Italian Kisses better than the French! (Nestlé Baci Chocolates)

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	Nestlé Baci Chocolates
Date:	26/10/05 (2700 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small enough to think you're not sinning too much

Disadvantages: contains hazlenuts so not for those with allergies

I can remember a time when I used to await the yearly visits from a colleague from Italy with baited breath. Don’t get me wrong, she’s done nothing to fall out of favour with me, and I still truly enjoy meeting her, but she no longer can bring me one of the few real Italian treats. Actually, she can, but now that treat has been purchased by the chocolate mogul Nestlés. I am speaking, of course of what was once Italy’s own and exclusive Perugina’s famous Baci chocolates.

To be totally fair, Nestlés hasn’t removed the Perugina name from these chocolates, nor have they actually changed the products themselves. Its just that when I get Baci today, its no longer a very special, only from Italy treat.

What are Baci? The word “baci” (pronounced BAH-chee) is Italian (duh!) meaning “kisses”. Ah, but viva la difference from those tiny t*rds made by the dreaded American Hershey’s! Baci chocolates don’t just taste different (thank goodness), they also don’t look even slightly similar. First of all, Baci are more than just a dollop of chocolate covered in metallic wrappings. No, Baci are much more complex than this, considered by Italians as the chocolates of love, we all know that there’s nothing simple about love, don’t we? So why would a chocolate called “kisses” be a simple blob, right?

Baci chocolates contain at their pinnacle, a whole, roasted hazelnut. This nut nestles itself on top of a small mound of smooth, whipped chocolate filling which is neither mushy nor stiff, and contains tiny pieces of chopped hazelnuts inside. This filling is not too sweet as many fillings of this kind can be, but rather seems nicely to combine with the nutty flavour of its crunchy companion. Hugging these two things together is a lovingly draped blanket of dark chocolate. This dark chocolate is less sweet than the filling, and has a slightly woody undertone which nicely compliments the hazelnut, without any acidic tang that some dark chocolates can have. This slightly toothy dark chocolate covering is the exact midway point in texture between the whipped filling and the hard nuts. All in all, a three way treat - crunchy, creamy and slightly chewy in texture with the three great tastes of roasted hazelnut, dark chocolate and whipped milky chocolate filling. If there ever was a perfect marriage of tastes and textures, this certainly would be it.

But that’s not all that makes these lovelies so loveable. These sweets are about 2cm in height and about 1.5cm in diameter, so they’re not very large, however, they’re easily double the size of one of those dastardly US wannabies. I’d say that they’re just about a mouthful - not too big and certainly not too small (like you-know-who’s). Of course, you know what they say - “more than a mouthful is a waste”. And if we all know what this slightly rude statement is referring to, I’d say that these actually look like… well… how can I put this delicately? Let’s see… well… The American Heritage Dictionary would describe this as “the small projection near the center of the mammary gland containing the outlets of the milk ducts through which young mammals obtain milk from the adult female”. Got it? Good (and if not, you’ll find a translation in the Technical Stuff, below).

These are also very romantically wrapped in silver foil which is scattered with lovely dark blue stars all over it. And when you tear away that foil you will be greeted with a fairly pungent chocolate scent - one that is almost peppery in its initial stages and after a second or two you’ll get that lovely smooth chocolate smell that has just a hint of the warm aroma of roasted nuts. It will be almost impossible to not pop this directly into your mouth and gobble this down immediately. However, to really experience this properly, I suggest that you take a good bite out of this, making sure that your teeth go exactly half way through that nut. In this way you’ll be able to get all three tastes and textures at one time, while also getting a good look at what you’re munching away at.

When you do this, the dark chocolate will begin to mingle with the whipped filling in a glorious lather. As you crunch into the bits of nuts you’ll feel your mouth almost explode with sensory enchantment. Soon, you’ll get that tingling sensation at the back of your mouth that signals that your body has moved into gratification mode. As this slides down your throat, you’ll get that soft feeling at the back of your tongue which will highlight the rich chocolate flavour and carry more of the aroma to your olfactory senses. If this isn’t a moment of heaven, I don’t know what is.

Inside the foil you’ll not only find these scrumptious morsels but you’ll also find a slip of paper with some kind of message. No, its not a fortune, it’s a love note, or rather a quote that talks about love. Apparently, the idea for this came from one of the chocolate maker’s habits of wrapping his hand-made chocolates in messages of affection that were given to his object of desire, who apparently was a master chocolate maker in her own right. Today’s tiny missives are included in these confections and are translated into several languages (I think the last ones I had were in Italian, French, Spanish and English). Reading these notes has always been part of my attraction to this product.

It was these nodules of love that made Perugina famous throughout Europe. And it was Nestlés greedy hands that bought it out in order for its fame to spread and be available for purchase world-wide. While that’s not really all of a bad thing, it does seem to be a bit of a let-down to pick up something that was originally made with such emotion and sentiment and find out that its now part of a huge, cold conglomerate. On the up-side, this does mean that more kinds of these delights are now available to the public and a wider audience will be exposed to their pleasures. Under Nestlés investing umbrella, there are now two types of Baci chocolate bars - a 1.5oz mini-bar and a 4.4oz large bar. The only thing that bothers me about these bars is that the hazelnuts are only chopped up in them, and not allowed to be full and whole as in the original Baci love-dots.

I’d have to say that one of the reasons why I always loved these is because they were a total experience. They were fun because of the notes, they were exotic because they came from the lovely hills of Italy, they were fancy because they came from a small confectioner (not so anymore) and they were delicious because they… well, they just were. And you know something, even though they’ve been bought up by one of the big boys, I guess they still are just as fun, exotic, fancy and delicious as they always were. So if you come and bring me Baci, you’ll still be assured of getting kisses from me in return (but keep your hands off my Baci!).

Thanks for reading!

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Technical Stuff:
*(yes, I mean it looks a bit like a nipple).

the full history of this chocolate can be found at
http://www.nestleeuropeanchocolate.com/baci/colle ction/about.asp
and the products are at
http://www.nestleeuropeanchocolate.com/baci/colle ction/products.asp
and you can even get the Baci brochure at
http://www.nestleeuropeanchocolate.com/media/baci /pdf/brochure.pdf
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Summary: Romantic chocolates which were once from Italy