Cuberdons

Cuberdons are a very Belgian sweet. Not that I knew that when I lived in Belgium, for the first 22 years of my life. I always took them for granted, the sweetest of sweets, conical and dark red, with a firm outer layer revealing a gelatinous burst of flavour when you bit into it. What flavour exactly, I'm not sure. I wasn't brought up with a discerning palate.

So when I saw them in a shop in the Gallerie de la Reine, I was puzzled to see so many different flavours: apple, orange, cherry, raspberry, orange, blackberry, violet, and possibly others. I asked the shop assistant which was the original flavour. She said it was violet, so I bought a small bag, with five violet, and one each of cherry, blackcurrant and raspberry, for comparative purposes. Well, it's definitely not blackcurrant nor cherry. But I could not taste the raspberry one among the violets. And I did read on a website somewhere that raspberry is the original flavour. Who to believe? All I'll say is that violet is delicious, a really old-fashioned taste. I used to love violet boiled sweets too, though I didn't see them in the shop on this occasion.

The origins of the cuberdon appear to be shrouded in mystery. One thing I found, though, is that one of the makers is a man by the name of Geldhof. And I remember hearing a long time ago that Bob Geldhof's family was from Belgium. So there you go. A distant relative maybe?

If you're in Belgium, do try them out. But beware, they don't keep for very long. You'll just have to eat them!

For more Belgian specialties, I found this food blog.
If you want to buy Belgian goodies, this site delivers around the world I think. And they do sell cuberdons, but I've never tasted that brand, so I don't know how good they are. When I was a kid, you just bought them by the weight or piece in the sweet shop near my school.