Advent Calendars – a fun way to count days until Christmas

I have first heard about the Advent Calendar concept last year –we don’t have this tradition back home, we only fast before Christmas. 

But I thought it’s a fun way to prepare for Christmas. Especially because the first calendar that I’ve seen was a beautiful chocolate box from Neuhaus, so it was an easy win for the idea.

Just a short history for those of you who are not familiar with the tradition. The Advent Calendar originated in the 19th Century from the protestant area of Germany. Protestant Christian families made a chalk line for every day in December until Christmas Eve. Before long, commercial entrepreneurs started replacing the ephemeral chalk lines with printed calendars. The first known Advent Calendar is for the advent of 1851. 

Nowadays it is usually a thin rectangular card with 24 or 25 doors. The doors are numbered 1-24/25.

So this year I’ve started searching for creative ways I could celebrate this period and here are my finds. Naturally, I begin with a Neuhaus Advent Calendar, as they opened my eyes to this tradition – it’s a beautiful box that sells for around 26 euros. You can also find similar ones at Oberweis, but the packaging is not as lovely and inspiring.

For children, but not only (considering that last year I bought Lego for Christmas for me), Lego has created special boxes. I saw them at Auchan, but I’m sure they are available in all the shopping centers as well as online.

The DYI amateurs can create their own. I specially loved this idea – a calendar that includes activities, not presents, because after all Christmas is about being with the loved ones right?

How do you celebrate Advent?

Sources: Pinterest

Treats – Neuhaus Haute Pâtisserie

I love Neuhaus, everything they do is amazing and they have all these creative ideas when it comes to packaging, marketing and the chocolate world in general. But the Haute Pâtisserie really rocked my world, especially because it passed a month from the moment I heard about it until I finally opened the box. I have talked so much about it that my colleagues have sent me shopping list…

The first thing I remember after opening the box is the smell of quality cacao that I would welcome to my house daily. The box is so beautiful and perfect, that it will decorate my desk for a long time.

Then the chocolate is heavenly – 9 creations signed by the world’s top pastry chefs, each chocolate being a voyage to a different universe.

Let’s start with my favorite, the praline created by Dominique Ansel, a French pastry chef that lives in New York. 

He’s very famous in the States as he invented the cronut, a mix between croissant and donut that drove the world crazy. His ganache with roasted peanuts on a layer of caramel 'à l'ancienne,' enrobed with a creamy milk chocolate that was inspired by childhood memories is top on my list. The peanut butter ganache reveals its flavor and goes perfectly with the soft toffee covered in milk.

Number two on my list is Martin Chiffers’s creation, a chocolate ganache with rose on a layer of intense praliné à l'ancienne made with hazelnuts and fresh raspberries. 

It felt like being surrounded by roses, but the taste was so subtle and elegant, with sweet raspberries and floral notes, with a hint of orange and a delicate crunch of shortbread.

And finally, number three in my top is Koji Tsuchiya from Tokyo, with a very exotic flavor -  dark origin chocolate ganache made with 70% cocoa from Ecuador on a layer of fruit coulis made with Japanese yuzu, an Asian citrus fruit. 

The chef is very well known in Japan and has an impressive career in the industry. For three decades Chef Tsuchiya travelled around the globe, serving internships with many renowned Pastry Chefs and successfully entering prestigious competitions, including the reputable "Charles Proust" in Paris and the "Mandarine Napoleon" in Tokyo. Since 1999, and alongside his 5 luxury boutiques, he has also been running "Théobroma," his very own Chocolate Museum in the heart of Tokyo.

Did you try? Which ones did you prefer?

If you can’t make up your mind, I let you droll over the rest of the creations.

Bernd Siefert, Michelstadt, Germany

Christophe Adam, Paris, France

Joost Arijs, Ghent, Belgium

Oriol Balaguer, Barcelona&Madrid, Spain

Raphael Giot, Namur, Belgium

Louie Ye, Shanghai, China