Rondleiding op het ziekenhuisschip waar Elin woont

What are “hagelslag” in the Netherlands?

Hagelslag is chocolate sprinkles. Dutch people eat them on bread, with butter, for breakfast. Not as a dessert, not as a treat, but as the actual breakfast food, often well into adulthood. The leading brand is De Ruijter, founded 1860, which makes hagelslag in milk, dark, and white chocolate as well as fruit and aniseed flavors. It’s so culturally embedded that the Dutch government regulates the cocoa percentage: only above 32% can be called chocoladehagelslag. Anything less is just hagelslag.

In this NPO Zapp clip, eleven-year-old Elin gives a tour of the Dutch hospital ship she lives on. At the onboard shop she points and says proudly: “Dat is Nederlandse hagelslag.” Of course there’s hagelslag.