Dina Ezzat goes in search of the well-to-do Cairene's sweetmeat of choice As a little child, Samah was always fond of chocolates. It did not matter if she was celebrating her birthday, recovering from a minor operation or rejoicing over her graduation from high school. "I could never get enough chocolates," she confesses, as her hands quickly arrange an expensive silver tray full of luxury sweetmeats. One good reason Samah could never get enough chocolates was that she really did not get that much. "It was always expensive. It was not something I could have every day, like children from well-off families. For my father, buying us (seven girls) chocolates was quite an expense," she recalls. It is this passion for chocolates that has now encouraged the Cairo University Law Faculty graduate to accept a job as a sales assistant in one of Cairo's most expensive chocolate stores. "I get a good salary, but also I get to enjoy these delicious Belgian- made chocolates for very little, or at times for free, when we have extra stock that is about to expire, or during the holiday season," says Samah. Indeed, since she took her job over six years ago, she has seen holidays in Egypt become ever more closely associated with chocolates and all types of sweets. "We have more and more customers who come to buy our luxury pralines and nougats. They know what they are coming to get, and they are perfectly willing to pay our prices." When those prices mean close to LE400 for a kilo of real quality praline chocolates, and over LE200 for a kilo of assorted nougats and caramels, the average Egyptian consumer may be shocked. After all, he or she is more familiar with LE2 to LE10 chocolate bars. But not so the clients of the Belgian chocolate store. "If you calculate the price in terms of euros, then you would realise that it is a bit expensive compared to what you would pay for it in Paris or Brussels, but not much more expensive," says Amgad Mourad, an engineer. "And at the end of the day, we are buying real quality chocolates to celebrate the New Year." Most religious holidays have their non-religious side, that is usually associated with food -- and often enough, with sweets. However, as many managers of patisseries and chocolates stores in Cairo and Alexandria will tell you, chocolates never used to be the first item on the shopping list of most holidays consumers. But during the past five years or so, the trend has been changing. Chocolates -- and more precisely, expensive chocolates -- are now in vogue for all holidays, to the extent that one manager of a chic Cairo patisserie store was offering his clients konafa rolled around home-made chocolates during last Ramadan. Priced at LE150, the konafa chocolates rolls sold well, along with other rolls made of konafa and marrons glacés. So, while the overwhelming bulk of this patisserie's production is still regular konafa with cream and nuts, they also sold many kilos of these new and relatively expensive items. This same store is now considering offering their clients white chocolate arousset mouled and chocolate mouled horses (primitively shaped dolls and horses made of hydrated sugar that are an integral part of the festivities surrounding the birth of Prophet Mohamed). The market expectations for these new products are good. Many pastry shops have seen a systematic increase in their profits from selling chocolate bells and santas for Christmas, chocolate eggs for Easter and chocolate-shaped hearts for Valentine's Day. Now, they are even getting requests for Halloween candies. "This is true. Egyptians -- or some Egyptians, I should say -- are reconnecting with their interest in expensive sweets, especially chocolates, for holidays," comments 65-year-old Mustafa, a sales assistant in one of Alexandria's oldest tea rooms/patisseries. According to Mustafa, over the past five or so years his and other Alexandrian patisseries have re- instated the 1940s and 1950s tradition of getting ready for holiday seasons by creating special chocolate arrangements. And as Said Saad, an assistant manager in a elegant Zamalek chocolate store notes, "Now we are busy all through the year preparing for these different occasions. In January, just as we are done with the Christmas and New Year wrappings and arrangements, we start importing special baskets and decorations for Valentine's; then we work on preparing for Easter; then it is summer, which is a big wedding season; then we have to prepare very hard for Ramadan; and then it is Christmas time again!" The highest sales of chocolate are usually recorded around Valentine's Day and the New Year. Some store assistants also single out Mother's Day as a good selling season. Chocolate sellers are also pleased by the new fashion among Egyptians for giving chocolate arrangements for birthdays. "For decades, the Egyptian consumer bought chocolates either for the ill or the newly married. This has been changing," notes Samah. Looking back on 2004, however, many chocolate stores say that their highest profits came in July -- with the cabinet reshuffle. "We were really busy. We had so many demands from people sending chocolates to the incoming members of the cabinet. We actually had to work four hours extra every day for three weeks!" remarks Rolla Mounir, a chocolate store manager. Most chocolate stores have seen their market expand over the past few years. Both those who directly import their chocolates, mostly from Lebanon or Europe, and those who import the ingredients, mostly from Europe, to manufacture their chocolates here in Egypt, say their businesses have grown considerably. Some are enlarging their stores while others are even opening new branches across Cairo. In fact, there are at least three expensive chocolate stores that have opened their doors in Cairo -- with branches in Mohandessin and Heliopolis -- over the past three years, and a couple more new stores are planning to open within the coming year or two. "I think Cairo is becoming a real chocolate place. This used to be the case before the 1952 Revolution, and now it is so again," says Saad Mabsout, a Lebanese chocolate storeowner in Cairo. Mabsout's average kilo of chocolate with hazelnuts -- the most popular brand for Egyptian chocolate lovers -- costs close to LE250. Like other owners of expensive chocolate stores, Mabsout could spend half an hour or more explaining to you how much money he has to spend on fashioning the fine product that he sells to clients "that are looking for quality chocolates, and not just any sort of sweets". Importing the finest natural ingredients from Switzerland, Belgium and France, imposing strict quality control on the freshness and preserving process used for the dried fruits and nuts, insisting on the finest, and at times hand-made, chocolate couvertures, are among the details offered to explain why 500 grammes of "luxury chocolates for the connoisseur" can cost over LE500. Other rationales offered include the high salaries of the "real chocolate designers and chocolate chefs", whose numbers are in decline. "There were a few good ones that were trained by the Greeks and Italians in pre-revolution Egypt. But they are dying out, and only a few have passed their skills on to dedicated apprentices," Mabsout explains. "For every product there is a client," rationalises Alaa Farouk, a sales assistant at one of the more expensive Cairo patisseries. "Our client is interested in this type of luxury item. There are other stores that sell chocolates which are less expensive -- sometimes much less expensive." This is very true. Some Cairo patisseries sell chocolates for LE40 a kilo. These stores, however, have been seeing a decrease in their profits over the past few years. "We do not see a big demand for chocolates," says Nabih Antowane, who works in one such establishment. "Since demand is decreasing, we have reduced our range of chocolate products. People are more interested in ice cream now. So we introduced an ice-cream line over a decade ago, and this is now our best selling item." So if you are looking for chocolate to see you through the festive season, you had better think rich.
