Did you know that the Italians have been combining hazelnuts and cacao since Napoleon times?
The Piedmont region of Turin grew abundant hazelnuts and because cacao was so scarce and so expensive, hazelnuts and cocoa were combined to make hazelnut chocolate cream or crema gianduia.
The original Gianduja contained over 70% hazelnuts and 19.5% cocoa and was shaped into a solid loaf for slicing. After World War II, cacao was again scarce across Europe, so a baker from a small town called Alba added cacao butter to make it go further and more spreadable. Then in the 1960’s the baker’s son added cheaper ingredients including Palm oil and milk powder. That became the well known global hazelnut and chocolate spread called Nutella.
Today there is very little hazelnuts (13%) or cocoa in Nutella compared to the original recipe. Over 50% of the ingredients are palm oil and sugar. Skimmed milk solids, vanilla and lethicins are also added.
At Meraki Cacao we pride ourselves on the only using ingredients that are good for you. We wanted to create a hazelnut cacao spread that honoured the original invention. We are very proud to introduce our new product, containing only three ingredients – hazelnuts, Palmyra Blossom Nectar and raw cacao powder.
To make our delicious spread, we firstly gently roast our hazelnuts until the natural oils are released and then process them to make a hazelnut butter. This is put into our stone grinder with our special sweetner, Palmyra Blossom Nectar and raw cacao powder. We then grind it for a few hours to make a very smooth paste and to allow the wonderful flavours to amalgamate with each other.
Our spread is named Edesia after the Roman goddess of gourmet food. Edesia connects our product back to Italy where it all started and also embodies our gourmet creation. It tastes deeply of roasted hazelnuts with the rich flavour of cacao and the wonderful sweetness of Palmyra Blossom Nectar.
We are proud to announce that it has reached the finals of this year’s Nourish Awards and will find out the results at the end of September.
Enjoy on sourdough toast, on pancakes, over fruit, mixed into yoghurt or just straight out of the jar!!
We hope you enjoy it as much as we do – let us know in the comments what you think of it!
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