Dulcería San Luis

Before leaving for Mexico City to spend Christmas with my husband's family, I stopped over at "Dulcería San Luis" to buy typical candies for the celebrations. This "factory" is pretty well known in our town. It is a family tradition that has been functioning for almos 100 years. It is small, but produces a good variety of homemede sweets.

Most typical sweets have to do with fruits and other types of food. For example: figs, orange peel, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, chilacayote (a type of pumpkin), biznaga (the inside of the agave plant) will be boiled with sugar in copper pots for hours to caramelize them. They are very delicious. Afterwards the syrup that is left over from the boiling is used to make piloncillo, a sugar cone used for sweetening coffee and Christmas ponche among other things.

Other candies are merengue, milk candies, coconut candies, obleas, lollipops.

I went to the Dulcería with my friend Lolis and her sister Marcela. She was buying a lot of stuff to take to her hometown, Colima, for Christmas.

This is the outside of the factory.

Lolis and Marcela picking the pieces right off the drying/cooling racks.

Mmmm, just the sight of it makes my mouth water.
Here we see mostly pumpkin.

Here workers are using the mixing drums.
These are for making coconut candies.

Coconut boiling with sugar.

Here some candies are being strained from the excess liquid.

Chilacayote ready to be boiled.

Pumpkin and chilacayote.

Workers have to stir constantly with big wooden spoons.

Here the pumpkin is ready, and is going to be
put on the racks.
Again wooden spoons are used.

Onto the racks.

Here they cool and dry.
The liquid is then used for the piloncillo.

This is where the coconut candy is mixed.
It goes round and round like a clothers drier.

Coconut ready to be shaped.

The coconut mixture is put onto a press
which gives it is shape, and squeezes out the excess liquid. The
liquid is used again. Nothing is gone to waste.

,After the press is removed the coconut is cut ito bars.
This is one of my favorite candies. It is called alfajor.

Dulce de leche-milk candy. Milk is boiled with sugar
until a paste is formed.

The paste is formed into balls, and a pecan is
pressed onto its side.

These are also very good...

Here are the counters where other finished products are exhibited.
The yellow candies are also coconut, but these are cooked in a different way.
The pink ones at the far right are the finished alfajor.

Big lollipops....

More lollipos....in the back, jars of dulce de leche.
This is in a liquid, caramel form. Many put it on bread..

At the checkout counter.
The flowers are obleas. The are made of flour. It doesn't
have much of a taste, but kids put caramel or
chilii sauce on them.

The rolls are made of guava fruit.
And some more coconut candy.

This is only a small sample of Mexican candies. They vary from one region to another, and the fruits used are endless. Hope you enjoyed this tour.
Enjoy your weekend....