Do you know brigadeiro (Bree-gah-day-ro)? It’s a typical Brazilian sweet prepared with condensed milk and cocoa powder. Brigadeiro is very common at birthday parties in Brazil and in 2011 the sweet finally reached the United States. It all started, when Paula Barbosa left the fashion markets of Rio de Janeiro to pursue a business course in New York City. As part of her end of course project she decided to do something both innovative yet gourmet, something familiar yet totally new: gourmet brigadeiros.
Paula joined with Christina Bhan to launch the store My Sweet Brigadeiro in New York, a store that sells not only the traditional brigadeiro, but also the treats in pistachio, almond and ginger. The idea of selling brigadeiro in the United States was so successful that Paula and Christina stood out in the gastronomy world, and found themselves lauded by The New York Times food and on the Oprah Winfrey food blog. Recently, Paula partnered with Häagen-Dazs to launch the Tres Leches Brigadeiro ice-cream. In the words of the businesswoman herself
“Brigadeiro is not a truffle, is not a caramel and is not a fudge, it’s Brigadeiro! You have to try to really understand”.
