Picturesque landscapes, rich history, delicious food and great wine. Looks like only good things come out of Tuscany. Read on to discover a few products that we think also belong to Tuscany’s greatest hits.
Agricola Maraviglia
Choosing the right olive oil can be daunting, with the various categories and dozens of brands available on supermarket shelves. The best way to ensure that you are getting genuine goods is to purchase them directly from producers.
Agricola Maraviglia is a brand that emphasises this way of business. Their seasonal olive oil, typically harvested in October, is shipped fresh to customers, who are delighted to have direct access to oil that is not rancid from sitting on shelves of a grocery store.
Francesco Piattelli, the brand founder whom we had a chance to speak with, said “I don’t want sustainability in a light sense, it’s not a fashion. Many olive groves are abandoned. Our job is to take care of these abandoned groves, which grow various types of olives that make for a unique blend of olive oil. We have no distributors, no middlemen. I don’t want to support a system that kills the farmers, so the consumers will have to buy directly from the farm. This way I get to take care of the farmers, the land and also the customers”.
Each olive oil brand offers its own unique blend, and so does Agricola Maraviglia. The only difference is that the farmers who took over and revived the abandoned olive groves aren’t the ones who birthed the delicate blend they offer now; it was the farmers who planted them over 350 years ago who still dictate how the taste of the green liquid gold extracted from their land should be like. Another uniqueness to Agricola Maraviglia is that the olives from all 700 olive trees are cultivated by hand to best preserve the trees and the olives.
To shop Agricola Maraviglia’s products, click here: https://agricolamaraviglia.net/shop-olive-oil
Pure Stagioni
Pure Stagioni is definitely worth seeking out if you have a thing for gourmet Italian jams and spreads. The Tuscan-based brand produces small batches of jams from varieties of local fruits, such as figs, apricots, red currants, blackberries and oranges. The main draw of these jams is the purity of their ingredients. There are a mere two!: fruit and sugar. No nonsense, like pectins, food colourings or preservatives, added. On the brand website, there’s even a lengthy detail of the origin of the fruit and its production period listed for each jam, to ensure customers are getting the best quality goods. Pure Stagioni also offers excellent savoury spreads, including spicy tomatoes, onions, chilli peppers and spicy peach.
Note: Those watching their sugar intakes can opt for the versions of fruit jams that do not contain it.
La Molina
For premium-quality chocolate that’s worth the cost, check out La Molina, a Tuscan small-scale chocolate producer that specializes in handmade and carefully crafted chocolate treats. All La Molina’s goodies are made with organic ingredients, with no use of preservatives, essential oils and artificial flavourings. The chocolate brand is best known for their Chocolate Torta (meaning “cake” in Italian), which they offer in three different fillings: Milk Gianduja with Hazelnuts, Milk Gianduja with Wafers, and Layered Torta with Dark, Milk and White Gianduja.
If you wish to sample everything La Molina has to offer, get the 40 Assorted Chocolate Box that is filled with multi-flavoured chocolate candies.