◆ In House

Penumbra de Café

Coffee-Caramelised Marcona Almonds

€14.90

Marcona almonds roasted and coated in a coffee-threaded caramel shell, the same technique behind garrapiñadas and praliné, with espresso running straight through the brittle coat.

Origin España

Producer Zales & Rego

Volume 160 g

Appearance

Amber-brown to dark-amber whole almonds with a thin coffee-caramel shell

Aroma

Roasted almond praline, espresso, butterscotch caramel

Taste · Primary

Roasted Marcona almond, sweet caramel

Taste · Secondary

Espresso bittersweet, faint salt, butterscotch

Texture

Crisp brittle shell, dense oil-rich roasted almond core

Finish

Long, coffee-praline-caramel, with a sustained salt-tinged sweet close

FROM OUR TABLEEl Lomo Mayor100% Ibérico Acorn-Fed Lomo

The Spanish-Catalan almendras garrapiñadas and the French praliné share a single technique: roast the almond, caramelise sugar to amber over the kernel, cool to a brittle shell. Coffee in Twilight uses the Marcona, the round, sweet, oil-rich Spanish almond from Andalucía and Valencia, and threads finely ground coffee through the caramel.

The almond is the lead and the caramel coat is structural rather than dominant; the praline-warm body of the kernel speaks first, the chlorogenic-acid bittersweet of the coffee threads through, the burnt-sugar butterscotch closes the loop.

The Producer

Zales & Rego - Alcorcón, Madrid

The line starts in a botica in Mondoñedo, Galicia, where remedies, conserves and spices once shared the same shelf. Alonzo Rego carried the trade to Cádiz in 1776, then across the Atlantic to Veracruz in 1795. In 1888, Don Ismael Rego y Salcedo gave the house its formal name. Seven generations later, Zales & Rego returns to the old world, composing and selecting from a workshop in Alcorcón, Madrid: compose, select, preserve the excellent.

Founded 1888

Generations Seven, documented in archive

Workshop Alcorcón, Madrid

Philosophy Compose. Select. Preserve the Excellent.

The Process

Roast the almond. Caramelise the shell. Thread the coffee.

Marcona almonds roast first, then take on a coat of sugar caramelised to amber, the same technique behind both garrapiñadas and French praliné. Finely ground coffee threads through the caramel as it sets, so the bittersweet espresso note runs through the shell rather than sitting on top of it. The almond stays the lead throughout.

Almond Marcona, Andalucía and Valencia

Coating Caramelised sugar shell

Flavour Finely ground coffee

Colour Amber-brown to dark-amber

“The coffee doesn't sit on top of the almond. It runs straight through the shell.”

Zales & Rego · España