the sweet scrapbook

The history of Napoli began shortly after the Second World War: it was founded in 1948 by Franz Andres and in 1955 merged with Casali (I wrote a little more on Casali's history in my first entry about one of their products). Since 1970, the Casali and Napoli brands are owned by Manner.

Casali and Manner products have been available in stores here for quite a while, but I have never had the opportunity to try a Napoli product until less than three weeks ago, when I found some crispy Napoli wafers with 71% cream (funny, they are not to be found in the product range presented on manner.com, though they are listed in the table with nutritional information for all Manner products that is to be found on the same website) in a supermarket. There were three flavours available: Choco, Hazelnut and Lemon. I'm usually not that attracted to hazelnut, and the wrappers didn't make them look that great anyway (even though I knew Napoli is owned by Manner, so they couldn't have been that bad, could they?), so I chose to buy only the Choco and Lemon wafers.

On a Saturday, at the beginning of June 2005, I went shopping with B., my boyfriend at the time. Of course, we both wanted something sweet. He suggested the Casali Original Rum-Kokos (the milk chocolate version). I was (and still am) a big fan of chocolate and rum combinations so I had been curious about those rum-filled chocolate balls ever since first seeing them. However, I had always been unsure about the coconut component and about their weird shiny look. But B. said they were very good... And that's how I first tried something from Casali. Hello, Koko!

I would later learn that the Casali story began almost 220 years ago in Trieste (at that time, a free port within the Habsburg Empire) when Joseph Casali began producing Rosolio (a liqueur made using rose petals), rum and punch. The business was relocated to Vienna in 1810. Casali would step into a new territory, that of confectionery manufacturing after being sold to the Beer family in 1913. 1955 was the year that Casali was sold again, this time to Franz Andres, the man who had founded Napoli in 1949. Casali Napoli thus became Austria's second largest confectionery manufacturer - the first being Manner (founded in 1890 in Vienna). In 1970, Manner (who, by the way, make some awesome gingerbread and wafers*) took over Casali Napoli.

On a Saturday, at the beginning of June 2005, I went shopping with B., my boyfriend at the time. Of course, we both wanted something sweet. He suggested the Casali Original Rum-Kokos (the milk chocolate version). I was (and still am) a big fan of chocolate and rum combinations so I had been curious about those rum-filled chocolate balls ever since first seeing them. However, I had always been unsure about the coconut component and about their weird shiny look. But B. said they were very good... And that's how I first tried something from Casali. Hello, Koko!

I would later learn that the Casali story began almost 220 years ago in Trieste (at that time, a free port within the Habsburg Empire) when Joseph Casali began producing Rosolio (a liqueur made using rose petals), rum and punch. The business was relocated to Vienna in 1810. Casali would step into a new territory, that of confectionery manufacturing after being sold to the Beer family in 1913. 1955 was the year that Casali was sold again, this time to Franz Andres, the man who had founded Napoli in 1949. Casali Napoli thus became Austria's second largest confectionery manufacturer - the first being Manner (founded in 1890 in Vienna). In 1970, Manner (who, by the way, make some awesome gingerbread and wafers*) took over Casali Napoli.