Spa wafers are an inherent part of life at the spa. According to sources from the end of the 18th century wafers were a popular sweet delicacy among the townsfolk at that time. The production of this speciality in Mariánské Lázně however began in 1856.
The predecessor of the spa wafer was probably the communion bread. Communion breads were made on an open fire in metal tongs called “wafer tongs” from the Middle Ages onwards. These wafer tongs were later used for making round wafers. They were embossed, for example with the year number or the name of producer.
The legend from the 19th century refers to a talented cook from the Premonstratensian monastery in Teplá behind the origin of spa wafers. As a dessert for unexpected guests he decided to use wafer tongs usually used to produce communion bread. He enriched simple dough made of water and flour with sugar and milk and sprinkled a delicious mixture of nuts, sugar, cinnamon and other delicate spices between the baked wafers. Then he baked the wafers together. The dessert was very popular and the recipe soon left the confines of monastery gates. The delicious sweet was alive.
Among the most well-known sweets since end of the 19th century were undoubtedly products made by Franz Wittmayer, the founder of a famous family of confectioners. Franz Wittmayer acquainted his knowledge in Mariánské Lázně. He founded the first Czech confectionery on the boarder area where traditional wafers from Mariánské Lázně were made.
One of the most important persons of spa wafer production in Bohemia in the post-war history was Josef Homolka (1892 – 1988), who gained experience of making spa wafers in Mariánské Lázně. He spent three years experimenting before he achieved to prepare the first batch of chocolate wafers.
The production of spa wafers passed from private hands to state-controlled factories after the Second World War, but the tradition of making Mariánské Lázně wafers remained. Wafer production from 1950 onwards was concentrated in the former Victoria café in Máchova Street in Mariánské Lázně. It was here where the production of the new type of wafers - the spa triangles - began at the end of the 1950s.
The production of spa wafers was continually modernised, with semi-automatic baking machines, the whole process of production became mechanised. The factory was reconstructed and the enterprise was named Kolonáda in 1974. The name of this brand remained the same since then.
Kolonáda original spa wafers are still the most popular of all thanks to their quality. The secret of success lies in the use of an original recipe and strict adherence to a production technique that requires the necessary care and time. Baking moulds are made of bronze, round wafers mature at a precisely-set temperature and air humidity for up to four weeks and the nut mixture is sprinkled on by hand before baking to this day.
Oplatky kolonáda
