Great specialities from the city of Nantes, rigolettes and berlingots are still made in a mainly traditional way.
The rigolette is a sweet which is a little crunchy, having a hard sugar shell and a soft, fruit jam centre. It was created in 1902 by a grocer, Charles Bohu, who named his new invention after his cat. Still made in the traditional way, this little rectangular sweet with rounded edges is available today in its five original flavours: pineapple, blackcurrant, lemon, raspberry and mandarin.
As for the Nantes berlingot, it is a sweet in the shape of a rounded tetrahedron, which comes in various colours such as red, green and yellow, and in various flavours, such as lemon, raspberry, blackcurrant, orange and mint. Brought back from Italy at the beginning of the 19th century by Madame Couët, caterer to the armies of the Consulate and Empire, this sweet is made from boiled sugar with added flavours. It iskneaded by hand, stretched into a sausage shape and cut into berlingots.