Almendra Guillier, what were the beginnings of your business like?
I started making alfajores during a pandemic, in May 2020, bored and locked up at home like almost everyone. I was looking to do something delicious for myself and to pass the time.
The first batch of alfajores I made were a lot for me alone, so I gave them to my family and acquaintances; I told them that when they go out shopping, they should come and look. As they tried them, they told me that they loved them, that I should keep doing them and that’s how I started selling. Two months later I had to leave my administrative job to dedicate myself fully to what ended up being a venture.
I am a cook and very sweet, I love good quality pastries. I had never made alfajores, I knew some techniques and how to work with chocolate, but I had never made a complete alfajor by myself. It was a learning experience from the first moment!
What characteristics do the alfajores you make have?
The product I created is a Premium alfajor, I did it that way because I was thinking about making something that I would like. I love dulce de leche, that’s why my alfajores have a lot of it. I love chocolate and that’s why I choose a Premium coverage to dip them.
We have a family farm in El Hoyo (Chubut) in which we produce fine organic fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, sour cherries) and with that fruit we make sweets to fill the alfajores. We also have fruit trees and organic honey production.
We work with local products and in an artisanal way.
What was the importance of having won the Alfajor World Cup award?
Two years after starting to make alfajores, in the winter of 2022, the business was going through a difficult economic time. The context did not help and sales were not good. I was a little unmotivated, there I thought about what to do and what to change so that the product sold more. It was at that moment that the Alfajor World Cup prize arrived, which came to change us.
We obtained “Gold Medal in Three Layers category” at the 2022 World Alfajor Championship with an alfajor of dulce de leche and organic raspberry candy dipped in semisweet chocolate.
That award boosted us nationally and allowed us to begin to position the brand, sales improved and we began to grow.
We currently have a weekly production of two thousand alfajores, we continue working in an artisanal way and we seek to represent Patagonia Argentina with the best of our land.
Contact information:
Instagram: @losretamos.alfajores
Facebook: Chacra Los Retamos
Online Store: chacralosretamos.empretienda.com.ar
WhatsApp: 2944638462
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by CEDOC