It was the dream of Àngel Velasco Sr. and Àngel Velasco Jr. has fulfilled it, one year after his great teacher and inspiration left this world, on September 10, 2022, a few hours after the new Torrons Vicens store opened in la Rambla, at the height of Santa Anna. That entrepreneur who had revolutionized the Christmas sweet to deseasonalize it, sell it all over the world in new formats and incorporate the creativity of great chefs to launch new flavors and textures without abandoning traditional varieties, imagined that one day he would create, together with his son, a museum dedicated to Agramunt nougat and its stone chocolate. An exhibition space, on the ground floor of that enormous premises on Barcelona's main artery (shortly after opening it they closed it for a time due to a permit issue), to which the city's public and tourists would come. To all of them, children and adults, he wanted to show in an entertaining and educational way the history and process of artisanal production of nougat and stone chocolate from Agramunt that had captivated him when he first acquired a nougat company in low hours, and then, the oldest of the stone chocolate factories.
Finally, the Barcelona Nougat and Chocolate Museum was inaugurated yesterday in style in an event organized by the owner of Torrons Vicens, Àngel Velasco. And today, exactly one month after Christmas Eve dinner, it opens its doors. Tickets, which include a tasting of nougat and hot chocolate at the end of the tour, can be purchased online, for 10 euros for local adults, 12 for tourists and free for children under 12 years of age. Visits are carried out in groups of 25 people, for the moment, with seven passes distributed throughout the day.
The exhibition space, which has had an investment of one million euros, consists of a walk through history set in the different periods and the process of making traditional nougat and chocolate with Agramunt stone.
The production, installation and execution have been handled by Grup Transversal, experts in this type of museumization, which in this case has played with audiovisual animations, mapping, explanatory panels, holograms and an immersive room. For about half an hour, the origins of chocolate are covered, advancing in its history and its production process, to focus on the unique type of stone chocolate, which is still made in Agramunt, and where Xocolates Jolonch (company that acquired Torrons Vicens (maintaining equipment, facilities and process) has been producing it since the end of the 18th century.
Then you go to an immersive room where the nougats are made by characters dressed in period clothing who are actually part of the nougat company's team. The journey goes from those beginnings of the sweet sector to the most innovative additions, including the line of flavors and textures of Albert Adrià, as well as the collaboration of José Andrés.
The new museum is located in the 19th century building that was once occupied by Banca Marsans, whose façade has been completely rehabilitated to recover exterior visibility and original transparency. In the central part of the 300 m² store, there are stairs that lead to the new museum, with an area of almost 400 m² distributed in the various rooms that make up the historical tour, in which the visitor will not only enter a period setting, but you will also perceive the aromas of nougat and chocolate.
