Egg white, honey, hazelnuts and almonds. These are the basic ingredients of one of Benevento excellences, so old that the Roman poet Martial already mentioned it among the characteristic products of the city.
And the cupedia, to which Titus Livius gave a samnite origin, was much appreciated by the Romans. The ancient and the modern ones. So much that since Benevento was the territory of the Papal State, when in the seventeenth century the torroni started being known and appreciated outside the Samnite city, they were sent to the Eternal City as a present to the high prelates. And in homage to the Pope, in the Eighteenth century the innovation of the “torrone del Papa” (Pope’s torrone) also arrived. But it was affirmed with the Bourbons, who made of the Benevento “copeta” the sweet of the Neapolitan Christmas tradition.
Therefore the “torrone della Regina” (Queen’s torrone), preferred by Ferdinand I, was added to the other tastes which in the meantime were differentiated from the original version. What had never changed was the rigorously artisanal processig, respected in Benevento and in the other towns where the torrone production became popular, such as Santa Croce del Sannio, Montefalcone in Val Fortone and in San Marco de’ Cavoti, where in 1891 the "torrone croccantino" (crunchy) appeared.
Today the torrone of Benevento, an PGI product is present on the market all year round with a large variety of flavours, from coffee to citrus and fruits essences.
