SWEETS

DESSERTS

With local sugar production for many decades, excellent honey, and grape preserve from sugar cane, the production of sweets could not fail to flourish in the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, which offers to date a rich variety of famous sweets.

The list of the Region’s sweets is long, and their origin is lost over time. Their sweetness is not only due to sugar and other sweeteners but also to the memories they retrieve from our childhood. Seker para and Kazan dipi, all kinds of syrupy sweets with walnuts or pistachios, such as small baklavas, kantaifis’, saragli, but also sujuk lukum with must and walnuts go hand in hand with chocolate sweets such as cariocas’, anomala (chocolate sweets with almond) and nougats.

In Evros, visitors enjoy spoon sweets such as ritseli made from zucchini, and liqueurs from local wild plants and crops, such as sloe, mint, basil, cranberry, and St. John’s wort.

One of the most recognizable sweets of the Region is the carioca of Xanthi and the kourabiedes of Nea Karvali.

CARIOCA of XANTHI

Secret recipes, fresh local raw materials, and a lot of love have established carioca as a symbol of the city of Xanthi or a strong brand name of international reach.

Dozens of workshops, pastry shops, and bakeries are active in producing cariocas, which amounts to about 200 tons per year, i.e. more than 56 million cariocas. According to the city’s confectioners, the required ingredients exceed 70 tons of chocolate, 70 tons of walnuts, 50 tons of fresh sponge cake, 15 tons of fresh butter, and many kgs of vanilla.

The first cariocas were prepared several decades ago in the city of Xanthi. Their production has continued to be successful ever since, based on the care of producers to remain faithful to the old recipes and the strict selection of raw materials.

The achievement of the producers’ goal to protect the quality of production and the reputation of the carioca is evidenced by the increase in sales and exports, which took the product to the other side of the Atlantic. The Guinness record for a huge 383 kg carioca, with 5.20 meters in length and 2.70 meters from the base to the top of the arch, further increased the product’s recognition and kept it at the top of consumer preferences.

KOURABIEDES of NEA KARVALI

A visit to Nea Karvali or Kavala without tasting the famous traditional kourabiedes, with plenty of whole roasted almonds, is incomplete! A sweet that is associated with the joy of holidays traditionally symbolizing happiness.