de Spa chocolates – Belgian style, New Zealand made

An interview with Aliman de Spa Dorothy – 09/12/02

Think of very fine chocolate and you think of Belgian chocolate and of de Spa chocolate – handmade from the finest ingredients like Belgian couverture and New Zealand butter and cream, offering seventy different types and always sold when really fresh for the greatest appeal to the taste buds.de Spa chocolates are in demand world wide.

A recent visit to the de Spa shop and factory in Ferry Road, Christchurch, and a commentary from Aliman de Spa gave me an appreciation of what is involved in creating these treats for chocolate connoisseurs. Aliman called it a factory, but to me it seemed more like the kitchen of a group of creative cordon bleu chocolate cooks where everything is made by hand.

The Belgian chocolatier, Jean-Maire Bara, had forty years experience in making chocolates in Belgium before coming to New Zealand to work for de Spa ten years ago. He is a highly trained patisserie chef and chocolatier and has made chocolates for the Belgian royal family.

Jean-Maire
Belgian Chocolatier, Jean-Maire Bara, surveys a new tray of chocolates


Aliman explained the ingredients. Couverture, the basic ingredient, is imported from Belgium from Barry Callebaut, a commercial couverture supplier. In the manufacture of couverture the cocoa beans are crushed and separated into cocoa mass and cocoa butter.

All the other ingredients are from New Zealand suppliers.

To make dark chocolate sugar or a flavour like vanilla is added to the cocoa. The range of sweetness is from a bitter chocolate which is 80% cocoa, to normal chocolate which is 50% cocoa. Dark chocolate is used for some chocolate fillings.

For milk chocolate milk powder is added. For white chocolate only cocoa butter is used with no cocoa mass. We saw the chocolate being mixed in two vats – dark chocolate and milk chocolate.

The temperature is very important in chocolate making. A solid chocolate casing is made in a variety of attractive shapes and left to chill in its shell before the centre is scooped out, filled and covered with more chocolate – all done by hand like all the de Spa chocolate making.

Tray of deSpa chocolates
A tray of fresh chocolates


Fresh is best! To ensure that the chocolates are purchased at their best they are sold when really fresh – never more than six weeks old – as they have no artificial ingredients. Corporate clients often have their orders timed so that the chocolate is only two or three days old when given to the lucky recipients. One client so emphasises the importance of freshness that the order is collected newly made on the day he flies out of New Zealand.

What is the difference between de Spa chocolate and cheaper brands? Cheaper chocolate contains some animal or vegetable fat, and less cocoa butter and more sugar than de Spa chocolate. The only fat in Belgian chocolate is the oil from the cocoa butter. The Chocolate Mark tells customers that the chocolate contains only cocoa butter.

Chocolate quality measured in microns The quality and smoothness of chocolate is measured by the size of the particles in microns and the lower the number the smaller the particles and the higher the quality. Look at the average ratings.

  • Belgian – 12-15 (de Spa chocolates rate at 12)
  • Swiss – 21
  • Cadburys – 27
  • English – 30
  • Hersheys – 40

A feast for the eye and a range for all occasions and all ages The boxes of chocolates are beautifully presented in attractive containers gaily wrapped and relevant for special seasons. When we visited the emphasis was on Christmas products.

deSpa Shop
The shop prepared for Christmas


Among the novelties produced by de Spa were special cherries preserved in alcohol for three to six months and coated in chocolate, little snowmen, small and very large models of Santa, Santa on a donkey or in a car, and hollow chocolate logs to be filled with confectionery.

Chocolate Santa
Large and small Santas
deSpa novelty chocolates
Chocolate novelties



The de Spa crest Inlaid in the shop floor you can see the crest of the de Spa family – the family from the town of Spa. The blacksmith’s skills are shown in the anvil and the hammer. The status of a knight is seen in the helmet. The boot scraper is a sign of the gentry as only the gentry could afford boots. The crown is the sign of a knighthood.

deSpa Crest
The de Spa crest


How do you purchase de Spa chocolates? If you are in Christchurch you can visit the shop at 1013 Ferry Road or the city shop in the Shades Arcade, Hereford Street. There are also shops in Wellington and Auckland. The business supplies more than thirty stores in New Zealand and Australia.

Wherever you are in the world you can order through the de Spa website. Recent orders have been sent to the UK, US, Austria, Melbourne, Canada, Russia, Roumania, Czechoslovakia and many other places.

de Spa chocolates can be a delicious solution to your problems when buying gifts for special celebrations and to express appreciation.