Hazelnut chocolate with whole nuts

Italian hazelnut chocolate with whole Piedmontese hazelnuts

Hazelnut chocolate from Tastelanghe in Piedmont. A 110-gram bar with 30% whole, roasted hazelnuts from the family's own orchards, embedded in milk chocolate. The surface of the bar recreates the hills of the Langhe.

Hazelnut chocolate is the classic nut chocolate from Piedmont. At Tastelanghe, 30% whole, roasted hazelnuts are packed into a milk chocolate made from sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa, and bourbon vanilla. The 110-gram bar is molded into the shape of the Langhe hills.

Whole nuts, distributed irregularly

The nuts aren't lined up in rows; they land wherever they fall during the pouring process. Every piece you break off has its own ratio of nut to chocolate—sometimes two whole hazelnuts, sometimes half a one. This makes the bar unpredictable, and that is exactly why it’s so good.

Creamy, milky, roasted—the chocolate doesn't overpower, the nut sets the tone. The roasted Tonda Gentile provides a crunch and a distinct nutty flavor that lasts until the very last piece.

Those who take the act of breaking a chocolate bar seriously will hear the difference: where a nut is located, the bar doesn't snap cleanly, but splinters to the side. It rarely breaks perfectly clean, and that is not a defect.

Thirty percent whole hazelnut

Thirty percent is the nut content of all four Tastelanghe bars. That is a lot for whole nuts—ground nuts are easy to fold in, but whole nuts must be placed individually into the warm chocolate before it sets.

The roasting happens right before pouring. That is why the nuts in the bar are crunchy and not soft: only minutes, not weeks, pass between the roasting and the chocolate coating.

The hazelnuts grow on 40 hectares in Somano in the Alta Langa, where the Quazzo family has been farming hazelnut groves since 1891. Tastelanghe sources the chocolate itself as couverture; the casting, topping, and packaging take place in their own workshop.

The hills on the bar

The surface of the bar is no random whim: it models the gentle hills of the Langhe, the landscape where these hazelnuts grow. Anyone who has driven across the ridges between Alba and Somano in the autumn will recognize the lines.

The packaging also picks up on this motif—a nice detail when unwrapping that makes the bar a charming little gift. You don’t need to do anything more than take it along as a host gift.

The lightest of the four bars

Tastelanghe has four bars in its range, all with 30% whole nuts and all in the same hill shape. This one is the classic, the baseline.

If you like this and are looking for more depth, move on to the dark version with 71% cocoa. If you want something sweeter, the caramel and white varieties offer two distinct paths.

Broken into hot milk, the simplest cocoa

In the afternoon, it sits beside an espresso; in the evening, beside a glass of Moscato d'Asti from the neighboring wine hills. Roughly chopped, it works well in muesli, or melted over fresh fruit.

And anyone who breaks it into hot milk has the simplest good cocoa there is—the whole nuts remain at the bottom of the mug and serve as the reward at the end. For children, this is the best variety in the assortment because it doesn't need any explanation.

On our site, you will find other specialties from Tastelanghe made from the same hazelnuts—the dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts as a bittersweet contrast, the hazelnuts in milk chocolate for snacking, or other chocolates from our range.

Storage

Store in a cool, dry place, ideally between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius. If chocolate is stored too warm and then gets cold again, cocoa butter rises to the surface and leaves a light film. This is harmless and not a lack of quality, just not very pretty.