Mantecol is the

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

name of a typical

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...

of the

cuisine of Argentina Argentine cuisine is described as a cultural blending of Mediterranean influences brought by the Spanish during the colonial period and, later, by Italian and Spanish immigrants to Argentina during 19th and 20th centuries, with influences fro ...

,Murió Odysseas Georgalos, el creador del imperio dulce dueño de Mantecol
by AGUSTINA DEVINCENZI, Cronista.com, 7 May 2021 a sort of semi-soft

nougat Nougat ( , ; ; az, nuqa; fa, نوقا) is a family of confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts are common), whipped egg whites, and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The c ...

made from

peanut butter Peanut butter is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers. Peanut butter is consumed in many countri ...

. It was originally created and marketed in the 1940s by the confectionery company Georgalos, founded by a Greek immigrant, Miguel Georgalos, who took the inspiration in a dessert of Greek cuisine, the ''

halva Halva (also halvah, halwa, and other spellings, Persian : حلوا) is a type of confectionery originating from Persia and widely spread throughout the Middle East. The name is used for a broad variety of recipes, generally a thick paste made f ...

''.Mantecol: historia del dulce griego que se transformó en golosina porteña
May 9, 2019, Cucinare.tv 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.Mantecol o Nucrem: La grieta menos pensada
on Infocielo, 22 Dec 2020

History

Roots of the dessert can be traced to 1882 in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, 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 The Government of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Hükûmeti) is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party ...

decree, arriving in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

where he had some relatives. Those people manufactured and sold halva and taught Miguel Georgalos how to prepare it. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

started, Georgalos emigrated to Argentina, where he opened a factory in

Floresta, Buenos Aires Floresta is a neighbourhood located to the west of Buenos Aires. The district developed and was named after Buenos Aires Western Railway's first terminal station's area called ''La Floresta'', in 1857. Avellaneda Park, the neighborhood's most imp ...

, in 1941, on the same land where the former

All Boys Club Atlético All Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Floresta, Buenos Aires. The institution is mostly known by its football team, which currently plays in the Primera B Nacional, the second division of the Argentine football league s ...

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. Miguel made some changes to the original halva recipe to suit the local customers' taste. As he was not able to find

sesame Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cu ...

in Argentina, he replaced it with

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

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). At first, Mantecol was sold in 1 and 3kg packages, then being marketed in smaller packets.Murió el creador del Mantecol: por qué se llama así la popular golosina
on ABC Rural, 8 May 2021 Nucrem georgalos

After the

Argentine economic crisis Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

of 2001, the company sold the rights of the candy to Cadbury Stani (Argentine

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars ...

) for US$22.5 million who modified the recipe adding glucose syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil, egg-white, and vanilla. When U.S.-based company

Kraft Foods Inc. Kraft Foods Inc. was a multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell H ...

acquired Cadbury in 2010,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 2022La emblemática golosina Mantecol vuelve a manos de sus creadores
by Andrés Sanguinetti on iProfesional, 8 Jul 2022

Composition

The original recipe requires the following ingredients: * Peanut Butter; * Wheat flour 000; * Semolina coarse; * Whole nuts; * Peanut paste; * Dairy milk; *

Rosewater Rose water ( fa, گلاب) is a flavoured water made by steeping rose petals in water. It is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals, a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume. Rose water is also used to flavour ...

; * Powdered sugar.

Advertising

Since its inception, Mantecol was strongly advertised to promote the product. Georgalos joined forces with artist and animator

Manuel García Ferré Manuel García Ferré (8 October 1929 – 28 March 2013) was a Spanish Argentine animation director and cartoonist. Biography García Ferré was born in Almería, Spain, in 1929. He arrived in Argentina in 1947, and worked for advertising agenci ...

to make the advertisements.El postre que atravesó generaciones
Diario Anticipos, 30 Oct 2020 The company also launched several campaigns to promote Mantecol focusing on students, where the confection became popular.Mantecol, un clásico que sobrevive entre fanáticos y detractores
Los Andes, 22 Dec 2020

References

External links

Mantecol
on Cadbury Argentina (archived, 28 Mar 2010) {{Mondelez Argentine brands Cadbury brands Argentine cuisine Mondelez International brands