Story

History

Produced in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, its origins date back more than 300 years to the presence of early Christian monks living in the hills of the area.

Their skills in fine food and drink would have included the art of distilling, especially the use of the wild hazelnuts and other local ingredients to create a liqueur on which Frangelico is based today.

Its name is also part of the same local legend - an abbreviation of Fra. Angelico, a hermit monk believed to have inhabited the magnificent Piedmont hills during the 17th century.

The Bottle

The Frangelico bottle is an immediate reminder of this distinctive history. Shaped like a monk’s habit, with a traditional rope belt around its waist, it is a guarantee of authenticity and quality that links the past right through to the present day.

Production Process

Frangelico’s flavour is achieved through a four-stage process:

1. 1. Hazelnuts
   Local Piedmont hazelnuts are shelled, toasted and crushed. They are then infused in a solution of alcohol and water.
2. 2. Distillation
   Part of the hazelnut infusion is distilled to produce a natural hazelnut distillate.
3. 3. Natural Flavourings
   A number of natural extracts – including cocoa and vanilla - are blended with the hazelnut infusion and hazelnut distillate to create the Frangelico concentrate.
4. 4. Blending
   The concentrate is blended with pure alcohol, sugar and water to achieve the required bottling strength. It is then laid down in vats for 6-8 weeks to allow the blend to marry together and mellow.

Taste

Taste Frangelico and the whole story falls into place. Wonderful toasted wild hazelnuts, found only in the Italian north, combined with cocoa, vanilla berries and a host of other natural extracts that make up its complex flavour.

Tasting Notes

Appearance:	Pale Gold
Nose:	Intense hazelnut aromas
Palate:	Rich texture. Pronounced but delicate hazelnut flavour with hints of vanilla and dark chocolate. Smooth, long finish with fragrant back-note.

Enjoyment

This glorious taste that makes Frangelico so special is the key to its versatility and popularity. Drink it in winter and summer; to warm you up or cool you down; short or long; straight or mixed. Try it every way.

As a classic liqueur, it’s perfect after a meal - either with coffee or in coffee. For sheer sophistication, pour it over ice in a chunky tumbler. Or practise your cocktail skills with some of our favourites from around the world.

Then, as you sip your glass of Frangelico, don’t forget to share the story with your friends. Remember - it all began 300 years ago.

Tonda Gentile Nuts

Frangelico’s irresistible hazelnut taste starts with some very special hazelnuts.

They even have their own name - Tonda Gentile - and are a speciality of the northern Italian region of Piedmont where Frangelico is produced.

Tonda Gentile hazelnuts are known for being bigger, plumper and more uniform, with a skin that sheds easily, allowing for toasting without a bitter taste. Their sweet flavour is the reason they are so sought after by internationally known confectionery brands, Ferrero Rocher and Nutella, as well as by Frangelico.

Frangelico buys around 38 tons of Tonda Gentile hazelnuts a year - all grown in the Langhe, an area of rural hills and picturesque villages in southern Piedmont which provides the perfect climate and soil.

Once toasted and distilled with alcohol, then infused with cocoa, coffee, vanilla berries and other natural flavours, those hazelnuts are miraculously transformed into 4,500,000 bottles of Frangelico for enjoyment around the world, as well as in their native Italy.

So special is the Tonda Gentile Delle Langhe hazelnut that it is the first product of the Piedmont region to hold a protected status - equivalent to DOC or Appellation Contrôlée wine classification.

Incidentally, for those who are nuts about statistics, the annual production of these exceptional hazelnuts is 14,000 tons. With each tree bearing 35 kgs of nuts, there must be about 368,000 hazelnut trees in the region.