Aristocratic and medicinal history of iconic Vichy sweets
Sweets were first sold as an aid to digestion more than 190 years ago. Today, 1,500 tonnes of the confection are produced and sold in supermarkets, but the lozenges have still not lost their medicinal - or aristocratic - heritage
The Vichy Pastille is one of three iconic French 'expat' sweets that could soon return home, if an international deal goes ahead.
The pastilles, along with Carambars and La Pie Qui Chante, are produced every year by American firm Mondelez - formerly known as Kraft - but talks are under way with French investment company Eurazeo, which wants to buy them - along with Viother famous French confections - and produce them under a European label.
Carambars were created by happy accident in the 1950s, when a machine at the Delespaul-Hazard factory malfunctioned and spat out the long, thin caramels. La Pie Qui Chante caramels were first made in Marseille in 1921, and became famous when the business was sold three years later and the new owners changed the name of their company to that of the sweet they had just bought.
But the most iconic brand is also the oldest. The first Vichy pastilles were created as an aid to digestion more than 190 years ago and sold only in pharmacies in the town. Today, more than 1,500 tonnes of the sweets are sold in supermarkets - while a second, stronger version, is still offered in pharmacies.
In 1825 Jean-Pierre Darcet, a chemist and member of the Academy of Scientists and the Academy of Medicine, discovered the digestive virtues of bicarbonate of soda, which was one of the principal elements in the mineral spa waters of Vichy.
He had the idea of extracting the gas from the waters and turning them into a lozenge. A Vichyssoise pharmacist, Pierre Batilliat, found the method to create the very first Vichy Pastilles. Shortly after it was decided to add other minerals from the waters to make it more beneficial. In 1856 it was given the octagonal form recognisable today to differentiate it from other digestive lozenges.
At first, it was only for sale at pharmacies in Vichy. But its popularity increased when it was associated with Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III. It became a favourite with the aristocracy and an imperial law was passed which recognised the originality of the Vichy tablet.
Confectionary companies became interested and after the pharmaceutical industry lost a court case to keep it in the chemists it was eventually sold as a sweet rather than as a medication and the first industrial manufacture began in 1954.
It was bought by Cadbury Schweppes in 2003, by Kraft in 2010 which became Mondelez in 2013. Now it is at the heart of another takeover deal.
The pastilles are still produced at Vichy and still contain minerals extracted from the local waters. Bicarbonate of soda, calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, lithium and trace elements are extracted from the springs on the Allier River at Vichy and dried and ground, before being mixed with sugar and glucose. The resulting paste is air dried and then flavoured with mint, lemon or aniseed. It is then put through a pressing machine which gives it its octagonal form and printed with the name Vichy. The sweet contains 0.3% Vichy water minerals, while the version sold in pharmacies contains 3%. There is also a sugarless version sold as a sweet.
Vichy Pastilles tend to be a grown-up sweet. Market research by Mondelez found that 55% of those who enjoy them are over 65 years old. And its historic legacy has also been maintained - 79% of modern buyers come from 'upper income groups'.
