When I was a teenager my local sweet shop in a quiet little market town in mid-Devon sold Baci chocolates. As a lyrically minded teenager I would relish spending a little of my weekly paper round earnings on one little silver parcel of delight. I kept every one of the sayings in a special box, often reading, re-reading and pondering its significance.
Then for years Baci disappeared from my life. Until five years ago in Italy, Stefano arrived at my apartment one afternoon with a handful of Baci treasure. Delighted was an understatement! Hazelnut, covered in nutty praline, covered in chocolate, wrapped in beautiful words and a layer of silver and stars, what's not to like? Admittedly the phrases might not always seem as profound as I remembered them to be but that is probably due to sadly no longer being fourteen!
Baci were first created in 1922 in Perugina and their name means 'kiss', which I only found out all those years later.Here's how they got their name as explained on the Baci® Perugina® website
''Hazelnuts wed to chocolate, let millions of people express their love. It all began when Luisa Spagnoli, a young chocolate maker, created a special bonbon for her beloved. The confection, originally called cazzotto (punch) because its shape evokes a fist, was wrapped in a billet-doux, the Love Note that still today makes Baci® Perugina® unique. Everything about it was perfect but the name. It was as exquisite and sweet as a kiss, a bacio, in Italian. And so Bacio® Perugina® became its name.''
Here are a couple of our favourite sayings..
In dreams as in love all is possible. J. Arany
Love is like luck: it doesn’t like to be chased.
T. Gautier
What is yours?
Take a look here for some recipes you can create with Baci Perugina. I'm considering trying the cupcake, brownie or Tiramisu very soon!
Buy Baci here