When people travel to a new destination, if they’re the sort of people who really try to experience the culture while on their visit, the evidence of their new found loves can be found snugly packed into their suitcases to be brought home. Prague is a city of sights like the Orloj and Castle, which can be captured in photos. It is a place full of the sounds thumping out of the world’s hottest DJ booths. Perhaps you took a walk on Charles Bridge and touched the worn-back-to-gold panel on the statue of Saint John Nepomuk for good luck. And, there’s a chance you can still smell the “chleb” baking fresh in the early mornings. But, as far as tasting goes, there’s only one sweet way to take that home.

One of the great Czech treasures is the Kolonáda wafer. As with all things in the Czech Republic, it has a very long history going back to 1856. The wafer’s name comes from the word colonnade, which is where freshly baked wafers began appearing in the 18^th century.  By 1856, Karel Reitenberger, who was a member of the family who founded Marian Spa, began baking what we now know simply as the Kolonáda from a bakery he set up in his house. At first, these were enjoyed by people enjoying their strolls near the Marian Spa. Soon, they were being sold in other towns and he was producing up to five hundred thousand wafers a year.

Now, you can walk into any market in Prague, big or small and find the original, plus a variety of new flavors of Kolonáda. The Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in New York said to the Czechs as they began their term as the country that holds the Presidency of the European Union, “You will be judged by your cookies!” (At the meetings held at the EU Building, the presiding country serves cookies from their homeland.)

You can guess that the Czechs sit back comfortably as the representatives of the 27 EU countries line up with their coffees to fall in love with the famous Kolonádas.