What is the Famous Dutch Hagelslag?

When it comes to breakfast, the Netherlands offers a unique and interesting option, hagelslag, which captures the hearts of locals and visitors as well. It seems an interesting choice for breakfast for outsiders, especially compared to the varied Turkish breakfast with mostly salty options. Hagelslag embodies a delightful blend of simplicity and “lecker.”

Hagelslag is prepared by sprinkling chocolate chips on a layer of butter spread on a slice of bread. There are a variety of flavors like pure hagelslag (dark chocolate) or witte hagelslag (white chocolate). Hagelslag can also be found in Belgium and Indonesia, which were former Dutch colonies. But how and by whom the hagelslag was first discovered is also one of the things that is wondered.

The director of the licorice candy manufacturer VENCO, B.E. Dieperink, is credited with creating hagelslag in 1919, according to the Amsterdam City Archives. During a hailstorm on a dismal fall day, he had the notion of making brittle sprinkles with a white aniseed flavor and using them as a topping for bread. Hagelslag means hailstorm and it takes its name from the weather. Becoming extremely popular, hagelslag was delivered to supermarkets and bakers by VENCO.

The name hagelslag was patented by VENCO which meant that other companies like De Ruijter, making fruit-flavored hagelslag, were not allowed to use the name hagelslag. Thus, De Ruijter started to name their fruit-flavored products as vruchtenhagel and proved competition for VENCO, offering different fruit flavors like orange, raspberry, and lemon. In 1936, the company Venz, producing chocolate and confectionary, started making chocolate hagelslag. Because of the patent, Venz received the name chocoladehagel.

References

https://www.foodrepublic.com/1548189/difference-hagelslag-fairy-bread/

https://www.iamexpat.nl/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/brief-history-dutch-sprinkles-aka-hagelslag

https://www.thespruceeats.com/hagelslag-history-varieties-and-uses-1128744