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Welcome to La Tempesta® Biscotti and Confections.
Bonnie Tempesta, a first generation Italian-American, began the "American Biscotti Renaissance" when she created her first crunchy almond biscotti, baked from an authentic family recipe. Biscotti, the traditional Italian-style dipping cookie, is now a common complement to espresso, cocoa, and wine in America, but was virtually unknown here before Bonnie's crusade began. Bonnie began baking her classic Tuscan-style treats while, as a newly divorced single mother, she was working in a San Francisco chocolate shop serving espresso and cappuccino. When the shop-owner asked if she knew where to get homemade Italian biscotti, she couldn't come up with an answer. She decided to use her Aunt Isa's recipe to make and sell biscotti to the shop. On her days off, she baked in the small kitchen of her home and carried the cookies to work by bus. She cleared only $40 dollars a week after expenses, but saw that there was a demand for her product. After a year of baking her biscotti at home Bonnie courageously quit her full-time job and launched La Tempesta Bakery Confections with help from her mother and a small loan from her brother. La Tempesta has received numerous accolades regarding their delicious products and business success from regional and national publications such as Vogue, Mademoiselle, Bon Appétit, Forbes, Newsweek, Working Woman Magazine, New York Magazine, Gourmet News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner. (For more press information, please see our News page.) However nice this publicity has been, the accolades that continue to mean the most to us are the compliments and e-mails from you when you try our products and come back for more. (To let us know how you like our products, please see our Contact Us page.)
The rapidly growing coffee culture has adopted biscotti as part of its routine. "Coffee houses would seem bare without them," says Don Holly, Director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. "La Tempesta is truly a market leader in the U.S., concurrent with the rapid growth of specialty coffee." Holly adds, "To their credit, La Tempesta continues to update the product and experiment," lauding the company for providing contemporary marketing materials to support their product lines. Elegant products and packaging from La Tempesta also appeal to upscale tastes. According to Laurie Gorton, the editor of industry magazine Baking & Snack, "Biscotti has definitely moved from the coffee shop culture into the fine desserts world. I also like seeing biscotti at the counter area in upscale grocery markets. This has got to be good for building awareness." La Tempesta products are currently available at over 5,000 specialty foods and gift stores, coffee houses and cafés, and finer grocery stores nationwide, including Balducci's and Dean and DeLuca in New York, Whole Foods in multiple locations, Macy's and Andronico's in San Francisco, and Sutton Place Gourmet in Washington DC.
We are particularly proud of the awards we have received. They are among the most competitive and respected awards in the industry—especially those given by the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT). The NASFT, a non-profit business trade association, currently has more than 2,000 member companies around the world. It produces the International Fancy Food & Confection Shows®, and an annual product awards competition. The annual awards competition attracts several thousand entries each year, and is judged solely by specialty food retailers. Here is a partial listing of awards that La Tempesta has been honored to previously receive: NASFT
"Outstanding Classic" Finalist- Food
Distributors Magazine (FDM) First Place- NASFT
"Outstanding New Bestseller" Finalist- LA TEMPESTA TODAY. La Tempesta Bakery Confections, the company Bonnie founded in her kitchen twenty years ago, is still America's quality biscotti leader, baking hundreds of thousands of biscotti and confections daily. Under a new generation of ownership, La Tempesta remains true to the creative spirit and uncompromising quality that Bonnie first brought to the bakery, as we continue to develop and market the best of traditional European and California-inspired biscotti and confections. MAIN
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THE
ITALIAN ROOTS OF LA TEMPESTA
THE
GROWTH OF LA TEMPESTA.
PRESTIGIOUS
RECENT AWARDS (AND OUR PHILOSOPHY ABOUT WINNING THEM).