Spain’s classic Christmas turrón comes from one small town in the Valencia region, and it is the sweet most visitors should take home. Turrón is an almond and honey confection made in Xixona, in Alicante province, sold in a soft version called Jijona and a hard one called Alicante. Valencia’s bakeries add their own Christmas pastries, which you will rarely find outside the region.
What Christmas sweets should you buy in Valencia? Turrón from Xixona is the one that travels: Original CV, Plaza del Mercado 35, sells 75-gram pieces for €3 and 300-gram bars for €11.90. To eat during your stay, look for pastissets de boniato, sweet-potato pastries sold in bakeries such as Horno de San Bartolomé, and aniseed rollitos at €4.80 a pack.
What to try, and what to take home
Valencia’s Christmas sweets split into two groups for a visitor: those you eat here and those you pack. The diagram below sorts them.
- Turrón de Jijona, the soft one: almonds ground to a paste with honey and sugar, with a texture close to a firm nut butter.
- Turrón de Alicante, the hard one: whole almonds bound with honey, sugar and egg white, closer to a nougat bar.
- Pastissets de boniato: small half-moon pastries made with flour, olive oil and aniseed, filled with sweet-potato jam and dusted with sugar. Bakeries make them from autumn and above all at Christmas.
- Rollitos de anís and rosegones: dry aniseed rings and almond-and-lemon biscuits, sold in packs.
- Casca: a marzipan ring filled with candied sweet potato or egg yolk, eaten on Kings’ Day. It is made to order in a few bakeries, alongside the better-known roscón.
Where to buy turrón near the Central Market
The easiest stop is Original CV, a shop of Valencian produce at Plaza del Mercado 35, on the corner of Calle Ercilla and opposite the Central Market. It fills a former pharmacy with an 1880 ceramic ceiling, opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 8.30pm, and prices everything on the shelf.
Àngel Guimerà metro, on lines 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9, is 699 metres away, and a single ticket for zone A costs €1.50.
The Coloma García bars from Xixona cost €11.90 for 300 grams in soft Jijona, hard Alicante, guirlache, toasted egg yolk and chocolate with almonds. The premium bars by Pablo Garrigós Ibáñez cost €19.90. White sugared almonds made with Marcona almonds are €7.90 a box, and the wood-fired rollitos, rosegones and orange biscuits from Horno El Puente are €4.80 each. The shop takes phone orders on 963 918 480.
Where to buy turrón before your train at Joaquín Sorolla
If you leave Valencia by high-speed train, Original CV has a second shop inside the Estación Joaquín Sorolla. It opens from 10am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday, but closes on Saturdays.
No booking is needed, but the shop will have an order ready for collection if you phone 960 079 790 or send a WhatsApp, which saves time before the AVE to Madrid. Arriving by plane instead? The metro from the airport is covered in Valencia airport to the city centre.
Where to buy pastissets de boniato
Pastissets are bought where they are baked, at Horno de San Bartolomé, the bakery of Jesús Machí, which is closely tied to the recipe. Machí has taught it with his own sweet-potato filling.
His original bakery opened in Russafa in 1985 at Calle Duque de Calabria 14, 325 metres from the Russafa stop on tram line 10. A second one sits at Plaza del Tossal 6 in El Carmen, in a bakery dating from 1795. Both answer on 963 749 722, and the price is given at the counter.
When to buy each sweet
Turrón sells all season, from November to January. Pastissets appear from autumn and peak in December. Casca and roscón are for 6 January and have to be ordered in December, because the bakeries that make them work to a cap.
Timing also depends on the market next door: the Mercado Central opens Monday to Saturday from 7.30am to 3pm and shuts in the afternoon, so the best time for both is a weekday morning. For the Kings’ Day cakes, including casca, see where to buy roscón de Reyes in Valencia. For gifts beyond food, the craft stalls are in Valencia Christmas markets, and Valencia’s other edible souvenir, tiger-nut horchata, has its own guide in horchata and fartons in Valencia.
What may disappoint
Turrón is a Xixona product, not a Valencia city one, however Valencian it feels to buy it here. Pastissets have no published hours or prices, so buying them means walking into a bakery and asking, in Spanish if possible. And Original CV closes on Sundays in Plaza del Mercado and on Saturdays at the station, so a weekend visitor needs to pick the right shop for the day.
Frequently asked questions about Valencian Christmas sweets
What are the traditional Christmas sweets in Valencia?
Turrón from Xixona, in its soft Jijona and hard Alicante versions; pastissets de boniato, small half-moon pastries filled with sweet-potato jam; rollitos de anís, dry aniseed rings; rosegones, almond biscuits; and casca, a marzipan ring filled with sweet potato or egg yolk that is eaten on 6 January.
What is the difference between soft and hard turrón?
Soft turrón, sold as Jijona, is made from almonds ground into a paste with honey and sugar. Hard turrón, sold as Alicante, keeps the almonds whole, bound with honey, sugar and egg white. Both are protected by the same regulatory council and made in the town of Xixona, in Alicante province.
Where can I buy turrón in Valencia city centre?
Original CV, at Plaza del Mercado 35 opposite the Central Market, sells Coloma García turrón from Xixona at €11.90 for a 300-gram bar and 75-gram pieces at €3. It opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 8.30pm. Its second shop is inside Joaquín Sorolla railway station.
Which Valencian sweets are best to take home?
Turrón, because it needs no refrigeration and comes sealed. Dry sweets such as rollitos de anís and rosegones also pack well. Pastissets de boniato are best eaten within a few days, and cream-filled roscón or casca are not suitcase material.
Buy turrón in a shop and pastissets in a bakery; the first travels home, the second rarely survives the week.