Ahhh.. Valentines Day – the day for Love and Lovers. The day in which sales not only go up 1000% on chocolates, the figure actually doubles as men and women rush around buying up chocolates and sweet nothings for their husbands/wives and lovers.
But the greatest symbol of this store-bought holiday is, of course, the Chocolate Kiss or Bacio Perugino – that little chocolate piece from Perugia, romantically stuffed with little love notes for your sweetheart.
While in America, Hershey’s Kisses were naively a sign of sweet innocence, in Italy, they were actually born from a love triangle on the production line. As the story goes, the chocolatier’s wife had a thing for one of the guys in quality control. So, she started sending little notes down the line, hidden in the chocolates.
I’m not too sure how the story ended—with the founder happy to be rid of her and all the more wealthy from her little scheme, or, if ensued a much longer battle over copyright, probably still unresolved in the Italian courts these 100 years on.
It’s most likely he came up with his own fabulous chocolate hearts packaging to win the heart – of his own lover.
2 comments:
smack smack. buon san valentino!
when did you add the cappucino to the 'side' bar? drink one on me--but standing of course and at a neighborhood bar. i didnt send you enough to sit down in piazza navona and drink you cappucio.
c.
baci taste better than hersey's too!
great blog AGURI!
laura
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