We believe La Tonda Dolci is creating a truly exceptional thing. The moment we tasted his chocolate spread, we knew we found our next partner.
Here's how Federico came up with the idea and made his dream come true.
Zia Martina (ZM): When did you start developing products?
Federico(F): I discovered my very-low-tolerance to lactose when I was 16 years old, and a few months later I started to develop products. At first only for myself, in order to be able to eat them, then when I was 17 or 18 years old, I started to think about producing them to start a business.
ZM: But why chocolate spread?
F: I decided to start creating an hazelnut and cocoa spread mainly for a personal passion, because it’s something very versatile that you can enjoy in very different way, that I’ve always liked.
ZM: How did you develop your recipe?
F: At first, with the help of my mom, I tried to create a recipe made of three simple ingredients. I started exclusively for myself, cause I wanted to be able to eat this food without problems, so I thought about the necessary ingredients to create it and tried. To be honest I learnt trying, trying and trying again. We’ve always been into cooking sweets, so we had a clear idea about it. The only thing we still didn’t know, was the right percentage between the ingredients, that we discovered trying many times the recipe, based on our taste. The most important thing for us was that the hazelnut had to be the real protagonist of it.
ZM: When did you sell your first jar?
F: We sold our first jar in January 2020, after more than two years spent on creating the right recipe and finding the right ingredients, with a balanced percentage, taste and nutritional facts.
ZM: Where are you selling your products now?
F: We are only selling in Italy and a few European countries, but always trying to discover new audience for our products. We can't wait to meet the customers in the US!