Hagelslag

Hagelslag 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.

Hagelslag is traditionally eaten by the Dutch for breakfast or lunch. Hagelslag can be difficult to find in other countries, with the exception of Suriname, Belgium, the former Netherlands Antilles and Indonesia (all of which were former Dutch colonies), where one can buy Hagelslag in stores. In those regions, customers generally use Hagelslag to decorate desserts and cakes. Hagelslag is also available in the ethnically Dutch communities of New Zealand, such as Foxton in the Manawatū, where it is widely available.

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.

History
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). 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.