Dark chocolate hagelslag sprinkles on buttered bread
Hagelslag (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈɦaːɣəlˌslɑx]) are small, oblong, sweet-tasting chocolate granules, which are sprinkled on slices of buttered bread or rusks. The name refers to hail, hagel meaning hail and neerslag meaning precipitation.
Another variant is hagelslag vlokken ("Hagelslag flakes"), chocolate flakes to sprinkle on sandwiches. There are other flavors of Hagelslag, such as chocoladehagelslag (chocolate) and vruchtenhagel (fruit), and even milkchocoladehagelslag.[1]
According to historical records from the Amsterdam City Archives, Hagelslag was originally invented by B.E. Dieperink, the director of the liquorice sweet company VENCO, in 1919. VENCO obtained a patent for the name, which meant that other companies, such as De Ruijter, were not permitted to use the term to describe their own products. Consequently, De Ruijter opted to name their sprinkles based on their flavors, using the term hagel after the flavor (such as in vruchtenhagel).[1] De Ruijter introduced competition to VENCO with their assortment of flavors, including lemon, raspberry, orange, and aniseed. According to some sources, the tradition of Dutch sprinkles can be traced back to 1919, when a licorice factory in Amsterdam developed sprinkles with an aniseed flavor.[5]
