When I'm walking around Skopje, there are several stores where I regularly stop. Sometimes I get inside, sometimes I just make a mark on the glass window with my nose. The second option is when I am on a diet and I am serious about it, which is a rare case. I am talking about the stores of Evropa- the chocolate stores. Every Macedonian have a nostalgic link with one of the flavors that this time machine has to offer. The users are thankful that Evropa keeps the same quality as of 20 years ago. The sweetest factory in Macedonia allows us to restore sweet memories through sweet bites. Let them teach us what they know the best- sweet treats.
Although the exact history of toffees is not well-known, it is reported that in 1650, the American settlers made hard candies in cauldrons. Between this period and the early 1880s, an ingenious candy maker quite accidentally added butter and milk while boiling sugar and water and created what is today known as toffee. Evropa offers you the best milk, hazelnut, fruit and coconut flavored toffees
Apparently, everything started back then. Just like in 1882, when a small store was created to sell Lokums (Turkish delights). Smiles they provoke at customers are what kept them working over 120 years or so. Evropa products are the ones that you always buy the double amount of, just in case. It's also the kind of product that is halfway gone when you get home from the store.
The first to enjoy chocolate were the Mayans and the Aztecs in Central and South America, hundreds of years ago. At that time the chocolate was not eaten, but consumed as a chocolate drink made of cocoa beans … Thanks to them, today our dear consumers, have the opportunity to enjoy the high-quality chocolates of Evropa.
The production, because of the strict rules, is not open for visitors, except for scheduled and organized excursions that are only allowed because of educational reasons.
.The story about how the Lokum (also called Turkish delight) was invented begins in the late 1700s when the pastry chef of the Imperial Ottoman Court in Istanbul received an order from the sultan to make soft candy because the hard ones were breaking his teeth. This traditional dessert, which today is an inevitable part of our menu for the days of fasting and a sweet pleasure with every cup of coffee, soon became the most desired in the imperial palace and beyond. Enjoy the irreplaceable flavor of our Lokum, with or without walnuts.
The most famous products of Evropa that you should definitely not miss are the chocolate covered Locum and rum chocolate blocks. One type of locum is called ''Chokolokum'' and is an excellent souvenir from Macedonia. It doesn't really matter which flavor combination you choose because they are all so amazing. Try to deliver it to the one you bought it for and resist eating it on the way home. I dare you.
I have news that will make happy chocolate and wine lovers! On the main square in Skopje, a store just opened and it is a collective of two big Macedonian brands. I can freely say brands that represent Macedonia- Skovin and Evropa. Evropa, as I introduced you, is a chocolate factory, and as you can assume, Skovin is a wine producer, also a great one. I often have an argument with people from famous-wine-producing-countries, as Italy and France, that Macedonia has better wine than theirs, just with worse marketing. I strongly believe in that, it is a sunny country and that is the main condition for a good wine. We have the sun on the flag, even.
Interesting towns related to this story
The author
Zlata Golaboska
Are you ready to experience this story yourself?
