It’s just like any other addiction. You start slowly, gradually acquire a taste for the stuff and then ramp things up into a full-blown habit. But you can’t help yourself—you love the subtle buzz, the lingering aftertaste, the euphoric feeling that seems to follow every delicious encounter, to the point where you can no longer live without your daily dose. That’s when you know you’re a full-blown chocoholic.

But who offers the best chocolate high? That depends on what sort of chocolate you crave and how far you’re willing to travel for your buzz.

With more than a dozen factories and some 2,000 chocolate shops, Belgium is the undisputed kingpin of the chocolate world. From nut-filled nougats and pralines to truffles and white chocolate seashells, the little European nation produces more than 170,000 tons of chocolate each year—an amount equivalent to the weight of 850 Boeing 747s.