The new recipe, released ahead of Valentine’s Day, has a lemon-flavoured centre and is coated by white chocolate with a hint of vanilla.
The story behind the much-loved chocolate “kisses” begins in 1922 with fashion designer and entrepreneur Luisa Spagnoli.
Spagnoli devised the original recipe: fine cocoa and finely chopped hazelnuts blended to obtain a soft gianduia centre, topped with a whole hazelnut, and covered with dark chocolate.
The irregular shape reminded Spagnoli of the knuckles of a fist, leading to the chocolate’s original name, Cazzotto, meaning “punch” in Italian.
However, Giovanni Buitoni, the young manager and son of Perugina co-founder Francesco, changed the name to Baci, arguing that people would prefer a kiss to a punch.
It was later discovered that Buitoni and Spagnoli – who was 14 years his senior and was married to one of his father’s partners – were secret lovers.
According to legend, the idea of inserting romantic phrases inside the foil-wrapped chocolates was inspired by the secret handwritten messages exchanged between Buitoni and Spagnoli at the Perugina plant.
A century since the creation of the classic chocolates, 1500 Baci are made every minute, exported to 55 countries around the world, with half a billion “kisses” sold each year.
The chocolates are made in a hilltop town near the birthplace of San Valentino, just outside the Umbrian capital of Perugia.
