You haven’t had nougat until you’ve had Rose’s

On my recent adventure into sparkling wine and nougat tasting I was introduced to the most delicious variety of handmade confectionary! Since that afternoon at Jc le Roux I could barely put the thought of that divine nougat out of my mind, and with absence it grew ever fonder in my memory. I remembered the name on the label, I had committed it to memory for just this sort of emergency, and instantly ‘googled’ it! I had to find the maker of these white and nutty treats, as nothing I bought at the supermarket quite quelled my hunger or curbed my craving. And bless Rose, she had a website, an OFFICIAL one! It was perhaps the final straw – it is such a tease of a website as slideshows of dark (Belgian) chocolate coated nougat, floured Turkish delight, and blocks of fudge fade tantalisingly in and out of view. As if she had read my mind, Rose offered a map and an address to her factory shop in Paarl.

So one weekend I made the journey and amongst rough and ready factory buildings there was Rose’s Handmade Confectionary, like a rose amongst the thorns.  Your first introduction to the shop is the neatly painted wall assuring you that you have arrived at the correct place, the precise curly letters emulate those on each carefully crafted and hand-wrapped nougat – Roses Handmade Confectionary. The factory shop is small and corridor shaped and the sweet treats start off tame at the door and the deeper into the shop, the more sinful the treats become.

Large plainly wrapped nougats stacked from the ground to your shoulder on shelves, each for only R10. Well I blew my budget, everyone who had recently had a birthday, was about to have a birthday, and who I just knew would appreciate the delicacy, got a bar of nougat – including myself. Other things to choose from were fudge, marshmallows (light and fluffy), and Turkish delight.  Up for the inquisitive were taste testers of new flavour combinations of nougat, I had two just to make sure that I really did like it. Unfortunately there were no Belgian chocolate covered nougats at that stage so I was rather disappointed about that, apparently it is quite sought after. Something which may interest you is that they supply Woolworths Food. The elusive Rose, however, was nowhere to be seen!

Check out the sinful site: http://www.roseshandmade.co.za/