Friday 27 October (Day forty!)
I’ve been looking forward to today. We are touring the Caffarel chocolate factory!
I leave first for the coach, Krish lagging behind this morning. But all is well and soon we are off towards Pinerolo – the factory is near there in the town of Luserna San Giovanni.
It’s another hazy day – the smog level is really high – we can’t see much of the countryside as we speed past the hazy scenery. Soon enough we are at the factory gates.
They lead us into a room and it’s like Christmas. On the table in the centre are plates of Caffarel chocolates and biscuits. As well, there is still and sparkling water, lemon tea and coffee. I opt for coffee and watch as the inevitable feeding frenzy sets in. People swoop on the plates like they haven’t eaten for months and everything is gone into mouths and pockets in minutes!
The room houses some lovely historical objects – tins, spoons, paintings and photographs… the history of Caffarel is fascinating.
Forgive the sketchiness here and some judicious copying – chocolate was at first a bitter drink and it was Caffarel’s job to make it delicious. He arrived in Turin in 1826 and opened his chocolate lab. He sweetened and found how to solidify the chocolate. After the war with Napoleon an embargo was placed on cocoa and despair might have set in. Caffarel was undaunted and decided that the local hazelnut could be ground down and incorporated with the dwindling cocoa reserves to create the chocolate he became famous for.
The result is a deliciously soft dough which is then shaped into small boats. Its name is “givu” which means “cigarette butt” in Piedmontese dialect.
The chocolate is called gianduja – In 1865 During the carnival of Turin Gianduja, the traditional character of the town, throws to the celebrating people chocolates never tasted before. They are soon named after Gianduja: they are the Gianduiotti, the first individually wrapped chocolates. Caffarel also invented the machine that could produce these chocolates and turned out a record 300 kilos a day.
For those who haven’t eaten it and wonder what Gianduja is, well, have you have had Nutella? That’s gianduja! It’s smooth, chocolatey and tastes of the excellent hazel nuts grown in the Langhe region of Piemonte – said to be the best in the world.
There is also a Nestle connection. I’m hazy on this but Nestle broke from Caffarel and took chocolate to Switzerland where they used his new invention of powdered milk to make milk chocolate, a huge blow to Caffarel. Today Caffarel is owned by Lindt.
(And this is where my history stays until I find out more!)
The factory is very large although, like at Costadoro, there aren’t too many people working at the machines. The cocoa beans and hazel nuts are roasted and ground, milk and sugar are added and the resulting mixture is cooked, then squeezed into the various moulds and onto trays for the workers. One such woman stood constantly lifting trays from the belt into a container and then lifting the filled containers onto another pile. I couldn’t imagine doing this job all day but at least she was on the cooler factory floor. In the first area where roasting and cooking were going on, the heat was uncomfortable and the men worked in short sleeves.
No photos allowed.
And yes, we got to try a piemontese (the gianduja with hazel nuts embedded. That’s as fresh and delicious as it gets! And yes again, I thought of Lucy and Ethel with chocolates on the conveyor belt, although I was struck by how much safety and hygiene was built into the process here. Everything was spotless. Another highlight was watching the little chocolate chips coming cooled from the machines and pouring into plastic-lined boxes.
So much fun!
From here we were taken to the employee chocolate store. It was a chocolate paradise. We don’t think the prices were so amazing but just to see all of that chocolate heaped everywhere….words fail me.
I allow myself 20 euros to buy chocolate. It feels even more like Christmas. And at the door they hand us each a box of Piemontese chocolate! You get the picture?
And we go back to Turin.
Burrata for lunch. A nap. Trofie, pesto, and a couple of meatballs for dinner. Some more sewing for me, and we’re just chocolatey tired and stuffed. Bed!
