Turin: chocolate tour

Gobino reworks Turin's specialities with close attention to the raw materials. In corso Vittorio Emanuele II the shop occupies the premises of the historic Caffè Platti; the one in via Lagrange, almost opposite the Museo Egizio and the church of San Filippo Neri, has old-style furnishings and is more convenient along the itinerary.

Here the gianduiotti are still made by hand, from preparing the mixture to cutting, spreading with the spatula and wrapping each piece in gold paper. The recipe remains the classic one: sugar, Piedmont hazelnuts, cocoa mass and cocoa butter. Alongside them you will find giacomette, cremini and other Turin chocolates. It is a stop worth making for the shop itself, not just for what you take away.

Over seven hundred objects and interactive installations follow cocoa from the pre-Columbian civilisations to the spread of chocolate in Europe, up to the Turin tradition, showing how processing and production methods have changed. There is also room for the history of gianduja and of Piedmontese specialities, with tasting experiences and chocolate-making workshops by reservation.

Allow more time than for a shop: it is a proper museum itinerary. At the end you can stop at the Pfatisch pastry shop, connected to the museum.

Besides pralines, truffles and dark chocolate buttons, you will find single-origin bars made starting from the beans, following the «bean to bar» process. The beans are stone-ground and, in the dark bars of this line, the ingredients are essentially cocoa and raw cane sugar. If the aromas intrigue you, comparing different origins here makes real sense.

The shop opened in piazza San Carlo in 1836, when the firm Reina e Stratta started its pastry and confectionery business. In 1858 the management passed to the Stratta brothers.

Having become a point of reference for Turin's bourgeoisie and nobility, the shop also obtained recognition as supplier to the Royal Household. Among the products you will find cakes, chocolate, sweets, sugared almonds and other specialities of the city's tradition.

Here the memory of Cavour has also become a chocolate. The «Gioie di Cavour», dedicated to the Piedmontese statesman, in the traditional version have milk or dark chocolate, a heart of gianduja cream and a coating of chopped toasted hazelnuts.

Alongside these you will find other chocolate and confectionery preparations, including marrons glacés. At Stratta, Turin's confectionery tradition is found above all in the display windows, rather than in the cups of the historic cafés.

Castagna has developed a production system called «Metodo Naturale», which starts with the selection of the beans and takes into account both the origin of the cocoa and the working conditions of the growers. The cocoa is bought through cooperatives; the beans intended for processing are selected by hand.

The workshop is in Giaveno, but you do not need to go that far to get to know these products: in the shop in via Maria Vittoria you can taste Giuinott, bars and other cocoa-based creations.

Behind that name are Ferdinando Baratti and Edoardo Milano, two confectioners from the Canavese who opened the business in 1858 in via Dora Grossa, today via Garibaldi, and moved here in 1875.

The café became a supplier to the Royal Household and a meeting place for Turin society. Part of the decoration dates from the extension completed in 1911, to a design by Giulio Casanova with the collaboration of the sculptor Edoardo Rubino.

Before the café in the Galleria Subalpina there was the confectionery workshop: the business began there, and only later came the present premises. That tradition continues in the production of chocolate and confectionery.

We would gladly stop for a hot chocolate, but even looking at the range of chocolates, pralines and other specialities tells the story of the passage from sweet shops to the grand cafés and confectioners.

The name comes from «bicerin», «little glass» in Piedmontese: coffee, chocolate and milk cream in a hot, non-alcoholic drink served in transparent glasses.

The premises have kept their intimate size, and the relationship with the square and the sanctuary can be felt even from inside. The historic furnishings still make it possible to understand how the old Turin chocolate houses were organised.

The bicerin has an eighteenth-century ancestor: the bavareisa, prepared with similar ingredients but served in larger glasses. The Turin version, instead, comes in a small transparent glass that lets you distinguish the layers of coffee, chocolate and milk cream.

If you love chocolate drinks, this may be the right stop to taste a speciality that has kept its place in the city's confectionery tradition.