Mazapán de Toledo

Appearance & taste

Mazapán de Toledo is a fine and compact paste of almonds and sugar. The almonds are the main ingredient: they make up at least 50 % of the weight, and because only sweet almonds with at least 50 % fat are used, the marzipan contains at least 26 % fat.

Each batch is tested by a sensory panel. Smell and taste count for 66.5 %, the other impressions in the mouth for 33.5 %. Only marzipan with at least 48 points, none of whose characteristics has been rated “insufficient” or “rejected”, may bear the name. The label says “Indicación Geográfica Protegida Mazapán de Toledo” with the mark of the control body.

Production

Blanched, moistened raw almonds of various sweet almond varieties are mixed with sugar. Besides beet and cane sugar, honey, glucose, sucrose or other natural sugars are also permitted. The mass is then ground, kneaded and packed. Only products of manufacturers based in the province of Toledo may bear the name.

Other confectionery for which certified Mazapán de Toledo is used as the only raw marzipan paste may, with authorisation, bear the statement “Elaborado con Indicación Geográfica Protegida Mazapán de Toledo”.

Origin & history

According to the specification, the word “mazapán” very probably comes from the Arabic of al-Andalus. After the end of Arab rule, marzipan continued to be made in convents and other institutions in Toledo, and since then it has been made by hand without interruption in the city and province. According to the specification, the Arab and Jewish heritage, the monks in the monasteries and the confectioners all contributed to Toledo’s art of confectionery. Emperor Charles V had marzipan from Toledo brought to him after his retirement to Yuste, as did his son Philip II later.

According to the specification, the oldest surviving recipe is in the cookbook “Libro de guisados, manjares y potajes” by Ruperto de Nola, whose first Spanish edition appeared in Toledo in 1525. In 1615 Philip III approved the ordinances of the Toledo confectioners’ guild; they stipulated that marzipan be made only from almonds from Valencia and white sugar, on pain of a fine of a thousand maravedís.

Writers such as Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, Concepción Arenal and Benito Pérez Galdós mention the marzipan from Toledo. Besides the city, it is traditionally made in Sonseca, Gálvez, Consuegra, Fuensalida, Polán and other places in the province. Toledo’s confectioners decorate their shop windows with figures made of marzipan, such as a replica of the cathedral’s “Puerta de los Leones”.