From pastry shop backyard to Catalan icon
It all started in 1946 in the back of a carpentry workshop in Vilafranca del Penedès. There, the confectioner Josep Cudié opened his first own workshop — in the middle of the Spanish post-war period, when cocoa was rationed and he had to travel specifically to Madrid to obtain vouchers. Nevertheless, he relied on quality from the beginning and trusted in word-of-mouth. The result: the entire village soon knew his creations, and customers came from far and wide to Vilafranca to buy them.
What Josep Cudié initially called "Cro-crem" in 1946 — a Marcona almond covered in homemade chocolate and finished with cocoa powder — he soon christened Catània. Inspired by a Parisian confection from the 1940s, he created something unique that would develop into a gastronomic symbol of Catalonia. The family business is now managed in the third generation, and the artisanal heritage has remained unchanged.
Craftsmanship, secret recipe and gentle innovation
The original recipe for Catànies is still strictly guarded today and has been passed down unchanged from generation to generation. All Catànies are produced in the factory in Vilafranca del Penedès according to this master recipe. The team develops new flavors with great care — according to their own statements, it takes over a year for a new variant to be ready for the market. The basic principle is: innovation with respect for tradition, so that every new creation preserves the essence of the original Catània.
Until the 2000s, Cudié worked in a studio in the city center of Vilafranca. The company's growth eventually required a move to the Clot de Moja industrial park in Olèrdola — first one hall, later a second, and a third followed in 2022. Today, Cudié employs around 40 people and produces between 300,000 and 350,000 kilograms of Catànies per year.
Nine varieties, 30 countries — and nuts beyond the almond
The heart of the range remains the classic Catània: caramelized Mediterranean Marcona almond, wrapped in a white praline and finished with a thin layer of pure cocoa powder — crunchy, creamy, with a distinctly tart cocoa note on the finish. In addition, the range now includes nine different Catània variants, including a version with Himalayan salt, which brings the interplay between sweetness and saltiness to the fore, as well as a dark variant with 70 percent cocoa gianduja. The range is complemented by caramelized macadamia nuts and hazelnuts in a similar style.
Around 30 percent of production now goes to export — Cudié is present in a good 40 countries, from Europe to the Middle East to Japan, Taiwan, and the USA. The driving force behind this is not mass business, but the principle of the gift: a carefully made, regionally rooted confection that has established itself over the decades as a reference for Catalan fine pastry.
