Past Newsletters
Vol. 6 No. 6

Announcement: Member Of The Month—Did Somebody Say “Free Chocolate!?”

We’re proud to announce that beginning next month we will feature a new component to our monthly newsletters—you! But we need your help! If you want to be a part of it, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Do I have a camera (or can I borrow one from someone who does)?
2) Can I get someone to snap a picture of me and/or friends and family enjoying my Gourmet Chocolates of the Month?
3) Do I want to receive a FREE one-month extension to my membership?

If you answered yes to all three of these questions (and why wouldn’t you, especially after reading question #3) then you are well on your way to becoming our next Member of the Month!

Here’s how it works: simply submit a photograph of yourself (with or without company), snapped while enjoying your monthly features, along with a few lines of text detailing the scenario to mom@monthlyclubs.com (don’t forget to give us your name and address). We’ll review all submissions each month and select our favorites. If we select yours, you’ll get a FREE one-month extension to your club membership! No kidding!! Not only that, but you’ll have your gorgeous mug in our newsletter—and plastered all over our website! You know what that means don’t you? You’ll be an instant celebrity! So get those chocolates lined up, grab that camera and start snapping some photos—it just might earn you a free month of handmade, boutique style gourmet chocolate! Now honestly, what better reward is there for 2-minutes of work?

Difficult to Obtain—Even More Difficult to Keep On Hand!

LEONIDAS is probably the biggest gourmet chocolatier in Belgium, but their delicious wares are surprisingly hard to get hold of in the USA. Their traditional individual chocolates are crafted in creams, ganaches and pralines, and have been made by chocolate artisans in Belgium for nearly 100 years. With chocolate treats this good, you’ll see why the demand has been so high during the last century, and you will experience first hand the challenge of keeping them available in your own home as your 1 pound supply from the Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club dwindles faster than you can say LEONIDAS!

First Created in the US, LEONIDAS Is Met With Belgian Affection

What’s perhaps most surprising about the chocolates of LEONIDAS is that they were first created in the US! A bit of a conundrum since most people in the states have never even heard of them, much less experienced the sinful delight that melts forth from each chocolate. Today, the name LEONIDAS has come to represent the quintessential Belgian chocolate—not just to the Belgians, but also to chocolate gourmets and gourmands all over the world. But how did this gourmet powerhouse get started? Like most of our favorite chocolatiers, it was borne out of passion for chocolate making—though LEONIDAS is a bit unique in that love of chocolate was not the only thing that helped established its reputation; it was the founder’s love for a beautiful young Belgian woman that helped secure his place in that chocolate making treasure trove we know as Belgium…

Léonidas Kestekides left his home of Constantinople in the early 1900s, living for a time in Greece before traveling to Italy where he became a wine merchant. Times were trying in the region during those days, so Léonidas decided to go to New-York, where he began working as a confectioner. The year is 1910, the same year Léonidas travels to Brussels to attend a fair where he shows his confectionery wares. Now, as bad as we might all think it is today, travel was for more arduous in those days—but Léonidas’ willingness to do so was clearly a testament to his passion for delivering his chocolate confections to the world.

The young Léonidas Kestekides attended the 1910 World Fair in Brussels, where, on his first visit to Belgium, he was met with great success due to the quality of his products. In 1913 he returned to Belgium, with an enhanced variety of chocolate delicacies, and showcased them at the World Fair in Ghent as a member of the Greek delegation from the United States. His efforts were rewarded—to say the least—as he earned the bronze medal for his chocolate confectionary and the coveted gold medal for his patisserie.

As if winning great professional recognition wasn’t enough, this charmed soul had also fallen in love with a beautiful young girl from Brussels, whom he later married. Not surprisingly, Léonidas decided to settle permanently in Belgium. Hey—if you had that kind of luck during your travels, what would you do? Sadly, the two were divorced some years later, but by that time, Léonidas had fallen in love with Brussels, and decided to remain there, where he opened his first confectionery shop. His recipes were a hit and his success spread, from his newly founded tea-rooms in Brussels, Ghent and Blankenberge, and ultimately, throughout the rest of the world.

Passing the Torch, and Innovating the Enterprise

In 1935, Léonidas’ nephew Basile Kestekides took up the LEONIDAS torch, incorporating a new company logo showing an effigy of the king of Sparta, LEONIDAS, in honor of his uncle. In his ‘laboratoire’ on Marché Aux Grains in Brussels, Basile creates a whole range of new chocolates, including the well-known Manon of LEONIDAS. This master-confectioner was also an ingenious business and marketing man. In 1936, he implemented a revolutionarily novel concept by selling his freshly-made chocolates from the open window of his first shop on Boulevard Anspach. These days, the concept of an open shop window where goods are displayed in a shop window allowing passers by not only to see the merchandise, but to buy them as well, doesn’t seem terribly innovative. However, at the time, the practice was highly uncommon, and in a trend of enhanced speed and convenience that has since swept across the world, it offered customers the ease of making their purchases by simply stretching their arms across a counter through the open window. This shop lay-out, at first glance rather odd—particularly since it meant that Basile Kestekides’s only point of entry into his shop (and personal apartment) was through the window—appealed to the general public, and helped win the hop immediate success. This led to a series of other companies opening similarly styled shops across Belgium. This LEONIDAS innovation, which would become known as their “guillotine-window” has proven to be an enduring one (though we hate to think of the carnage of the guillotine in juxtaposition against such pleasantries as LEONIDAS chocolate!)

Expanding the Family Business Without Sacrificing Standards

As the founder of this fine chocolatier, Léonidas’ dream, thoughtfully perpetuated by his successors, was to make his Belgian chocolates available to everyone without lowering standards. A common challenge for any rapidly growing business, LEONIDAS met this test with uncommon zeal. The famous LEONIDAS Manon (one of their many confections) perfectly illustrates this will to democratize: the innovative idea was to replace the traditional fondant sugar coating with white chocolate and the walnut with a grilled hazelnut. Very soon the LEONIDAS Manon with white chocolate and a grilled hazelnut became the lynchpin of the entire LEONIDAS range.

An integral part of LEONIDAS’ success has been their innovation and willingness to keep the business a family-run endeavor. The third family member from the Kestekidis family to join the enterprise in Belgium was Alexandros Kestekidis. Upon his arrival in 1940, he and Basile worked together developing various new flavors using pralines and alternative chocolate blends. His 58-year long tenure with the company appears to have been the longest among the family members (Basile’s was about 35 years), as he continued to take an active role in the company development and flavor innovations until the end of his chairmanship in 1998.

In 1970, other members of the family entered the scene; Yanni Kesdekoglu headed the company until 1985. In 1985, his daughter, Maria Kesdekoglu took over, and was joined in 1992 by her cousin, Vassiliki Kestekidou, who became President of the Board of Directors in 2003.

LEONIDAS’ expansion has been seamless as the company remains vigilantly committed to continuing their guarantees of freshness and quality in the products it sells to its customers. In 1983 and 1993, they opened two new factories in order to satisfy the demand from its loyal and ever-increasing clientele. And in 2000, LEONIDAS bought the company that produces the Deva brand products in Slovakia—expanding even further into Eastern Europe and beyond. Today, LEONIDAS chocolates are on sale in 1,700 sales outlets, from Paris to Rome, from Sydney to Tokyo, from Brussels to New York.

LEONIDAS wins hands down!

In response to the question “What is your favourite chocolate?”, most Belgian consumers said : LEONIDAS, the undisputed n°1 Belgian chocolate. This was the outcome of the well-publicized “National B®ands competition 2004” organized by the LDV advertising agency, and its partners. The basis for the competition was very simple: a list of the leading brands in each sector, from cars to washing powders to chocolates was drawn up. A panel of consumers (25,252 as it happens) was then asked to express their likes and dislikes, choosing their preferred brand in each category. In the “Chocolates” category, there was only one winner: LEONIDAS chocolates, for 51.7% of consumers who consider that LEONIDAS is and will remain the most popular chocolate in Belgium. The National B®ands Competition is organized every year, over the Internet, attracting an ever younger section of consumers, who clearly love LEONIDAS chocolates, just as their elders do. For the first competition, held in 2003, LEONIDAS also won the “Chocolates” category in the National B®ands Competition hands down.

What Do We Have Here?

Your 1-pound box of assorted chocolates in the form of fresh butter creams, cream liquors, caramels, ganaches and pralines, freshly air-freighted from Brussels, includes selections from the following intriguing list of flavors, in a balanced mix of dark and milk chocolate varieties, with a few white chocolates as well. While we cannot ensure that each box shipped will contain all of these flavors, each shipment sent to our members is sure to provide a palate-pleasing assortment of some of the finest Belgian chocolate the world has ever known!

Fresh Butter Creams

• Lingot — This tasty variety comes in two flavorful variations: Coffee butter cream and praline or Vanilla butter cream and praline.
• Manon Café White — White chocolate ensconcing coffee butter cream, praline and whole roasted hazelnut.
• Mystère — A delightful blend of chocolate and pistachio butter cream.
• Manon — Coffee butter cream and praline—available in dark, milk and white chocolate.

Caramels

• Alexander le Grande — LEONIDAS’ finest caramel is concealed within either dark or milk chocolate.

Ganaches

• Europe — A run ganache unlike any other—available in dark and milk chocolate.
• Tosca — Brandy harmonized with sweet, sultry ganache, made with milk or dark chocolate
• Ganache — This tasty ganache comes in two styles: orange-flavored or pure ganache.
• Antoinette — Soft and sweet, this vanilla ganache is available in dark and milk chocolate.

Pralines

• Maron Dark — A dark chocolate coffee praline made with caramelized hazelnut pieces.
• Buche Praline — Pure praline in a thin chocolate shell. Milk and dark chocolate shells available.
• Casanova — A lightly crisped treat, made with puffed rice, this praline cream comes encased in either milk, dark or white chocolate.
• Louise White — A white chocolate gem! Made with caramel praline and caramelized hazelnut pieces.
• Louise — A milk or dark chocolate caramel praline.

Cream Liquors

• Cerise — Whole Morello cherry with a cream liquor in dark chocolate.