Amêndoa Coberta de Moncorvo

Appearance & taste

The coated almond has the shape of an almond kernel, only somewhat larger because of the sugar layer. There are three varieties. The ordinary one is white on the outside and has the typical sugar spikes that form during production; 100 g contain at most 40 almonds. The brown one differs only by a chocolate coating that is applied at the end and gives it a chestnut to chocolate-brown colour. The peeled variety is whitish, has only a thin sugar layer without spikes and is smaller: 100 g contain at least 40 almonds.

The label states the variety, except for the ordinary white one. According to the specification, the almonds are easy to tell apart from other candied almonds by their appearance.

Production

Only whole, undamaged sweet almonds without shells and at least 12 mm in size are used, together with white refined cane sugar and water, optionally egg white, and for the brown variety also chocolate or cocoa powder. The almonds are peeled, roasted and coated with sugar syrup. Roasting, preparing the sugar and chocolate coatings and the coating itself take place in the district of Torre de Moncorvo.

A description from 1942 sets out the method, which according to the specification is similar to today’s in every respect: the almonds are skinned with hot water, lightly roasted and poured onto large copper trays over low heat. Hot sugar solution is poured over them, and the women who do this work keep moving the almonds with their hands in several hours of patient work until they have their typical appearance.

Origin & history

The method comes from the district of Torre de Moncorvo and, according to the specification, has been used there without interruption for hundreds of years. The women who make them are called “cobrideiras”, coaters; the magazine “Ilustração Transmontana” records their work by 1908 at the latest. A Portuguese-Brazilian encyclopaedia wrote in 1936 that the coated almonds from Moncorvo had become known in Portugal, and a congress volume from 1942 mentions the small industry in Torre de Moncorvo and the widely known appearance of its almonds. It also already describes several varieties.

The book “Paisagens do Norte” from 1954 describes a coater in front of a large charcoal brazier: she moved the half-finished almonds back and forth on a copper tray, her fingers protected from the hot metal by thimbles, and the noise forced her to speak very loudly. The makers sold their almonds at stalls at festivals and pilgrimages throughout the region. In recent years there have been training courses in Torre de Moncorvo to pass the knowledge on to new coaters and to attract young people to the work, which is traditionally associated with older people.