From Marcelo with Love: Nocciola Romana in Our Hazelnut Chocolates
Our Hazelnut chocolates are finally back – and if you’ve been waiting nearly two weeks for them, thank you for bearing with us.
Why We’re So Fussy About Our Hazelnuts
We make chocolate the way a great local restaurant cooks: in small, carefully planned batches, using specific ingredients we can’t simply swap when they run low. That means when Hazelnut disappears for a moment, it’s because we’re waiting for the exact nuts we love – not because we’re quietly changing the recipe.
Italian Romana Hazelnuts: The “Queen” Of Hazelnuts
When Steve set out to create the ultimate hazelnut chocolate, he started by hunting for the very best hazelnuts he could find. That search led to Nocciola Romana – the Romana hazelnut grown in the volcanic soils of Lazio, north of Rome.
Romana hazelnuts are famous for:
• Intense aroma that leaps out as soon as they’re roasted.
• Full‑bodied, lingering flavour that doesn’t fade after the first bite.
• A naturally compact, crunchy texture thanks to the local climate and soil.
They’re widely regarded in Italy as one of the finest hazelnuts for chocolate, pastry and gianduja.
Meet Marcelo, Our Hazelnut Matchmaker
Enter Marcelo – the man who makes it possible for us to use these hazelnuts at all.
Marcelo grew up in hazelnut country in northern Lazio, surrounded by orchards and farmers who treat Nocciola Romana with the same reverence we reserve for great chocolate. After moving to the UK, he realised how hard it was for chefs and makers here to access truly top‑quality Italian hazelnuts, so he founded Vulcanica, a specialist importer focused on the Romana variety.
Vulcanica is named after the mineral‑rich volcanic soil where these hazelnuts grow, and Marcelo still spends plenty of time in those orchards – tasting, talking to growers and checking quality at the source.
When you see him leaning on a Lamborghini tractor or standing between hazelnut trees, that’s not a photo shoot; that’s his natural habitat (although we're not sure the photos could make him look any more Italian!)
Why Volcanic Soil Matters For Flavour
The “Vulcanica” name isn’t just a nice bit of branding. Marcelo’s hazelnuts are grown on volcanic soils in northern Lazio, particularly around the Cimini Mountains.[ishs +1]
Volcanic soils are naturally rich in minerals and offer an ideal balance of drainage and moisture retention, which is why they’re prized for crops like vines, olives – and hazelnuts. In Lazio, that combination of volcanic humus and mild climate produces Romana hazelnuts with:
• A sweet, clean flavour rather than a woody or bitter aftertaste
• A dense, crunchy kernel that roasts evenly and holds its texture in chocolate.
Marcelo works with the growers to select the best of these nuts, year after year, and get them to makers like us in peak condition.
Hazelnut Paste And Organic Double Cream
Inside every Hazelnut chocolate is a soft gianduja‑style centre – the classic Italian blend of chocolate and finely ground hazelnuts. We use smooth hazelnut paste made from Romana hazelnuts to give that centre its flavour and silkiness, and we keep the recipe generous: 22% hazelnut in every chocolate.
To this we add organic double cream, which brings richness, body and depth of flavour.
Pastry chefs reach for the extra-rich cream when they want a velvety ganache because it softens the chocolate, boosts mouthfeel and helps the flavours travel further across your palate. In our case, it turns the centre into something midway between a chocolate mousse and a traditional Italian gianduja – deeply hazelnutty, properly creamy and very hard to stop at one.
Hand‑Drizzled Crunch: Our Only Crunchy‑Coated Chocolate
Texture matters just as much as flavour, which is why this is the only chocolate in our range with a crunchy outside.
Once the hazelnut centres are set, we coat them in chocolate and then hand‑drizzle them with tiny pieces of roasted hazelnut. That hand work matters: it lets us control the coverage and consistency, so every chocolate gets an even layer of crunch rather than clumps in some places and bare patches in others.
Bite in and you get:
• A satisfying crack from the hazelnut coating.
• A wave of fresh milk chocolate.
• Then the slow melt of that hazelnut and organic double‑cream centre.
People often call it a “fresh Ferrero Rocher” – only made with fresh chocolate, organic cream and a serious dose of real hazelnuts rather than flavourings.
Why We Sometimes Sell Out Of Hazelnut.
Because we insist on specific Italian Romana hazelnuts, work with a small specialist like Marcelo’s Vulcanica, and make Hazelnut in small, fresh batches, there will always be times when demand briefly overtakes supply. When that happens, we pause rather than dilute the recipe or switch to a cheaper origin.
If you’re seeing Hazelnut available on the site today, it’s because that whole chain – from Marcelo’s orchards on volcanic hillsides to our kitchen – has just come together again, exactly as it should.
The Best Way To Eat Them (If You Can Wait)
One last tip: our Hazelnut chocolates are at their absolute best just‑rested from the fridge.
We pack them in resealable pouches, and we recommend taking the pouch out of the fridge 5–10 minutes before you tuck in. That short rest lets the chocolate and cream warm slightly, so:
• The centre softens into a velvety gianduja.
• The hazelnut aroma opens up.
• The flavours of chocolate, Romana hazelnut and organic double cream really bloom, much like letting a good wine breathe.
If you can wait the full ten minutes, you’ll be rewarded with the crunch of hand‑drizzled hazelnuts, followed by a melt‑in‑the‑mouth centre that tastes every bit as indulgent as the care Marcelo, Steve and the whole team put into making it.
