City Life - Brussels

No longer the transient ghosts of old, Brussels’ army of young Eurocrats are increasingly putting down roots in the Belgian capital, transforming it into a vibrant, creative city rich with the cultural flavours of their home countries.

- John Malathronas

The first one — robust and flavourful — was born in Congo’s Virunga National Park; the second — smoky and fruity like a Zante currant — is sourced from the Dominican Republic. The beans for the third — astringent yet aromatic — were harvested in the Peruvian jungle.

I’m in Brussels eating chocolate, but the tourist cliches end there. I’ve not been tempted by the patisserie porn lining confectioners’ windows in the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, and I’m not gorging on waffles in the Grande Place. Instead, I’m in the leafy-but-sleepy Brussels suburb of Uccle, a place rarely frequented by tourists — in the same way that few London visitors venture to, say, Ealing.

I’m at Mike & Becky, a bean-to-bar cafe whose owner, Bjorn from Düsseldorf, is effectively taking coals to Newcastle by churning his own chocolate in Brussels. I’m sampling an assortment of the dark variety, but when presented with a fourth type, my taste buds struggle to detect any subtle notes — other than, well, chocolate. It’s like I’ve hit a chocolate wall. Bjorn isn’t surprised. “You can distinguish, at most, three, because chocolate tastes so overwhelming,” he explains.

Originally lured from Germany to Brussels for a temporary role in the European Parliament, at the press department of the Green Party, Bjorn stayed on after the job ended. “I wanted to be my own boss, and after noticing that there were only two places in the whole town you could have hot chocolate — at Laurent Gerbaud, on Rue Ravenstein, and Frederic Blondeel, on Quai aux Briques — I decided to open this chocolate cafe,” he says.