For fans of Marco Colzani’s
chocolate hazelnut spread, this just might be the perfect chocolate bar. What you’ll notice first is the aroma, a strikingly strong, rich fragrance of toasted nuts. The chocolate itself is so smooth it softens instantly in your mouth, with a mellow sweetness that pairs perfectly with the hazelnuts, which have been carefully roasted to take on an almost smoky, caramel flavor. Every bite of this chocolate brick is chock full of whole hazelnuts that crumble delicately with each mouthful.
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It all starts with Marco’s
gianduia chocolate, an Italian tradition taken to its finest expression using a prized single-origin Venezuelan variety of cacao, which Marco carefully sources himself from the farmers. Marco mixes in a touch of Italian raw sugar, cacao butter, and a paste of ground
Alta Langa hazelnuts, sourced from Terra delle Nocciole, a cooperative of farmers who have been growing prized Piedmontese hazelnuts for generations. Never one to stop innovating, from there Marco improved on perfection, setting aside a selection of plump whole hazelnuts, toasting them to just the right richness, and adding them to his super-sized bar that is truly the perfect gift for the chocolate lover in your life - especially if that’s you.
Marco is one of the world's few true bean-to-bar chocolatiers. He regularly visits his cacao bean suppliers to taste the beans right at the source and work with the farmers to develop the best fermentation methods. Marco's chocolate contains no additives, preservatives, soy, or vanilla. He calls his chocolate a "spremuta di fave" - a freshly squeezed juice of cacao beans. His recipe is never the same twice since he adjusts the sugar-to-cacao bean ratio based on each batch of beans.
But there is more. The raw sugar comes from Italy, specifically Emilia-Romagna, while Marco's cacao butter comes from the same cacao farms he sources his beans from. This is almost unique in chocolate production: cacao butter is typically a mass-market commodity, and it's infrequent finding chocolatiers who opt for a process that starts from scratch. Instead, this bar is single-origin chocolate AND single-origin cacao butter. Now, if that doesn't elevate your chocolate-eating habit, then we really don't know what will!
