What’s The Secret Inside a Ferrero Rocher?
It’s a week and a few days past the holiday season, and I don’t know about you, but my house is filled with more than a few golden boxes of Ferrero Rocher.
Personally, I prefer the old-fashioned originals, but you can also find dark chocolate, white chocolate, and coconut Ferrero Rocher if you're feeling experimental.
It doesn’t take long for someone with an appetite, or chocolate addiction, to tear through a box of these light and crisp chocolate delicacies. Whether you’ve consumed thousands or just one, you might notice something familiar about the creamy chocolate spread in the centre of the nutty Ferrero sphere.
Behind large gates in Alba, Italy, lies the Ferrero chocolate factory. Ferrero is one of the largest chocolate brands in the world making some of the most sought-after treats including Kinder, Tic-Tac, Butterfingers, and of course, Nutella.
Giovanni Ferrero is alone at the helm of the family company, which sold $12.5 Billion worth of treats in 2017.
Nutella is based on an 1800s Italian recipe called gianduja from Napoleon’s reign. The recipe for Giandujot came from a shortage of chocolate. To replace the chocolate flavour, Italians used a mixture of 70% hazelnuts and 30% chocolate.
The problem with Giandujot is that it didn’t spread. However, in 1951, Pietro Ferrero and Michele Ferrero added a key ingredient, vegetable oil, giving birth to new spreadable chocolate called Supercrema, which would be rebranded as Nutella.
Behind the crunchy crisp first bite of a Ferrero Rocher is a layer of a variant of Nutella coating delicious hazelnuts.
Over 150 million families around the world enjoy Nutella, and while it is delicious, it is certainly not the most healthy breakfast option, even though it is promoted as one. In 2012, Ferrero got into hot water after running a U.S campaign claiming Nutella is part of a balanced breakfast, resulting in a $3.1 Million settlement.
So if you find the flavours in Ferrero chocolate familiar, it’s probably because you’ve had them on your morning toast. And when you strike gold as Ferrero did, you’ll try to use it as much as possible.
