Classic confection, influenced by Cuba, handcrafted in Turin

Rocco Disderide, who along with his wife Katherine built the building we now know as the Deli back in 1902, was a lifelong lover of tobacco. He smoked a pipe and also cigars throughout his remarkable 105 years. Tobacco was so close to his heart that even when the Disderides sold the Deli’s building to the Diroff Brothers in 1921 when he was 64, at what might have seemed roughly a reasonable age for “retirement,” Rocco still kept his small cigar store at 125 E. Ann Street in Ann Arbor for many decades more. He did not stock these delicious handmade chocolate cigars from northern Italy, but if we could condense time, I’m pretty sure his young great-great-great-granddaughter, who I had the honor of meeting this year, would have been very happy if he had!

The origin story of these cigars goes back to the time before Rocco and Katherine Disderide arrived in Ann Arbor with their three daughters. In the town of Turin, in 1878—about 100 miles from where a then 19-year-old Rocco would still at the time have been living near Genoa—a 20-year-old Torinese by the name of Silviano Venchi scraped together all the cash he could come up with to buy two bronze cauldrons. Venchi’s vision was to start a chocolate shop. Back in that era, chocolate in finished form for eating in this way was relatively new, and cacao consumption was all the rage amongst the European cognoscenti. Young Silviano Venchi was very much caught up in the buzz around cacao beans and was willing to risk all he had to make his dreams come true.

A few years into his chocolate work, Venchi made a creative contribution of his own to the confectionary world when he came up with the idea to craft what came to be called “nougatine.” Made from chopped caramelized hazelnuts coated in dark chocolate, it’s essentially a different way of bringing together two of the main products of Torino’s culinary scene—ancient Italian hazelnuts, and the relatively novel chocolate which had come not all that long before from the western hemisphere. Soon, Venchi had created what came to be called “the most elegant chocolate shop in Piedmont.” The company grew from there and has long been one of Italy’s most admired and inspired chocolate makers. If you go to Turin with Zingerman’s Food Tours, you will see Venchi’s confectionery and gelato shops all over the city!

The history of the Venchi chocolate cigars dates to the 1960s when Pietro Cussino, then one of the owners of the company, took a trip to the Caribbean. He was driven by his passion for finding the finest cacao and the best rum to enhance the quality of Venchi’s already exquisite chocolates. Natural Law #8 reminds us, “To get to greatness you’ve got to keep getting better, all the time!” And Sr. Cussino was practicing it. When he arrived in Cuba, he quickly became enamored of the handcrafting that went into the artisan Cuban cigars. In the spirit of nearly all great creative work, Cussino combined these two previously unconnected crafts—artisan cigars with the artisan chocolate making for which Venchi had by then already been famous for nearly 90 years.

Here in 2024, Venchi’s chocolate cigars are still produced and wrapped, beautifully, by hand. We have four types at the Candy Store (inside the Coffee Company):

• The classic original Venchi Chocolate Cigar – Dense and delicious cocoa paste, hand-covered in a double layer of dark chocolate, then foil-wrapped to look almost exactly like a handmade cigar.
• The powerfully good Pistachio Cigar – These have a delicious filling of white chocolate and pistachio paste that’s mixed with chopped pistachios, almonds, and raw cane sugar. A double layer of 60% dark chocolate on the outside!
• Venchi’s signature Nougatine – Silviano Venchi’s original, late 19th century, confectionery creation is at the heart of this one. Dark cocoa paste is mixed with PGI (protected by law) Piedmont hazelnuts that are ground into a coarse confection that’s then laced with caramel chips. The nougatine center is coated with a double layer of chocolate and, again, hand-wrapped in foil in the style of a fine cigar.
• The terrific Orange and Chocolate – Dark chocolate cigars, filled with milk chocolate combined with cocoa paste and seasoned with candied orange peel. The cigar is covered with a double layer of milk and dark 56% chocolate to preserve the aroma to the fullest.

The Venchi cigars are great for any gift for anyone who likes chocolate! You can slice a small bit off to enjoy or serve the cigar whole. They really do look like a fancy cigar—and they taste terrific!