People who are sending mail from Belgium will soon have a special treat to add to their package—chocolate-flavoured stamps.
The country’s postal service, BPost, is issuing half a million stamps that smell and taste like chocolate. The glue on the stamp will taste like chocolate. The varnish (shiny coating) on the picture will smell like cocoa.
Belgium is a country (more specifically, a “federal state”) in western Europe. It’s known for many things, including being host to the headquarters of the European Union.
It’s also known for producing some of the most delicious chocolate in the world.
There will be five chocolate stamp designs that celebrate chocolate in a number of forms including chocolate spread and sprinkles.
BPost says it’s the first time a scented and flavoured stamp has been created. They said that it wasn’t easy to duplicate the scent and taste of fine Belgium chocolate in this format.
Essential oils that taste like cocoa were mixed with the adhesive on the stamps, and a chocolate aroma was added to the ink.
The chocolate stamps will be released on March 25.
The Telegraph reports that BPost is also planning to issue glow-in-the-dark stamps with the theme of road safety and stamps printed with heat-sensitive ink that will change when touched by warm human fingers.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
BPost in Belgium decided to create a stamp that tastes like chocolate in order to celebrate their country.
Think of your country and/or city. What taste and smell could you put on a stamp to represent where you live?
Reading Prompt: Extending Understanding
The article says the stamps will celebrate some of the many forms chocolate can take including sprinkles and spreads. What are some others ways that people eat chocolate? What is your favourite chocolately treat?
Primary
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Junior
Extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Grammar Feature: Verbs
Verbs are action words. Read through the article and circle all of the verbs. Make a note of the ending for each verb. What do you notice?
