Guatemalan Candies: full of colors and flavors of Antigua

By Crista Luna

Alfeñiques, las paciencias, canillitas de leche, tamarindos, pepitorias, huevo chimbo, las botellitas de miel, zapotes, espumillas...
These are some of our delicious Guatemalan candies, that are waiting for you to try them and enjoy the pleasure of this unique taste. One of the stores that produces and sells them is "El Sombrerón", located in 4^th east street No. 31, Antigua Guatemala, and founded in 1986, as a family business. Gabriela Paredes, Manager of the place, explains us a little bit of the interesting story of the guatemalan famous sweets recipes:

“The sweets we prepared in our kitchen are based on ancient recipes that we have rescued over the years.  We already had some family recipes, but others were acquired over time by people in the industry who shared their own formulas. Now we have our own recipes for the candies that we sell nowadays”. Paredes adds that currently they produce 100 varieties of sweets, including candies of fruits, milk, flour, and honey marzipan.

Ana Patricia García, a person that sells candies in Antigua Guatemala, tells us about the most common sweets that people asks for every day in El Rosario de Yaquián Candys Store, at Antigua: “canillitas de leche, colocho de guayaba, camote, mazapán, chilacayote, cocadas, higos, nuégados, tamarindos, pepitoria are the candies that we sell the most” .

In Antigua Guatemala there are more than fifty stores where you can find our delicious sweets. Thanks to this business, our Guatemalan traditions are alive through food. Antigua Guatemala is known as the traditional city of Guatemalan candies.  

For Guatemalan people it is very important to keep our traditions alive, and one of the most important traditions we have is our sweets. That is why families began to sell candies of Antigua Guatemala everywhere around, offering the visitors all varieties of native Antigua Guatemala sweets, following the traditions and recipes that we inherited from generation to generation.

Most of them are cooked and prepared in a traditional way. This is why they are so delicious and natural, with no chemical preservative or industrial processes.

The Guatemalan gastronomy is rich in variety of sweets in all regions of the country since pre-Columbian times until today, but Antigua Guatemala is the city that most represents the variety and flavors of our sweets.

Paredes comments that it is important for her to highlight the Guatemalan traditions because it is part of the country's integrity: “With these traditions we reflect the identity of the people and the region; each one of them is a supplement that all together forms Guatemala with his tastes, beliefs and customs”.

We should be proud of our gastronomy and should demonstrate our pride by enjoying the delicious sweets from Antigua in stores such as María Gordillo, El Sombrerón, el Rosario  de Yaquián, among others.

La Antigua Guatemala has positioned itself as the best city of traditional sweets in the country. Come and enjoy Guatemalan gastronomy full of colors and flavors!