notes and reflections

Not many cities can boast of having their very own candy factory but Morelia can.  And not only a factory.  Dulces Morelianos, founded in 1840 and located at 440 Avenida Madero Ote., offers a shop devoted to chocolate desserets, a small cafe, shelf-after-shelf of mouth-watering sweets and a candy museum.

The tradition of candy dates back hundreds of years in Mexico and has provided the world with many of the ideas and ingredients used in candy manufacturing everywhere.  Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, indigenous people used honey, fruit, seeds and nuts to make sweets.  Chocolate was introduced by the Mayans when they moved from Guatemala to the Yucatan around 600 AD, and became so sought after that the Aztecs used the beans for money. Ten beans and you could buy a rabbit for dinner. Vanilla was first cultivated by the Totonac people who lived near present-day Vera Cruz and soon began to be combined with chocolate in drinks.

With the Spanish came sugar and eggs and nuns who refined the candy making process using native recipies. The end results are all available at Dulces Morelianos: candies derived from quince, papaya, pear, peach, guava and tamarind; jellied treats similar to those made in Armenia and Cashmere, Washington; bite-size chocolate and vanilla candies; fruit pastes; nut candies and a bottled milk-and-spice based drink called Rompope, that tastes like rich eggnog.

The entire operation is presided over by young clerks dressed in mid-nineteenth century costumes:  the women in demure, floor-length, long-sleeved dresses, the men in period caps and wearing black trousers with vests or suspenders over crisp, white shirts and neckties.

To the rear of the business is the museum where you can watch a short video about the history of Mexican candy, see a cook demonstrating how fruit concentrates are made and taste a small sample.

No, there are no Oompah-loompahs, no Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp wandering the premises or the adjacent souvenir shop but what is there is a feast for the eyes and the palete and well worth a visit.