Confiserie Florian: Violets, Bitter Oranges and a Century in Copper

Some sweets taste of a place. At Confiserie Florian, in the hills behind Nice, that place is easy to name: the violets come from the next village, the bitter oranges from a Nice hillside, the roses and figs from Vence. For more than a century, the house has cooked them in copper and turned them into jellies, candied fruit and crystallized flowers.

From the port of Nice to the Gorges du Loup

The Florian name first appeared in 1921, on a chocolate factory on the port of Nice; the painter Henri Matisse was among its regular customers. The second half of the story begins in perfume. In 1935 the Fragonard house of Grasse, run by Eugène Fuchs, bought a perfume factory at Pont-du-Loup, below the village of Tourrettes-sur-Loup. In 1949 the site became a confectionery, run by his son Georges, who equipped it with the copper cauldrons and terracotta vessels of the celebrated Confiserie Nègre.

When the family businesses were separated in 1996, the Fuchs family kept the confectionery and brought the Florian name back. Frédéric and Sandrine Fuchs, the fourth generation, run it today, and both workshops, at Pont-du-Loup and on the old port of Nice, still let visitors watch the confectioners at work.

A pantry a few kilometers wide

What sets Florian apart is how close its ingredients grow. The violets come from Tourrettes-sur-Loup, the village that made its name on the flower, where Marcel Quentin has supplied the house for some thirty years. The bitter oranges are picked every February in the Gairaut district of Nice, on land the Fatou family has farmed since 1840. Four-seasons lemons come from an organic orchard in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, and roses and Boule d’Or figs from the Giuge family in Vence, a partnership now three generations old.

Flowers you can eat

The house is best known for what it does with those flowers. Each crystallized petal or leaf is the real thing, coated in sugar until it takes on a frosted look and a delicate crunch. The Crystallized Flowers Assortment puts three of them in one gold box: rose for floral sweetness, violet for its subtle perfume, verbena for a fresh, lemony note. The Crystallized Verbena Leaves go into the sugar fresh and come out lightly crunchy.

Citrus is the other half of the house. The Chocolate Candied Orange Slices are whole orange slices, candied and then coated in chocolate, four to a square gold box: a Riviera classic, and one of the easiest small gifts we know.

How we use them

• A few crystallized violets or rose petals scattered over a cake, macarons or a pavlova, just before serving.
• Verbena leaves over a lemon tart or a sorbet, or alongside coffee or an herbal infusion at the end of a meal.
• A crystallized petal dropped into a glass of sparkling wine or a cocktail.
• An orange slice with an espresso, or tucked into a Christmas stocking.

Read the full story of the house, its growers and its range on our Confiserie Florian page, or browse the Confiserie Florian collection.