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Estepa (Seville), Nov 6 (EFE).- The hermitage, the Virgin, the sand, the houses… all made of chocolate. It is the sweet miracle that can be seen in the La Estepeña factory, where millions of mantecados and Polvorones come out every year, but which also has a museum where the City of Chocolate is one of its main attractions.
More than 200 years after the Brothers Grimm told the story of Hansel and Gretel, the brothers enraptured by a house made entirely of chocolate, in the factory located on Almendra de Estepa street you can see an impressive reproduction of the transfer of Our Lady Señora del Rocío from her hermitage to her town, by the work and grace of the 2,000 kilos of chocolate that cover an area of 60 square meters.
The details are explained to EFE by José Galván, who at 78 years old defines himself as “the emeritus” of the factory, the grandson of the creators and third generation of a company born in 1855 as a small confectionery, and which today Every day it produces mantecados and pollorones with the equivalent each year of an Olympic swimming pool full of chocolate or 300 soccer fields planted with cereals.
Galván cites that, until now, Paris, London, Venice or Rome have been reproduced in chocolate, and this year, after El Rocío being the last protagonist, the scenario is repeated to return to the province of Huelva, but now staging the transfer of the patron saint of Almonte, something that is repeated only every seven years.
“We have been making cities for ten years, and absolutely everything we are seeing here is made of chocolate, even the sand,” says Galván, and stops to explain that “first you have to make some positive molds, then you take the negative in plastic and the positive one in chocolate, and some pieces are joined with others with liquid chocolate”, until the final effect is achieved.
The Rocera sand is made of ground chocolate and the visual effect is perfect, since the color is achieved by grinding the grains, until culminating in the entire representation a work that lasts almost a year, since the chocolate city begins work in February , finishes at the end of September and opens in October, “and what the city will be next year is a secret that only I and someone else know,” he says.
The Rocero chocolate village is one more part of the attractions that Estepa has when Christmas comes, since this town in the Sierra Sur of Seville lives for and for mantecados and Polvorones throughout the year, with fifty direct points of sale to the public, a Christmas tourism that makes its streets fill with people as soon as summer ends and it begins to smell of sesame seeds on all four sides.
The Regulatory Council of PGI Mantecados and Polvorones de Estepa, which brings together the majority of the factories, protects and disseminates a brand that has exponents such as Enrique Moreno, where you can see an impressive reproduction of the RMS Titanic ocean liner sailing in a sea of honey between buildings and monuments representative of various countries around the world.
As spokesperson for the company, Mari Carmen Moreno explains that people “come away impressed” by seeing the work of local artist Álvaro Romero, from the Choco Expo company, who spent more than 120 hours to carry out the project and 2,800 to execute it. the 3,634 pieces that make it up and 820 for its staging, with 1,560 kilos of chocolate, 50 of nuts and 200 of honey.
“When they see it, they congratulate us, because they do not expect this work of art to be here,” and adds that, in the factory, “we have had a lot of chocolate smell during production,” with the three types of this product, black, white and milk, used to achieve the final effect.
By the way, if you want to visit, the Christmas effect in the town is more than achieved, since in Estepa you can already enjoy the typical holiday lighting, with 50,000 light bulbs distributed throughout its streets and a smell in the atmosphere that aspires. to be a World Heritage Site one day. EFE
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