brigadeiro

Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes was a decorated Brazilian Air Force officer who survived the 1922 Fort Copacabana uprising as one of the Eighteen of Copacabana Fort, a group of rebels who marched against overwhelming government forces. He rose to the rank of brigadeiro, the Portuguese equivalent of air commodore, and in 1945 ran for president of Brazil. His campaign needed money. His supporters, many of them society women in Rio de Janeiro, began selling small chocolate sweets at fundraising events to collect donations.

The candy itself was simple: sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder, and butter, cooked together in a pan until thick, then rolled by hand into small balls and coated in chocolate sprinkles. Condensed milk had become widely available in Brazil after Nestlé opened its first Brazilian factory in 1921 at Araras, São Paulo. The combination of limited fresh dairy and plentiful canned milk made this recipe practical for home cooks across the country.

Gomes lost the election to Eurico Gaspar Dutra in December 1945, and lost again in 1950 to Getúlio Vargas. But the candy survived both defeats and spread across Brazilian households through the 1950s and 1960s, becoming the fixture at children's birthday parties that it remains today. By the 1970s, brigadeiro had detached entirely from its electoral origin in popular memory. Most Brazilians who grew up eating it had no idea the word was a military rank.

The word brigadeiro itself comes from the Old French brigade, entering Portuguese through military vocabulary in the 1600s. Brigade traces to the Italian brigata, a troop, from brigare, to quarrel or contend, a verb of uncertain origin but possibly connected to Celtic or Germanic roots for conflict. The candy's name is therefore a chain: a root for strife, through Italian military organization, through French, through Portuguese rank, into a chocolate ball eaten at birthday parties.