Russian Chocolate: Saint Petersburg’s N.K. Krupskaya Confectionery Factory
Russian cuisine offers really tasty and filling dishes, but sometimes foreigners find them not so easy to eat as Russian Chocolate. Therefore, everybody agrees on the great variety of delicious Russian sweets: пирожные (pastries), печение (biscuits), торт (cakes), конфети (candy), вафли (wafel). In Russian supermarkets there are usually two big departments. One is dedicated mainly to handcrafted bakery products, pastries and biscuits and the other one to sweets, candy and wafers.
The most famous confectionery factories in Russia are Moscow’s Красный октябрь (Krasny oktyabr) and Saint Petersburg’s Фабрика имени Н. К. Крупской (Fabrika imeni N. K. Krupskoi).
Фабрика имени Н. К. Крупской (Fabrika imeni N. K. Krupskoi) is the main confectionery factory in Saint Petersburg and it was established in 1938. This is the first chocolate and candy factory created in the Soviet Union and one of the most popular factory in Russia specialized in chocolate production. It was named after Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya and despite the hard times it continued to work even during World War II and the blockade of Leningrad.
The company invested in advanced technology, modern equipment and new types of products. In 1988 the factory became independent from the government and self-financed its own business. They bought new equipment and renewed and increased their assortment to 120 different kinds of chocolate and candy, supplied to Finland Norway and U.S. as well. The factory increase rapidly for the high quality it was able to provide. They installed a new chocolate refinement and processing line made by the Swiss Buler firm that raised the quality of the chocolate.
In 1995 the factory received the Candy Kettle Award, the most prestigious international prize of European confectioners, and from that time on the company received many other quality awards.
So, if you love chocolate and candy or if you are invited over for dinner and you’re looking for something to bring or just for a sweet souvenir to bring home from Saint Petersburg I suggest you pay a visit to Krupskoi’s shops. They are spread all over the city centre; there’s one in Gostiniy Dvor on Nevsky prospekt and one in ulitsa Sadovaya 35, really close to Liden & Denz.
In Krupskoi’s shops you will find a wide range of different kinds of sweets to try. The most popular candy are мишка на севере (mishka na severe), северная аврора (severnaya avrora), ленинградские (leningradskie), столичные звезды (stolichnye zvezdy) and the Cameo’s трюфелы экстра (tryufely ekstra). Then I suggest you try the candy bars Oсобый (Osobiy) and Тройка (Troyka) and chose between fresh pastries and biscuits. Besides in the shops there is a nice selection of teas too.
Eventually you can’t miss the famous Алёнка (Alenka) chocolate bars and candy by “Krasny oktyabr”, and personally I recommend you try Бабаевский (Babaevsky)’s chocolate bar with almond and orange.
So now you are ready to enjoy Russian delicacies! And remember that there’s always room for chocolate and sweets…and they are always very welcome!
This post was brought to you by Jessica, currently studying Russian at Liden and Denz
