Gianduja

Gianduja is a sweet chocolate containing about 30% hazelnut paste, invented in Turin by Caffarel in 1852. It takes its name from Gianduja, a Carnival and marionette character who represents the archetypal Piedmontese, a native of the Italian region where hazelnut confectionery is common.

Some related products are:

• Gianduiotti, a speciality of Turin, are chocolates shaped like an upturned boat, again made with a mixture of cocoa and hazelnut paste. Invented by Caffarel in 1865, it is still a trade mark for the company
• Ferrero Nutella, which was originally called Pasta Gianduja, as a marketing ploy to appeal to children.

In addition to the classic interpretation of gianduja, modern confectioners often term any combination of nut, chocolate and sugar as a gianduja, such as almonds, dark chocolate and sugar or walnuts, milk chocolate and sugar.

"Giandla duja" is also Piedmontese for the hazelnut "giandula", and "giandulott" is the kernel of drupes. The English translation into "sweet nut" hits the original description of the Albese dialect meaning, and the terms gianda, gandula, gandulin and gandulott are well known throughout the areas of Gallo-Italic parlance.