If you ever see a woman sitting in a café by themselves who suddenly starts smiling while looking at a drink’s menu, that’s me. That’s me when I see there is a whole page dedicated to hot chocolate. A whole page. Turin is filled with cafes with full page hot chocolate menus. I like Turin…a lot.
Turin has a very long history with chocolate and because of that it has some historic cafes that you must visit if you want to immerse yourself into its chocolate loving history. Baratti & Milano, one of the most prestigious Italian chocolate brands, was my second stop in Turin (my first was Guido Gobina just around the corner). It is located just off of Piazza Castello but I highly recommend that you arrive via Galleria Subalpina just off Via Cesare Battisti. The Galleria was built in 1873 and is truly breathtaking, as is Baratti & Milano’s café located inside the atrium originally build in 1858. The café was a prestigious meeting place for personalities in science, politics, and art. Stepping inside takes you back over a hundred years. There are crystal chandeliers hanging from intricately decorated ceilings. The floor is yellow, white and black marble, colours that continue throughout the café. The tables are covered in bright yellow tablecloths and the walls in mirrors. I remember it as stepping into a dream…although that could have been the alcohol (I’ll get to that in a second).
So back to this menu. They have their classic cioccolata (hot chocolate) with or without panna (fresh whip cream). You can get a Gianduja hot chocolate served with whip cream and hazelnut sauce. One option has canella (cinnamon) added. Despite it being early in the afternoon, I opted for one of the stronger options. They have one with Ratafia, a sweet alcoholic beverage that tastes a bit like almonds and, the one I choose, with Amaretto ( prices range from 6.50 to 8.50). Amaretto is a name derived from the Italian word “amaro” which mean bitter and “etto” which means a little. The liquor is flavoured with apricot pits and often sweetened with dark sugars to give it an amber colour.
I can’t say I have had much Amaretto before this but today we, Amaretto and I, became very well acquainted. I know a lot about Amaretto because my hot chocolate was basically Amaretto with a bit of chocolate added (I’m not at all saying that is a bad thing, I have wonderful memories of my time with Amaretto). Now, I’m not sure if this is how it usually is supposed to be. This particular day I was alone in the café. There were 5 servers dressed up in their black and white tuxes taking a good break in between crowds. I chatted with a few of them, told them what I was up to, asked them about the café. I guess I was friendly enough that when they presented me with my Amaretto hot chocolate, they noted that they had made it “special”.
Between the glow of the hot chocolate and the glow of the café it was a happy 20 minutes. The hot chocolate came with an Amerotto Soffice di Sassello biscuit (made with sugar, apricot kernals, almonds and eggs). In terms of their chocolate, they do make their own in Turin using beans from Ecuador and Ghana but no more information than that is shared.
After a thank you and a wave goodbye I walked as straight as I could back to the front door to pay (there is a good reason why liquors are usually enjoyed after dinner, not on empty stomachs). It is hard not to get distracted by the assortment of chocolates demanding to be bought around the entrance. I grabbed some generous handfuls of the chocolates they are most famous for here at Barrati, in particular their Cremino which, rumour has it, was invented here. It is a small square shaped chocolate with two layers on the outside made of gianduja with a third inside layer made of a flavoured paste. Randomly, the largest cremino even made it into the Guinness World Records. It was one made by none other than Ferdinando Baratti himself in the XIX century which apparently weighed 380.5kg. It had two layers of Gianduja chocolate and a layer of coffee or almond paste in the middle and 18 people worked on its preparation. So, there you go.
Verdict: I miss Amaretto…we had a good moment together. Barrati e Milano, Piazza Castello, 29, Torin, Italy. for more on Turin read sips.ultimatehotchocolate.com
