Chocolate with a serious pedigree from The Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella!

Chocolate with a serious pedigree from The Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella

Now you can get some aromatherapy with your chocolate

The Santa Maria Novella pharmacy in Florence, Italy, is known for its perfumes and herb- and spice-based items, like candles. Now it has introduced small boxes of elegant wrapped chocolates.

Fragrant rose-flavored dark chocolate and refreshing citrus-flavored milk chocolate, in boxes of 18 pieces for $37, are sold in the Lafco boutique at 285 Lafayette Street (Houston Street), (800) 362-3677. Also try the Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy shops in NYC and LA.

Dark chocolates that come with truffled centers seasoned with either alkermes, a venerable spiced liqueur, or chinaberry, said to be a good digestive, are $45 for a box of 12.

About the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella

Adjacent to piazza di Santa Maria novella is one of the oldest pharmacies in the world, established by the Dominican fathers shortly after 1221, the year of their arrival in Florence. In the garden, the fathers began to cultivate the herbs that they need to prepare medications, balms and creams for the monastery's little infirmary. In 1612 the grand duke, Fernando I di Medici, gave the Dominicans permission to open this little store - the pharmacy was opened to the public. A century later their herbal secrets had become internationally renowned. The Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella has a modest sign near the door and no window in which to display its wares. many of the officina’s preparations have made history and have marked an epoch: the essences, as well as the famous and much requested perfumes, are still prepared to a large extent following the formulas studied in 1500 for Caterina de’ Medici. The history of 'eau de cologne' is quite special in this regard. Indeed, it seems that this was the essence that Caterina de’ Medici, queen of France, took with her to Paris, where it acquired the name of 'eau de la reine'. Later, the Italian Giovanni Paolo Feminis, who moved to cologne in 1725 and began to make it there, changed its name to 'acqua di colonia', as a tribute to the city where it was produced. The 'acqua di rose', rose water, an excellent refreshing tonic for red eyes, was already available for sale in the second half of the fourteenth century. Other favorites include the perfumed powders produced from the ground rhizome of the iris, the flower that grows freely on the hills around Florence in such profusion as to be adopted as the lily symbol of the city, still represented in its coat of arms.

The pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy, which was founded by monks in 1221, has sold its herbal balms and elixirs to the public since the 16th century. Today the shop, with its elaborately decorated ceiling, left, is privately owned and also sells fragrances, teas, honeys and jam like fruit compotes. Lafco, a shop for home and personal products at 200 Hudson Street (Canal Street), recently started selling the pharmacy's food products. There are 16 teas, mostly herbal infusions with great fragrance and intensely clear flavors, packed in boxes covered in Florentine paper ($22 to $30); small paper sachets ($10.50 to $17); and glass canisters with decorative dried flowers in their lids ($28 to $38). One tea, bergamot, is none other than Earl Grey with infinitely more finesse and less bitterness than most. The honeys, some limpid and some thick and creamy, are mostly $16.50 for 8 ounces; the fruit compotes are $18 for 12 ounces.