Zabala is the branded name of a type of milk caramel candy or

dulce de leche ''Dulce de leche'' (; pt, doce de leite), also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. The resulting substance, w ...

candy, traditional in

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. The name Zabala possibly comes after the founder of Montevideo,

Bruno Mauricio de Zabala Bruno Mauricio de Zabala y Gortázar (1682–1736) was a Spanish soldier and colonial administrator who served as governor of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata from 1717 to 1734 and founded the city of Montevideo, capital of present-day Uru ...

whose portrait is printed on the wrapper. Zabala candies were invented in 1913 in the town of Fray Marcos in the Department of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and come in two flavors:

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

and

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

. On 19 May 2015, production of Zabala candies was around 6000 and 8000

kilograms The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially ...

per month, the company celebrated its 90th anniversary a few months after the given date.

History

In 1913, the first

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

was established in Fray Marcos and improved the growth of the town. Soon after, the mill was bought by Agroindustrias Florida establishing the factory of the Zabala candies in the old mill of Fray Marcos.* * * *

References

{{reflist Candy Uruguayan brands Food and drink companies of Uruguay