail. The first ads from a company called Venz featured a girl and a boy, hiding themselves from a chocolate hailstorm. They had a slice of buttered bread with them, which they stuck out from the umbrella they were hiding under. Smart kids!

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Joanna Maligaya

Staff Writer/Content Developer at Chocolate University Online

Ever since she can remember, Joanna has always considered chocolate as the ultimate food for her soul. She believes in the saying, “9 out of 10 people love chocolate, and the 10th always lies.”

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