MODICA CHOCOLATE

Who doesn't love chocolate? I love it, in all shapes and flavors. And we Sicilians can boast excellence defined as "food of the gods": Modica chocolate.

There are many stories surrounding the origins of this particular variety of chocolate. It is thought that the Modica's is a variant deriving from an Aztec recipe. Chocolate landed in Sicily in 1700, during the Spanish domination, and it is from this moment on chocolate began to be produced on our island. The Spaniards were the first to combine cocoa beans with sugar to create a recipe close to the one currently made in Modica. The production of this wonder undergoes variations and evolutions over time. First, from consumption in the cup, we move on to creating the famous tablet, more practical to transport and consume. Next, we move on to the more refined processes, such as the tempering technique, making the tablet shinier and, therefore, more aesthetically pleasing.

In Sicily, in Modica, chocolate producers carry on a historical culinary tradition, allowing us to taste nineteenth-century recipes.

One of the producers still in business today is Antica Dolceria Bonajuto: a family business now managed by Pierpaolo Ruta, the third generation that carries on a great tradition linked to chocolate, dating back to his grandfather Francesco, who opened the first chocolate shop in 1880. Even if the basic recipe has remained unchanged, Pierpaolo has brought various innovations without ever distorting the original recipe. Entering their shop, you can breathe an air of tradition and delicious chocolate! I visited them some time ago, and I couldn't help but pamper myself with some of the flavors available, all very good!

Also, in Modica, there is the Don Puglisi Chocolate Workshop.

Don Puglisi was a presbyter, educator, and teacher, murdered by the mafia precisely because of his constant evangelical and social commitment. The Don Puglisi social cooperative was founded in 2005 to encourage inclusion in work for women and mothers in need of help. The first activities were precisely those relating to confectionery production. Today the Casa Don Puglisi shop offers a wide variety of high-quality Modica chocolate and traditional sweets, promoting social and solidarity initiatives that we at Majolica greatly appreciate. For this reason, Don Puglisi's laboratory is included among the main stops to do during the visit of Modica to taste some chocolate, also doing an act of solidarity.

Show-cooking and chocolate tasting are always included in our guided tour of Modica.
Discover our Sicily Food Tour included in Majolica Sicily Tours Collection, and discover the vast Sicilian culinary tradition.