I only recently found out that Nutella turned 40 this year. I've been eating this delicious cream since I was a kid, so I can't deny I was a bit touched by the news. I always thought Nutella-craze to be a rather Italian phenomenon but I discovered I was wrong: take this eGullet thread as an example. I was even more surprised from Pierre Herme's positive comments on Nutella in his Chocolate Desserts. I knew Nutella was nice but after reading these comments I can even eat it with gourmet confidence. So what better occasion than this to look back and Nutella's history, its cult-product status and a little hazelnut spread tasting?
History
The origins of Nutella go back, indirectly, to 1867. In that year giandujotti, the typical sweet from Turin, are born: this hazelnuts and cocoa candy, made with the objective of reducing the production costs caused by high cocoa prices, soon becomes a success. After WWII Pietro Ferrero creates Giandujot an economic surrogate of giandujotti, sold as a thick paste to be sliced and served on bread. In 1949 a more recognisable ancestor of Nutella sees the light of day: Supercrema, a spreadable version of the paste. The formula of the cream gets improved but the name remains Supercrema till 1964. In this year a serious of circumstances convince the Ferreros to re-name their product Nutella. The first reason was an Italian law of the time prohibiting superlatives in product names. Even more important was the hazelnut cream success on foreign markets. According to one story a German affiliate company proposed a name containing nuss (German for nut) or nut: after some creative brainstorming the name Nutella was born. And with it the commercial campaigns that made Nutella famous around the world.
Nutella as cult product
In Italy no other industrial food product has the same cult status as Nutella. For exactly this reason snobbish Italian foodies often turn their nose at it. I don't think that bothers Ferrero that much. Their recently launched Nutella fan on-line community (only in Italian) has reached the 1000 members mark very quickly. In 2000 a book even looked at the "social history of Nutella". Nutella books, quotations and even songs abound in Italy. Following Nanni Moretti's Nutella dream scene in Bianca, one of his early films, the hazelnut cream acquired even an art-house intellectuals fan-base.
The tasting
Nutella has so many imitations that sometimes it's hard to say why only this product has such a cult status. After reading some comments on the aforementioned eGullet thread, I decided, with a couple of friends, to organise a little nut spread tasting. Originally we intended to try all five creams on sale at our local grocery store but, after a few weird looks from other customers, chickened out and went for three.
We tried, as seriously as possible, to compare the three chosen creams and reach an unanimous judgement on their taste. The last part worked quite well: we all had similar notes on the creams. That doesn't we all liked the same one: subjective taste proved quite different with Nutella winning only by a head.
So here's our summed up notes:
1) Nusspli (13% hazelnuts): By far the sweetest of the lot. The cocoa and hazelnut tastes were well balanced though not so strong as in the other two. In contrast there was a quite noticeable condensed milk taste as finish.
2) Nudossi (36% hazelnuts): This one had a much stronger hazelnut flavour than the rest, as one could expect from the higher nut content. Very creamy and not too sweet. Pleasant vanilla aroma too.
3) Nutella (13% hazelnuts): Whatever way one wants to see it, Nutella stood out from the bunch. Unlike the previous two, the hazelnut have clearly been toasted. The cocoa taste is stronger and there's a more noticeable salt note (a plus for me, as it balances the sweetness, but a minus for the others).
Happy 40th birthday Nutella! I have fond memories of going shopping with my grandmother on Saturday mornings - after we'd been to the bakers for some still-warm bread, we'd stop off at the grocers and buy a couple of small portion packets of Nutella and gorge ourselves when we got home. Gran was as much of a Nutella fan as me, hence she only let me have the little packs in case I got a sugar-high :)
I've tasted quite a few hazelnut/choc spreads over the years and like you found that none of them compare to Nutella. I hope it sticks around for another 40 years!
Posted by: Angela | May 04, 2004 at 03:14 PM
ooh! I LOVE nutella. heh! to think I've been eating it all my life, but never knew it was of Italian origins! how facinating!
yeah, I agree... I've tried quite a few of the other brands... but they are all pretenders to the throne... the crown still sits squarely on Nutella's cap! ; )
to this day... I eat it with peanut butter, on its own, on bread, on crackers, on digestives... ok, I think you get the drift... and lately, thoughts of putting nutella in cakes and other things I bake have been plaguing me! LoL.
Posted by: Renee | May 04, 2004 at 03:29 PM
Credo che la nutella sia un po' il nostro burro di arachidi. And, am I the only one to think that nutella can taste different from different pots?
I've been to Alba a few weeks ago, and I found actually seeing the Ferrero plant quite moving, even if the place is ridden with the smell that always plagues chocolate factories.
Sometimes, when I feel uncomfortable with the massively industrial nature of the product, I turn to those nice organic/old farm recipe surrogates now available: good, but not the same. Never.
Posted by: rose | May 04, 2004 at 06:26 PM
Renee, Nigella has a recipe for Nutella Cake (or torta alla gianduia) in How To Be A Domestic Goddess. I've made a variation of it and is is extremely rich and decadent - it uses an entire large jar of Nutella (but the bonus is the recupe doesn't contain any extra sugar)
You can find the recipe here:
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/getrecipe.zsp?id=47108
(PS - a few weeks ago when I was writing a particularly awful assignment for uni, I managed to eat an entire large jar of Nutella, spoon by bulging spoon over 3 days....I kept *meaning* to stop, but........)
Posted by: Niki | May 05, 2004 at 01:01 AM
I just started wondering why my dear husband bought nutella and hid it in the cupboard. now i see. but i havent found the rest of the choci-stuff. btw your webside is getting better and better. love d.
Posted by: daniela | May 05, 2004 at 09:29 AM
Angela: one of the reasons for my Nutella liking is without any doubt the memories that childhood are connected to it. Today even the fights I had with my brother over Nutella as a kid seem nice.
Renee: Nutella is great in cakes! One of the first cakes I ever baked was a Nutella crostata: a shortcut pastry crust filled with nutella (or for a somewhat lighter, version nutella and ricotta) and covered by the typical crostata dough lattice pattern.
Rose: A pensarci hai perfettamente ragione, ma tra noccioline e nutella non ho dubbi su quale sia meglio! Thanks for the Nutella plant "memory", I've always asked myself what it would be like in there.
Niki: Thanks for the recipe link!
Posted by: Alberto | May 05, 2004 at 09:37 AM
daniela: there's nothing as hopless as trying to hide something from you :-)
Posted by: Alberto | May 05, 2004 at 11:55 AM
Who needs Happy Pills?
Mine is a thick slice of pain campagne, toasted, slathered liberally with globs of Nutella.
Works every time.
Pim
Posted by: Pim | May 06, 2004 at 07:54 AM
Nutella is also made by Nestlé, a big evil corporation that cuts down the rainforests. I resist it for that reason. You should, too...
Posted by: j | May 14, 2004 at 03:13 PM
J, to my knowledge Ferreo (the company behind Nutella) and Nestle have no contact point whatsoever. Nestle does produce a similar spread which IMO is pretty lame.
BTW: there are plenty of resons to boycott Nestle, if one wants to, IMO the rain forest one is probably not the worst. But that's a personal decision... you can't expect everyone to see things as you do.
Posted by: Alberto | May 14, 2004 at 03:39 PM
Hey Alberto! Just surfing your site today and found out that we both posted about Nutella around the same time! I didn't know it was the 40th anniversary; my ruminations began on a more mundane level, wondering about the strange preponderance of chocolate sandwiches in the Italian part of Switzerland. What a cool coincidence! :)
Here is the link to my post on May 1: http://crumbs.everywherebuthere.com/archives/000011.html
Posted by: Theresa | May 16, 2004 at 09:36 PM
Theresa, as you say, another food blogging coincidence! It happens so often I'm starting to get scared ;-)). Is there a big "chef" up there influencing our cooking thoughts?
Posted by: Alberto | May 17, 2004 at 09:52 AM
I wish i wasnt fat so i could eat nutella EVERY DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Posted by: Natasha | August 14, 2004 at 11:28 PM
scrivo in italiano che mi viene meglio :-P
nutella è nata per sbaglio, nel senso che in origine quello che dovevano fare quel giorno era il "gianduiotto" cioccolatino cremoso alla nociola, l'operaio che mischiava gli ingredienti ha fatto uno sbaglio grossolano, e la consistenza di quello che dovevano diventare cioccolatini era di minor densita, una crema spalmabile insomma. l'operaio venne licenziato e la crema venne svenduta tra l'operai dello stabilimento e lo spacio della fabrichetta. :-D
il resto è storia. l'operaio pero nn venne riasunto.
baci
ps. io piu della nuttella amo visceralmente la Crema Novi con la quale faccio una crostata superlativa http://www.isognatori.com/vesnuccia/articolo.asp?id=18
per magiori info su crema novi confrontata alla nutella: http://www.cibo360.it/alimentazione/cibi/dolci/nutella.htm
Posted by: ves | August 18, 2004 at 02:01 PM
I buy Nutella every week for my kids who love it. I have to buy the largest jar because otherwise it would not last out the week. You know what bugs me about that?
It's the shape and depth of the jar. When I get to the bottom I can't get out the Nutella without getting it on the top of the knife or on my hands. I don't care for that very much, so I normally leave the last little bit. My kids don't mind though. They think it's pretty good and as soon as the jar gets 3/4 empty they come asking.. "is this empty?? is this empty??" so they can get a spoon in there and eat up what I don't care to use. :))
Posted by: Jill | September 02, 2004 at 01:43 AM
J'ADORE LE NUTELLA!!!! je suis un grand fan of it. je suis doing a report on nutella. haha. c'est making moi tres faim. je mange ca tout jours avec everything. par example, les pate. je suis scottish.
un jour, i might get grosse. some garcons mange mon nutella dans la avion when i was alleing to france avec mes amis. je was tres upset. mais i bought more. i also aime france tellement!
Posted by: tellanut | November 17, 2004 at 11:15 AM
nutela kicks some serious aaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssssssss
Posted by: ashok selby | February 04, 2005 at 08:38 PM
where can you buy nutella
Posted by: inanutshell | February 09, 2005 at 12:51 AM
whats the song on the latest nutella add? please help as i've been searching for ages for it and i cannot find it!
Posted by: Elmo | February 11, 2005 at 11:54 PM
Elmo, where do you live? I'm not sure the song is the same all over the world. That said, since I have no TV I guess someone else will have to help here.
Posted by: Alberto | February 13, 2005 at 05:27 PM
Did nutella ever have a hazlenut on top when you opened a jar. I swear it used to.
Posted by: nicole | March 02, 2005 at 07:57 AM
I have to admit I never saw nutella with whole nuts in Italy. Could it be a special US edition? Anyone else with more info? I'm curious about this too.
Posted by: Alberto | March 02, 2005 at 09:56 AM
Where can I found the huge nutella jar. I think it is a half gallon or even more. Thanks
Posted by: anne | March 09, 2005 at 07:15 PM
Can anyone tell me what the song on the nutella add is??? PLEASE HELP!!!!
Posted by: Ice | June 26, 2005 at 12:24 AM
ive been lookin 4 d song on d ad as wel?? anyone no??
Posted by: wahoo | August 21, 2005 at 01:15 PM