Maker record
Caffarel
Caffarel is an Italian chocolate maker founded in Turin in the nineteenth century. Its products include chocolate and the gianduiotto, a Piedmontese chocolate made with hazelnuts. The company helped bring the gianduiotto into wider circulation, selling it from 1869. Caffarel’s early manufacturing history is tied to the Landò chocolate factory in Turin, and the company later moved its base to Luserna San Giovanni in the 1960s.
- Founded
- 1826
- Countries
- Italy
- Locations
- Turin, Italy · 1826 · Luserna San Giovanni, Italy
- Founders
- Paul Caffarel
The story of Caffarel
Caffarel’s early history is connected with the Landò chocolate factory in Turin. MuseoTorino records that Giovanni Martino Bianchini installed a chocolate-making machine there around 1820. In 1828, the Caffarel family acquired the factory; after Bianchini’s death in 1837, Paolo Caffarel took over its operation and established the firm Caffarelli padre e figlio. In 1846, leadership passed to Paolo’s sons Isidoro and Paolo, who expanded the works.
Caffarel helped establish the gianduiotto as a commercial product from 1869, although MuseoTorino attributes its invention to chocolatier Michele Prochet. In 1879, Caffarel and Prochet’s businesses merged as Caffarel Prochet e Compagnia. The Turin factory was rebuilt after bomb damage in 1942. In the 1960s, the company moved its base to Luserna San Giovanni.