Italian chocolate, too, has its excellences and uniqueness. An emblematic case is the production of chocolate carried out by Venchi, a company that is renowned all over the world thanks to its quality. This success began at the beginning of ‘900 with ‘Nougatine’, a bonbon with chopped and candied hazelnuts, coated with extra plain chocolate. Today the company proposes itself to the consumers all over the world in a precise and guaranteed way: additive free chocolate, without hydrogenated fats, artificial aromas, chemical sweeteners, alimentary jellies, GMO ingredients. Very high quality raw materials, a scrupulous search for balance among the different ingredients in order to produce a chocolate that is not similar to any other chocolate.
The sweet history of Venchi begins in the province of Cuneo, in Western Piedmont at the frontier between Italy and France, in a land included between mountain and plain of Turin, that today is a district of very high quality alimentary productions. From this province both gastronomic and oenological and fruit and vegetable products arrive, that are acknowledged as excellences of flavour and alimentary art.
The chocolate produced by Venchi brought all over the world some products that are symbols of gourmandizing, such as ‘Cuneesi with Rhum’, pralines filled of cream with rum poured in a chocolate shell, as well as the whole line of plain chocolate and ‘gianduia’. In particular, ‘Gianduia of Venchi’ is appreciated because it has preserved for centuries the same balance of flavour between chocolate and hazelnut. Today Venchi proposes again in many versions the same chocolate that was created by the pastry cooks of Turin who replaced with the cheaper ‘round and gentle’ hazelnut from Langhe a part of cocoa, that at the time had become very expensive because of the embargo ordered by Napoleon for the products proposed by British industry and its colonies. ‘Gianduia’ chocolate is used for producing ‘gianduiotti’ and as spreadable cream, too.
Venchi is a future oriented company, that relies on its choices with no compromises as for raw materials, but welcomes technologies and experimentations, too. The whole production of Venchi has been gluten free since 2009 and a format of world retail, ‘la Cioccogelateria’, a single trademark shop that proposes artisan ice-cream and chocolate, dates back to 2006. From elegant chocolate shops of the province of Turin, these products arrive to corners all over the world as well as in the most frequented airports, with a continuous, big love for chocolate and productive creativity. Venchi continues to grow by aiming at online shop. The sector of exports involves, by means of sole distributors, a large part of Europe, USA, Japan, Russia, and Arabian Countries. Venchi directly manages some single trademark sales points in the main airports, stations, and historic centres in the most important Italian towns.
Chocolate Manufacturers for love
The Venchi story began in the far-off 1800s. Born and bred in the Piedmont region, Silviano Venchi was an ambitious, creative young man with a great passion for chocolate. He had the good fortune to grow up in Turin, the birthplace of gianduia and home to innumerable fine chocolatiers. Silviano loved to wander through the old streets of his hometown, stopping and closing his eyes as he breathed in the heady aroma of chocolate that drifted out of the traditional pastry-makers’ workshops around the centre of Turin. Whenever he could, he would sneak into the kitchens and watch the skilled hands of local chocolate-makers at work, gazing speechless as they deftly concocted the food of the gods.
Aged 16, he began his career as an assistant in a confectioner’s workshop. As much as he adored making chocolate and trying out endless new pairings, he gained even greater pleasure from the expressions on his customers’ and friends’ faces as they savoured his creations. Within four years he had put enough money aside to buy two bronze cooking pots - the tools of this trade - and had gained sufficient experience to attempt to make his dream come true. So, in 1878, he opened his own chocolate shop. Armed with Silviano’s expertise and a special recipe (for an irresistible dark chocolate confection filled with chopped, caramelised hazelnuts), in the space of a few years, the tiny workshop gained renown and popularity throughout Piedmont, and the product’s name - the Nougatine - was soon on everyone’s lips.
Identity on Packaging, Too
Packaging, too, by means of care for the details and selection of materials, expresses a happy union between flavour and elegance. This elegance reminds cocoa, but also Piedmont, a land of agriculture and real traditions. The packaging of Venchi is elegant, functional and with a marked identity. It combines liberty and country, noble and rustic elements, with the same naturalness by means of which it mixes excellent cocoa and mountain hazelnuts.
Venchi was one of the first Italian companies that devoted a special production line to the field of gifts. The tin-plated boxes are appreciated, as well as wrappers of bars that remind very well the traditional idea as for home, taste, good quality, security.
