Gourmet products local specialties and wines Brazil

Vero simply means "true" in Italian. This is a real Italian ice-cream parlour, trained in Bologna, which offers excellent home-made sorbets with original and surprising flavours. The lavender and lemon perfumes have the good idea to evoke the scents of the Drôme Provençale and southern Italy, so dear to so many Seyssinians. Well, if you're really hungry, the Vero also offers savoury snacks (including of course pizzas) and a good coffee. All the ice creams and dishes in general are made in the spirit of quality cuisine.

This is probably due to the undeniable transalpine influence on Sampa, but the city has a large number of excellent ice cream parlours. The Bacio di Latte does justice to ice cream in all its forms. The shop also offers a few desserts and is always busy. The ice creams are creamy and made with fresh milk, selected ingredients and no preservatives. The fruits are local and vary according to the season, the hazelnuts, chocolate and pistachios come from Europe and the sugar is organic. Let yourself be tempted...

Georges Laporte moved to Bahia from Normandy in 2002. Since then, he has adapted his family know-how, brought back from France, to create ice creams with local flavors in harmony with the seasons, all made with fresh fruit, without colorants or preservatives. The blends are as original as they are delicious: Pé de moleque (with peanuts), Cocana (coconut with cachaça), Martinica (orange and dark chocolate), Baianada (lime, rapadura and coconut) - a must-try! Try acerola or maracuja!

Paraty is a city renowned for its terroir and its stills that provide excellent cachaças. The Empório da Cachaça offers no less than three hundred types of artisanal cachaças , from the state of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, but also from the region of Paraty itself: Coqueiro pingas, Vamos Nessa, Itatinga, Paratiana among others. Many other artisanal gourmet products are also on sale, including colourful bottles of chilli-flavoured oil. Small barrels of cachaça can be a good gift idea.

Confeitaria Colombo, founded in 1894 by Portuguese immigrants, is one of the most beautiful pastry shops in Rio. The Belle Époque architecture evokes the Paris of the Roaring Twenties. The splendid Antwerp crystal mirrors add a subtle Art Deco touch. The Salão Superior dates back to 1922. The lunch and the buffet, served upstairs, are worth the trip. Excellent pastries, including Portuguese pasteis, can be tried at tea time on the first floor near the grand piano. Events are regularly organized (see the website).

The restaurant is located inside the enclosure of the military fort, after the impressive entrance. Annex of the sumptuous Confeitaria Colombo in the city center, it is a favorite address for the incredible view that the terrace offers on the whole Copacabana beach. Ideal for a lazy breakfast, in the shade of the trees and almost feet in the water. The menu, a little expensive maybe, offers a great choice of brunches, sandwiches, pancakes, cakes and pies... Everything is good, but the best is undoubtedly the panorama on the most beautiful bay of the world!

Ah, if all cafeterias were like this... You can come here just to have a coffee or, if you are curious, to really immerse yourself in the world of this drink. Orders are taken directly from the machines, in the kitchen area, which allows the waiters to have a closer contact with the customer. You can choose your blend and also the method of preparation: espresso, paper filter, pressure... The house also offers several tasting rituals to awaken your taste buds. They will explain everything to you!

Gelato & Grano is a glacier born in 2012 in Jericoacoara and has been making small ones ever since (two other shops in Teresina and two others were to open in 2018 in Fortaleza and João Pessoa). There are about a hundred flavours with a lactose-free option.

As its name suggests, this shop offers bowls of iced acai, with or without fruit and cereals. It's fresh, cheap and healthy!

Situated on the edge of the bay, the Feira de Sao Joaquim is an authentic folk market. You'll find meat, fruit, vegetables... as well as everyday objects, handicrafts and candomblé-related artifacts. In a joyful hubbub, with a wealth of smells and flavors, it offers an immersion into the daily life of the Bahian people. It was restored in 2016, but the magic of the place still works. There's a special charm to this market, where Salvador's Afro-Brazilian roots are fully expressed, far from the artifice of modernity.

Switzerland and Belgium are not the only chocolate countries. Brazil, the world's largest producer of cocoa pods, is a master in the art of roasting these precious seeds, but it also knows how to transform them into a delicate final product. Chocolate is the local speciality of Penedo, and this small house in the centre of the city invites you to discover how it is made, and of course to taste it, in bars, ice cream or hot chocolate.

A famous ice cream shop in Brazil is called "Alaska"... just like in Montpellier. Here, it is Finland that inspired the name of this ice cream shop. To tell you the truth, we don't know if ice cream (from our dear cones... not from the big frozen lakes that cover a part of the country) is a Finnish speciality, but the ones that this house proposes are delicious. More than 30 different flavours and, above all, all sorts of sweets to decorate the ice cream (nuts, sesame, chocolate chips, etc.).

Mineira's rich gastronomy offers a whole range of sweet products. For several generations, the Chico Doceiro store has offered a range of sweets and chocolates that are much appreciated by locals and thousands of visitors to the small town. Whether it's a hot chocolate to warm up the cool nights of the Mineiro winter, or chocolates and sweets to savour the sweetness of the place, visitors will be spoilt for choice. The Doce de leite with lemon is just one of a whole range of flavors. A must-try.

Poconé being the last town before the Pantanal, those arriving with a rental car and without guide can buy food and drink in this supermarket, a little before the city exit. In the shop, you can find the hats, the rain caps. The reckless can perfect their range of pantaneiro (think of the repellent, long sleeves, soothing creams if mosquitoes are too voracious)… After that, we leave the "civilization" (or between you, it is up to you to see).

The Emporio Santo Antonio appears as a magical grocery store for lovers of spices and regional products. Right in the heart of the historic old town, the Emporio is a "delicatessen" offering many local handicrafts: vegetable preserves, doce de leite (a kind of milk-based spread), bananada and goiabada (fruit pastes made from banana and guava), liqueurs, including the famous cachaça. There are always good gift ideas, from local dried fruits to spice oils.

Surely the best market of the city for some Potiguares. We will like to lose ourselves in the numerous shops of the place. In all, about thirty shops of craft industry: wood, clothing, glassmaking, precious or semi-precious stones, cachaçaria. The traditional art of Natal and the Nordeste is well represented. One appreciates the figurines out of ground, of style santons, typically Nordestines. Certainly very good ideas to put in the suitcases before returning. Workshops of craftsmen propose their objects made with the hand.

As the name suggests, the Backers is one of the best bakeries in town with a pleasant atmosphere. The Kurt family's Germanic pastry tradition has been delighting taste buds since 1942. Beyond the sandwiches, the excellent breads, we discover a pastry shop that has been delighting Cariocas since 1994. It's great for a midday snack or a late afternoon snack. In a room that can accommodate a hundred guests, you can also eat savory dishes, such as quiches or pizzas.

The Feira de Liberdade allows you to feel the pulse of São Paulo, and to perceive a part of its soul. This market, which has already celebrated its 30th anniversary, is one of the most traditional in Sampa, with more than 200 stands scattered around the Praça da Liberdade. You can find everything, but it is surely the Japanese cuisine and the pastesis at low prices that make it very interesting. However, you have to be patient, at lunch time the queues are long. The food stalls are just outside the metro. It's a good Sunday walk.

Rio has a few happy gourmet surprises in store. Gourmands will go without a problem to Casa Cavé, the oldest confeteira in the city. The pastries are sure to delight the taste buds of visitors. It was founded in 1860 by one of our compatriots, Charles Auguste Cavé, who remained its chef until 1922. Since 1860, it has been serving the best ice creams in the center, as well as very good sweets. The period architecture gives the place an old-fashioned atmosphere. Two rooms are adjacent, at numbers 133 and 137 of the street.

It is said often enough, but Brazil is not limited to the production of cocoa pods. Brazilians are masters in the art of making this exquisite sweetness. Like Ouro Preto, Campos do Jordao or Gramado, Petropolis is one of the country's chocolate capitals. The chocolate factory "Patrones" is a local chocolate factory with anAmerican diner look that offers a complete range of temptations to buy on the spot! The whole thing is deliciously kitschy, with teddy bears sitting on the counter.