Mucci’s Old Confetti Shop

(In order to avoid confusion, it should be made clear that this article is about confetti in the original Italian meaning of “sweets”.)

The Confetti Museum
The Confetti Museum is a collection of items that made the history of Mario Mucci’s family-run Antica Fabbrica di Confetti Giovanni Mucci, the Old Confetti Shop, in the ancient town of Adria, in the province of Bari. Mario tells the story of his long-established family business as well as about the art of confetti and chocolate making, by means of documents, objects, heirlooms, knick-knacks, honorary plaques, tools and appliances. Besides the Muccis’ and the Pelino Museum in Sulmona, in no other place in Italy can you find an institution dedicated to confectionery with machinery on display.

Confetti: a colour for every occasion
In Italy, confetti of different colours are used to celebrate every achievement or life-changing events: light blue or pink for a birth, green for an engagement, yellow for the Coming of Age, red for a graduation, white for a wedding, silver for the 25th anniversary, gold for the 50th, and so on. Mario Mucci’s confectionery is not limited to Jordan almonds, but literally sugar-coats anything sugar-coatable. Regina Elisabetta (“Queen Elizabeth”) is an almond coated in a layer of white chocolate and one further layer of sugar, scented with limoncello, orange, tangerine and bergamot. One of the latest creations features a honey and brown-sugar coating. In addition to confetti, the shop offers chocolate, coffee and cappuccino-filled dragées, sherry-soaked raisin Capricci, gianduia chocolate and vanilla sugar-coated hazelnut Tentazioni, candied cocoa beans and hand-decorated fruit-shaped marzipan. In 2016, the annual production totalled 125 tonnes, sold throughout and outside the country.

At the heart of the company
The confectionery is located in the outskirts, on the road to Trani, in the premises opened in 1987. Although the pans used for sugar-coating (called bassine) are mechanised, part of the process is still carried out manually by 16 employees. Before the contemporary HACCP guidelines, the stalks found in the candied cherries were real and inserted by hand. Nowadays, the stalks are forcibly plastic, but still inserted by hand. Every item of confectionery is made important to the point that Mario Mucci immortalised them in a museum.