Bergamotes de Nancy: fruit, essence and sweet

Nancy’s sweet does not come from a Lorraine-grown citrus fruit: its identity lies in natural bergamot essence, precisely cooked sugar and a PGI that protects the confectionery, not the cultivation of the fruit.

In Nancy, bergamot refers to a citrus fruit, its essence and a sweet that has become a local speciality. These three things are connected, but they are not one and the same: the fruit does not grow in Lorraine’s climate, while the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) protects a confection made according to precise specifications. The story of the sweet lies in this transformation — from essence to cooked sugar.

A citrus fruit from elsewhere, a speciality rooted in Nancy

Bergamot is a citrus fruit associated in particular with southern Italy. Nancy is therefore not a growing region for it. Rather, the local speciality is based on using its essence in a confection. This distinction matters: the geographical origin claimed by the name does not mean that the fruit used is harvested in Lorraine.

Accounts of the meeting between bergamot and the court of Lorraine vary in how they tell the story. Destination Nancy refers to longstanding links between Lorraine and Italy, while the National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) links the history of the sweet to the court established in Nancy and to a lozenge designed to freshen the breath. These details provide context for the tradition, but do not point to a single, fully documented origin for the square sweet made today.

The form now associated with bergamotes de Nancy emerged later. Destination Nancy dates the emergence of the confection known today to the 1850s and attributes its invention to confectioner Jean Frédéric Godefroy Lillich, who is said to have added bergamot essence to sugar. The tourism office’s account thus locates the role of the flavouring in the transformation of the citrus fruit into a confection.

From essence to the “crack” stage: the technique that locks in the flavour

The specifications describe a short recipe: sugar, glucose syrup and natural bergamot essence. The transformation depends in particular on the cooking. According to INAO, a mixture of sugar and water is melted over a direct flame until it reaches a temperature close to 152 °C, known as the “crack” stage. As it cools, the sugar hardens and becomes brittle. Cooking also gives it its natural amber colour.

The finished sweet is described as hard, transparent, flat and square. These characteristics are not mere matters of appearance: they help explain what the PGI regulates. It is not a designation that protects every confection flavoured with bergamot, nor a guarantee relating to the cultivation of the fruit. It applies to sweets that meet the production rules laid down for the designation.

Cooking the sugar therefore involves more than adding flavouring. The temperature determines the transition from syrup to a substance that solidifies as it cools. The process must bring the mixture to the stage specified in the product specifications; it is this know-how, combined with the ingredients and the defined production area, that gives geographical protection its meaning.

What the PGI protects — and what it does not

Registered in 1996, the Bergamote de Nancy PGI distinguishes a speciality linked to a territory and a method of production. The designation does not mean that bergamot is grown around Nancy. Nor is it enough for a sweet to have a similar shape or comparable flavour: what matters is compliance with the product specifications.

The date 1996 marks a step in recognition, not the birth of the confection. INAO says the speciality has existed for more than two and a half centuries, while Destination Nancy dates the emergence of bergamot in its familiar form to the 1850s. These reference points relate to different things: the longer history of bergamot preparations and the later appearance of the square sweet.

In 2026, the PGI’s thirtieth anniversary is being marked in Nancy with a programme centred on taste, fragrance and know-how. The subject goes beyond celebrating an ingredient: it brings together a confectionery technique and the way a city preserves and passes on a speciality.

An identity also shaped by its packaging

The sweet’s history is not limited to its recipe. INAO says the first screen-printed metal tins appeared at the 1909 World’s Fair and permanently associated bergamot with the image of Place Stanislas. The packaging thus helps make a speciality recognisable: it connects a product with a place, without that image turning Nancy into a growing region for the citrus fruit.

This history allows us to understand bergamotes de Nancy as a chain of choices: an essence from a fruit grown elsewhere, precisely cooked sugar, production within a defined area and a local identity that also spread through its tins. The tradition owes less to a Lorraine origin for the raw ingredient than to the way an imported product was incorporated into a body of know-how and a city’s memory.

France Inter’s report on a confectionery workshop accompanies the anniversary. It also mentions the book “Bergamote de Nancy, le fruit devenu légende”, by Sandra Salès, Renaud Petitjean and Frédéric Rey. This is another way to explore the speciality through its history, alongside the cooking technique that continues to define it.