“Glorious”, the most expensive bonbon in the world, will be on show at the International Chocolate Festival of Óbidos, this weekend. The unique chocolate costs 7,728 euros and is coated with 23-carat gold.
The bonbon is made up of equatorial black Valrhona chocolate, saffron filaments, Perigord white truffle, white truffle oil, Madagascar vanilla, gold flakes ... and a secret ingredient.
“It’s a product that we look for the most expensive ingredients for its confection,” explained the bonbon’s chocolatier, Daniel Gomes, who for about a year worked on creating the ‘exclusive’ chocolate truffle, “aimed at the luxury market.”
‘Glorious’ will have a limited edition of just 1,000 bonbons, sold in packaging that is also “a work of art and almost like a jewellery box,” that can be kept after the bonbon has been eaten.
The packaging consists of a black lacquered wooden base with gold serial number engraving and a crystal cloche, coated with thousands of Swarovski crystals and pearls, finished off with a gold ribbon handle.
The exclusivity of the product includes “the requirement not to divulge to whom the bonbons are sold,” said Gomes, revealing only the countries where ‘Glorious’ has been sent: the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Angola and Argentina.
The most expensive bonbon in the world, which will be on display in the sculpture tent in Óbidos surrounded by security guards, is made in Leiria, at Daniel’s Chocolate, but “kept in a secret place” and transported to countries where it has already been acquired with “high security and conservation measures, and with all security mechanisms activated until it reaches the customer’s home.”
The diamond-shaped chocolate is not for every budget, but, according to Gomes, “it causes all sorts of reactions,” and the chocolatier is expecting opinions to be divided between “those who think it is acceptable to create an expensive and exclusive rarity,” and those who “consider it an extravagance for a chocolate to cost more than €7,000.”
With their exclusive packaging, the chocolate designer’s premium bonbons and wide range of colourful chocolate bars with freeze-dried fruit, with distinctive flavours, fillings and textures, will continue to keep tongues wagging both in Portugal and abroad.
The International Chocolate Festival of Óbidos starts this Friday and runs through until this Sunday.
Each ticket to the festival costs €6.5.