Toledo Marzipan Workshop at Santo Tomé

Confitería Santo Tomé on Calle Santo Tomé in Toledo's historic centre is the city's oldest continuously operating marzipan house, producing mazapán de Toledo according to the same traditional recipe since 1856. Toledo marzipan is a geographically protected confection made from ground almonds, sugar, and a small quantity of honey or syrup, hand-moulded into figures and lightly toasted in a traditional oven. The product carries an Indication of Guaranteed Quality from the Junta de Comunidades de Castile-La Mancha and its origins are traced to the Moorish confectioners of the city's medieval period, with the Sephardic Jewish community and later the Christian convents each contributing to the evolution of its form and production. Santo Tomé's Saturday morning workshops at 10:30 offer groups of up to eight participants a 90-minute hands-on session in the production room behind the retail shop. The session opens with a ten-minute historical overview of marzipan in Toledo, connecting the product to the Moorish, Sephardic, and Christian confectionery traditions of the city's medieval convivencia and noting the long association of marzipan with Toledo's convents, where nuns historically produced figures for sale as income. Participants then move to the moulding station, where a master confitero guides them through warming and kneading the almond paste and pressing it into traditional wooden moulds representing Toledan landmarks — the Alcázar, the cathedral spires — alongside classic confectionery forms such as the anguila (eel shape) and the peladilla (sugar-coated almond). Each participant toasts their own figures and completes a tasting of four Santo Tomé marzipan varieties: the traditional plain almond, a chocolate-dipped version, a pine-nut variant, and a seasonal speciality that changes by month. Participants leave with a box of six hand-made pieces. December and January workshops feature the Christmas figurines that Santo Tomé has produced in the same moulds since the 19th century. The retail shop is open daily from 09:00 to 20:00 for marzipan purchases without a workshop booking. Workshop price is approximately €25–€30 per person, inclusive of tasting and take-home box.