Antiu Xixona is currently the world's top Jijona and Alicante turrón manufacturer.

Both of these types of Turrón are created using 100% natural ingredients (almonds, honey, sugar and egg whites). The use of toasted almonds is one of the key differences with other turrones and marzipans that generally use raw almonds.

The process has remained largely unchanaged throughout the centuries. The following paragraphs will give you some insight on this process:

Alicante Turron:

The process starts with the selection, opening, and toasting of the best almonds in the Mediterranean coast (called “marcona” almonds). We then proceed with the honey cooking, in which the best honeys and sugars are blended together until a homogeneous paste is created. That mix becomes completely white when the egg whites are added. The cooking of this mixture ends when the Turrón Master determines it has reached the optium taste. The next step is a particularly delicate one and involves mixing the white paste with whole toasted almonds. This process is completed using a sophisticated automated mixer to avoid breaking up the almonds.

The resulting mix is then laminated, the top and bottom wafers are added, and it is then cut both longitudinally and laterally, thus obtaining the traditional Turrón bar. Turrón bars are placed in a toxic-free non- reactive flowpack and then inserted in cardboard boxes which are then shrink-wrapped.

Throughout the process, Antiu Xixona has placed super-sensitive metal detectors and strict weight controls.

This turron may also be found in circular shape, which are then called “Torta de Turrón de Alicante”.

Jijona Turrón:

Interestingly, the first phase of creation of both types of turrón is identical. It is often said that “each piece of Jijona Turrón was once Alicante Turrón”.

Let's clarify where the processes are different.

Once we have obtained the mixture of honey, sugar, egg whites, and almonds, the mixture is allowed to cool so it becomes brittle. It is then taken to the stone mills that will crush and mix it until a creamy almond-colored paste is obtained. This paste is them refined and softened to obtain a semi-liquid cream with particles smaller than 80 microns. The most delicate part of the process is when this cream is cooken in special traditional mixers called “boixets“ where it is cooked while a mortar continuously moves up and downwards, (the “boixet” is a large steam-heated pot and it is of mandatory use by all members of the regulating council for the Alicante and Jijona Turrón D.O.) . Once again, it is the Turrón Master who decides how long the mixture must cook in the “boixet“ until the ideal texture and creaminess are obtained. To obtain Granulated Jijona Turrón, one could add small pieces of the best toasted almonds. The cream is then weighted by filling up special molds in which it will sit and cool for over 24 hours. The blocks obtained when the molds are emptied can be cut o create Jijona Turrón bars.

Just like with the Alicante turrón, modern equpment is used for the packaging process (first in a non-reactive flowpack, which is then placed in cardboard boxes which in turn are shrink-wrapped), always under the strictest quality control and foreign matter detection processes.