Pastiglie Leone, the history of Piedmontese candies

The history of Leone brake pads, sugar candies among the most iconic in Italy, it begins over 160 years ago, in Alba, a small Piedmontese town. It is here that Mr. Luigi Leone, a young and shrewd entrepreneur, opens the first artisan confectionery of the Langhe combining family tradition and a certain passion for innovation.

Overwhelmed by an immediate success, the laboratory soon moved to nearby Turin, at the time considered the capital of sweets, establishing itself as quality mark. Having become an Italian excellence in the world, today the Marca Leone produces approx 3 million boxes of pills a yearin 40 different flavors, as well as candies, gummies and chocolate of all kinds.

History of Pastille Leone

Leone Brake Pads are fine candies with sugar flavored with more varied tastes. They have the shape of a cylinder, are very colorful and have an “L” printed on the back. Peppermint, cinnamon and rhubarb were the first, historic flavors of these delicacies.

On the market, then, the Pads undoubtedly stand out for their features vintage packagingmade of paper or tin (however these arrived only after 1880, paving the way for the most varied collaborations with companies and artists and for a certain collection) and decorated, not surprisingly, with Savoy friezes.

History has it, in fact, that sugar sprinkles were particularly welcome to the Royal House and that it was the intention of the young Leone to become its official supplier.

Pastiglie Leone, digestive and thirst-quenching

Another connoisseur of excellence of Pastiglie Leone was Emilio Benso Conte di Cavour, fond of violet-flavoured licorice, one of the most iconic flavors of the production. Even today, among the more than 40 flavors offered by the company, the best-selling every year is a head-to-head between violet and cinnamon – Daniela Monero, former marketing director of the company, told Dissapore.

Third position, however, for most tastes, the “mixed thirst quenchers”, as it is written on the packaging. In addition to being good, these delights were in fact conceived as a real pharmaceutical product to quench the palate at the end of the meal and aid digestion.

Hence also the particular name of “tablet”, which somehow recalls the medical language, in an era in which no real distinction was made between pharmacies and drugstores and alcoholic beverages were sold as “tonics”.

How Pastilles are made: the original recipe

Luigi Leone’s experience was the one inherited from his father and grandfather who, in their restaurant in Neide, near Alba, used to offer their guests a particular digestive. They did it just like i eighteenth-century pharmacistspounding white sugar with gum arabic and gum tragacanth.

The young Leone took up the original family recipe and revolutionized its processing. He chose to use raw materials of the best quality and embellished the doughs with natural and among the most sought-after flavourings. From the cold mixing from the dough a sheet was obtained which, placed on a roller, was cut and branded with ancient bronze molds. after a24 hour dryingthe candies were selected by hand and finally packaged.

A man of great vision, Luigi Leone knew how to transform a modest family tradition into a real product of value and great taste. Thus was born the sweet empire ofLion brand.