Xp Bonaire Feature Story
The holiday season is upon us once more, accompanied by family gatherings, company dinners, Christmas dinners and New Year’s celebrations with your friends and loved ones. It is also the season of comforting food, delicacies and seasonal specialties.
As we do every year, we like to shine a light on a small business that provides us with something special and this time, something delicious.
Willie’s Sweets & Bites
Willie’s Sweets & Bites, a small, startup business by Wilco Hoekman, offers various handmade chocolate confectionery truffles. This exquisite, delicate piece of heaven is a chocolate bonbon filled with fluffy, creamy ganache and nuts, fruits and various other fillings.
In a season where you commonly get together for a special meal, chocolate truffles are a must for a dessert or an after-dinner coffee with a little, sweet treat.
Willie’s Sweets & Bites offers various chocolate truffles as the finishing touch for your dinner or as a special gift for your loved ones.
Wilco
Owner Wilco came to the island 2 years ago. The North Holland born cook has worked in kitchens his whole life. Even though, as a little boy, he dreamed of becoming a baker because he loved baked bread rolls, his parents convinced him that becoming a cook might be the better choice since Wilco had a major issue getting up early in the morning. Wilco is still happy with his choice of becoming a cook.
Wilco worked in the best restaurants in the Netherlands and build businesses successfully. His greatest passion became patisserie, wherein he could create beautiful and mouthwatering treats.
Bonaire
A few years ago, Wilco decided that he wanted to start a new adventure while he was still young and healthy. Moving to a different country was high on his wish list and Bonaire offered a smooth transition to a foreign country while still being able to speak your mother tongue.
Wilco loves the island and decided Bonaire would be his new home. The transition was not as smooth as he would have hoped for. After only 5 months working at Bras Boer, an exclusive restaurant on the island, the corona crisis was upon us.
In and out of work because of the ever-fluctuating circumstances, Wilco came up with his new, small business to keep himself busy and Willie’s Sweets & Bites was born.
Little pieces of heaven
The chocolate truffles come in various flavors and fillings.
We have been lucky enough to taste test some of the typical Dutch sweet’s fillings.
It is so much fun to try and guess which sweets are in the different truffles. As a result, that also means you have to taste every one of them so you don’t miss out guessing a flavor.
The dark chocolate shell is crisp when you eat it chilled. The moment you break the outer layer, the creamy ganache filling starts melting on your tongue, freeing all the other sugary ingredients and creates a full-on flavor explosion.
For the holiday season, Wilco will create some festive flavors. Updates on the specifics are available on his socials.
The “SWEETBOX”, the most sold item, is a box filled with 15 chocolate truffles ($12) with various flavors depending on Wilco’s creations at that time or your custom order. (Price on custom orders can vary.)
Orders
Wilco also offers classic cakes and pies (+/- $25, custom orders can vary) and even savory little snack boxes.
A Sweetbox custom order will take about 3 days
Cakes and pies about 4 days.
Wilco welcomes you to discuss your custom order and will do his very best to make it happen.
Check out his Facebook page Willie’s Sweets & Bites, for the various flavors he has created so far or to get a little inspiration and updates on the latest.
INFO
Willie’s Sweets & Bites
WhatsApp messenger: +599795 1159
Facebook: Willie's Sweets & Bites
IG: willies.sweetsandbites
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