• Chocolates

Modica Chocolate

• Italian: Cioccolato di Modica
• Sicilian: Ciucculatta Mudicana

• Source: Cocoa Bean, Sweet

Cioccolato di Modica is an artisanal chocolate from the fair city of Modica, in southeastern Sicily notable for its unique, grainy texture and Aztec preparation. The confection is crafted in the old manner: cacao ground at low heat with coarse sugar, a technique first borne to the island in the sixteenth century, when the Spanish Crown of Philip II ruled both Sicily and the New World. In Modica's stone kitchens this Aztec craft took root, yielding a chocolate of dark austerity — grainy, crystalline and faintly bitter. Today it stands as Europe's first chocolate to bear PGI protection, its authenticity guarded by strict measures: traditional bars of 60 or 65 percent cacao, darker styles rising to 85 or even 95 percent, and the rare, monastic purity of 100 — percent cacao mass. Within these bounds, artisans may perfume the mixture with noble spices — chili, cinnamon, nutmeg, jasmine, vanilla, or a scatter of salt — each echoing the centuries-old dialogue between Sicily and the wider world. - AsNotedIn

Places

• Modica Sicily