Before I left Brazil, I wanted to grab a couple boxes of brigadeiros to take home for my family. For those who aren't familiar, brigadeiros are small, round Brazilian truffle-ish chocolates covered in chocolate sprinkles. They are extremely soft and sweet, and according to Wikipedia the main ingredients are condensed milk, butter, sugar, and cocoa.
Anyway...back to me wanting to bring some home. I love chocolate and my family loves chocolate, so I thought these would be a good little treat to bring back to Hawaii. On the Sunday afternoon before my flight back to the US, I stopped at Padaria Gemel with my friend's mom to pick up some brigadeiros. I'm happy that I knew exactly what I wanted to get, because Padaria Gemel had so many items to choose from! Chocolates, cookies, cakes, and pastries galore...so many items there looked amazing and delicious!
I stuck with my order of brigadeiros and got two boxes full to bring back home with me. The brigadeiros are sold individually, so ordering a lot will only fill a small box. I didn't get to try them until I got home, but they were sweet and soft and delicious! I would definitely come back to try more of their sweets and treats!
Three stars is mainly for service. As a visitor to Brazil, I had a hard time ordering my brigadeiros by myself. I got a few not so nice looks from the ladies behind the counter because I had a bunch of questions about the candies (mostly about how long they would keep and would they be ok without refrigeration for 24+ hours of travel). Even though my friend's mom was helping me out, I could sense their thoughts and the fact that they didn't really want to answer all of these questions needed no translation for me to understand.
TL;DR - not very nice looks while asking questions, great brigadeiros, and lots of bakery options! read more