Murcian candies to sweeten Holy Week

Dionisio opened the Jarca workshop more than 60 years ago, a family business where they have been at full capacity for weeks to sweeten Holy Week, both in the Region and outside it, since their Nazarene delicacies 'made in Murcia' travel to cities in Spain such as Seville, Granada and Valencia. «My father started selling candy at the end of our road when he was just a child. He has always had a business, first it was a store where they made bread and, years later, he set up the factory, where he began making candies, nougats and candied fruits,” explains Antón Jara, the person in charge of keeping alive a family tradition with more than half a century of history and that probably will not have generational change.

You arrive at Jarca's workshop by smell rather than by sight. The aroma of candy is unmistakable in this artisanal business where they have high hopes for this campaign after “three very complicated years” for Easter candy producers due to the pandemic. “We hope it is normal and we can earn something to pay the debts we have incurred from recent seasons,” hopes Antón, who plans to produce ten tons of candy in different formats.

Miniature brothers

The star product is the Nazarenes, candies with a brotherly aesthetic that they make by adding a small stick that turns it into a lollipop, which helps make it very successful among the procession audiences, especially children. “They have copied us out there and they make something similar, but we create the authentic Nazarenes of candy here,” explains Antón while showing the production chain, where another Jarca candy is made that is a success at Easter: the colored pacifiers, which They can come in six different flavors (and colors) – strawberry, raspberry, lemon, apple, cola and orange. “We can make about two hundred kilos a day, which is equivalent to two thousand units,” he calculates.

Regarding the caramel recipe, which they have developed over the years and no longer contains gluten, Antón responds that it has “glucose, water, color and aroma” and that they boil it in a pot for thirty minutes until it reaches between 140 and 160 degrees of temperature. “The mixture is easy, the complicated thing is finding the optimal point,” he explains.

Garden proverbs

Forty kilometers away, in Abarán, Paco Hernández also follows the instructions his father gave him to make the candies that will be distributed in some processions in the Region, mainly those in the capital. «The tradition of giving candy is very much from here, from Murcia and the towns. We serve brotherhoods and some confectioneries that want to have the product to offer as a 'souvenir',” highlights the owner of El Turro, the fifth generation of a family business that, like Jarca, is specialized in making Easter candies.

Although the jewel in the crown is picardías, a toasted candy with hazelnut that is made completely by hand “so that it does not lose its charm”, Paco is focused these days on proverbs, candies with verses that he defines as “the most characteristic » of Passion Week in the Region. His mother, Mari Carmen Banegas, is in charge of wrapping them and their plan is to make 1,400 kilos of these delicacies that, according to Paco, are much more than candy. “They are the hallmark of our Holy Week.”

And, precisely, he refers to that “emotional value” as the driving force that drives him each year to make these candies that are presented in the form of pills of different sizes. «It is the way in which we can contribute to keeping alive the tradition that surrounds this date. The proverbs are very special because they talk about Murcia, the garden and our Holy Week.