Mantecol

Argentinian dessert
  • Georgalos
    (1940–2001)
  • Cadbury
    (2001–10)
  • Kraft Foods Inc.
    (2010–12)
  • Mondelez International
    (2012–22)

Mantecol is the brand name of a typical dessert of the cuisine of Argentina,[3] a sort of semi-soft nougat made from peanut butter. It was originally created and marketed in the 1940s by the confectionery company Georgalos, founded by a Greek immigrant, Miguel Georgalos, who took inspiration from a dessert in Greek cuisine, halva.[4]

Mantecol is very popular in Argentina, where it is used as daily candy (especially between the months of December and February), as well as classic dessert of the Christmas table.[5]

History

Roots of the dessert can be traced to 1882 in Istanbul, where Juan Georgalos elaborated bread and traded cereals. His son Miguel was expelled (like many other Greeks) from Istanbul in 1921 after a Turkish Government decree, arriving in Poland where he had some relatives. Those people manufactured and sold halva and taught Miguel Georgalos how to prepare it.[4]

Before World War II started, Georgalos emigrated to Argentina, where he opened a factory in Floresta, Buenos Aires, in 1941, on the same land where the former All Boys venue was located. Miguel named his business La Greco Argentina ("The Greek-Argentine"), being renamed to "Georgalos Hermanos" when the rest of the family arrived in the country.[3] Miguel made some changes to the original halva recipe to suit the local customers' taste. As he was not able to find sesame in Argentina, he replaced it with peanuts.[3]

1969 advertisement for Mantecol

The name Mantecol came after a neighbor of Georgalos gave her opinion about the dessert, saying that it "tasted like butter" ("manteca" in Latin American Spanish).[4][3]

At first, Mantecol was sold in 1 and 3 kg packages, then being marketed in smaller packets.[6]

"Nucrem" was the brand name chosen by Georgalos after the company sold the Mantecol name to Cadbury

After the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression, the company sold the rights of the candy to Cadbury Stani (Argentine subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes) for US$22.5 million[3] who modified the recipe adding glucose syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil, egg-white, and vanilla.[5] When U.S.-based company Kraft Foods Inc. acquired Cadbury in 2010,[7][8] Mantecol became one of its brands. Two years later, Kraft split its business into two new companies, one of them, Mondelez International, took over Cadbury and subsequently the Mantecol brand and products.[6][9][10] Mantecol was manufactured by Mondelez at the Cadbury plant in Victoria, Buenos Aires.[11]

On the other hand, when in 2008 the "non-competition clause" expired, Georgalos begun, once again, production with the original recipe under the brand Nucrem.[4] Three years after the launch, it helped Georgalos to own 30% of the confectionery market.[3]

In July 2022, it was announced that Mondelez had sold part of its business in Argentina, with its plant in Victoria, Buenos Aires, being acquired by Georgalos. Therefore Georgalos regained ownership of the "Mantecol" brand after 21 years, resuming production of the dessert and other products. With that operation, Georgalos also acquired other popular candy brands such as Bazooka, Palitos de la selva, Lengüetazo, and Jirafa.[2][1][12]

Composition

The original recipe requires the following ingredients:

Advertising

Since its inception, Mantecol was strongly advertised to promote the product. Georgalos joined forces with artist and animator Manuel García Ferré to make the advertisements.[13] The company also launched several campaigns to promote Mantecol focusing on students, where the confection became popular.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Georgalos recuperó Mantecol: Mondelez vendió parte de su negocio en el país y la histórica marca regresa a la empresa que la creó, Infobae, 8 Jul 2022
  2. ^ a b Así es la historia del Mantecol, la golosina que regresó a manos argentinas on Forbes, 2022
  3. ^ a b c d e f Murió Odysseas Georgalos, el creador del imperio dulce dueño de Mantecol by AGUSTINA DEVINCENZI, Cronista.com, 7 May 2021
  4. ^ a b c d Mantecol: historia del dulce griego que se transformó en golosina porteña. May 9, 2019, Cucinare.tv
  5. ^ a b Mantecol o Nucrem: La grieta menos pensada on Infocielo, 22 Dec 2020
  6. ^ a b Murió el creador del Mantecol: por qué se llama así la popular golosina on ABC Rural, 8 May 2021
  7. ^ Case study: Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury. Scott Moeller on The Financial Times, JANUARY 9 2012
  8. ^ Kraft to Acquire Cadbury in Deal Worth $19 Billion. The New York Times, 19 Jan 2010
  9. ^ Kraft Foods cambia de nombre: ahora será Mondelez on Fortuna, 5 Oct 2012
  10. ^ Kraft Foods cambia su nombre a Mondelez, Infobae, 5 Oct 2012
  11. ^ a b Mantecol, un clásico que sobrevive entre fanáticos y detractores, Los Andes, 22 Dec 2020
  12. ^ La emblemática golosina Mantecol vuelve a manos de sus creadores by Andrés Sanguinetti on iProfesional, 8 Jul 2022
  13. ^ El postre que atravesó generaciones, Diario Anticipos, 30 Oct 2020

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mantecol.
  • Mantecol on Cadbury Argentina (in Spanish) (archived, 28 Mar 2010)
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