São Paulo – A typical candy in Brazil, brigadeiro (chocolate truffle) is not part of the Lebanese cuisine. But Jihan Osman bet on it to do business in the land of her ancestors, and it worked. Since September 2014, she produces and sells the sweets in Beirut and, currently, reaches the mark of 400 candies sold per month under the brand Sweet B.
“I always liked to make the candies to my family, friends, in meetings. My friends always said [my brigadeiro] it was very tasty and encouraged me to work with it”, says Osman about the beginning of the business. Born in Foz do Iguaçu, Osman moved to Lebanon six years ago.
With a degree in Hospitality and Tourism and former business owner in the footwear sector, she traveled to São Paulo to take a course specifically focused on production of brigadeiros. It had two days of classes with Diego Lozano. “He is one of Brazil’s best chocolatiers”, she explains.
For a special touch in her product, Osman decided to invest in a brigadeiro gourmet, made with special ingredients. According to her, the sweets are prepared with Belgium chocolate instead of the powdered kind, and butter instead of margarine.
From there, she also began to adapt the brigadeiro recipe to the taste of the Lebanese. One of most significant changes was replacing milk chocolate with dark chocolate. “Here in Lebanon, they think milk chocolate is too sweet”, says Osman. The dark chocolate replacement fully pleased the taste of her Lebanese clients and Osman made it the standard for her truffles. “The one that sells the most is the dark chocolate one, which I called the traditional one”, she says.
In addition to the traditional one, Osman offers a variety of flavors to her clients. The most popular are caramel with fleur de sel, pistachio, walnuts, lemon, coffee, mint chocolate and coconut. Despite that high number of Brazilians living in Lebanon, they are not Osman’s main clients. “The majority of my clients are Lebanese. They think it [brigadeiro] is interesting, different”, she points out.
She said she started her business with a focus on sales to events. She prepared the sweets, for instance, to six marriages already. According to her, an event can generate orders of 100 to 1,000 brigadeiros. Today, however, her sales are more focused in boxes with 20 sweets, offered to people that want to try it for the first time. Each truffle costs USD 1, but some special flavors can reach USD 2 a piece.
Sales are made through orders and social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, is the main advertising channel of Sweet B. For the future, Osman is planning to open a coffee shop to expand sales of her sweets.
Sweet B.
Website: www.facebook.com/sweetbbeirut/
Email: sweetbbeirut@outlook.com
Phone: +961 3 695 690
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
