The History of Brigadeiros: How a Brazilian Election Created a Dessert

What Is a Brigadeiro? A Quick Reminder

Before we go back to 1945, if you haven't yet tried one here is a quick reminder. A brigadeiro is a small (about the size of a quarter), hand-rolled Brazilian chocolate confection made from four core ingredients: condensed milk, cocoa powder, butter, and chocolate sprinkles. Since then we have come up with new flavors and ingredients, but the core remains the same. It is somewhere between a truffle and a piece of fudge, denser and richer than the truffle but softer than the fudge. Brigadeiros have a creamy consistency that is unlike any other chocolate treat. In Brazil and with Brazilians globally brigadeiros (often homemade) are served at every birthday party, every wedding, every celebration that calls for a treat. If you'd like a deeper dive, read our post on what a brigadeiro actually is. For now, just hold the picture in your head: a sprinkle-coated little ball of chocolate. With that in mind, we can go back to Rio de Janeiro in 1945 to see where they came from.

Where Do Brigadeiros Come From? A 1945 Presidential Campaign in Brazil

At the end of the Second World War rationing was still a fact of daily life in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, was alive with political energy. After eight years under the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, the country was holding its first democratic presidential election in over a decade which was set for December 2, 1945. It was a historic election for another reason as well: it was the first national election in which all Brazilian women could vote.

One of the candidates was a man named Eduardo Gomes, an Air Force officer with the rank of Brigadier ("brigadeiro" in Portuguese), and a national figure long before he ran for office. In 1922 (twenty-three years earlier), he had been one of only two survivors of a famous military uprising on Rio's Copacabana beach. By 1945 he was the candidate of the newly formed National Democratic Union, the UDN, running against the legacy of Getúlio Vargas, the authoritarian president who had ruled Brazil through World War II. He was also, as the Brazilian press of the time happily noted, a single, handsome, well-spoken bachelor, a combination that brought him extra attention from the women of Brazil.

His supporters leaned in and capitalized on this popularity. They launched a campaign slogan: "vote no brigadeiro, que é bonito e solteiro" (in English "vote for the brigadier, who's handsome and single.") It was memorable and it worked, within weeks it was the slogan of the election. Posters carried it, rallies chanted it, and in the kitchens of Rio, a handful of women began thinking about what chocolate treat they might serve at the campaign teas they were hosting in support of their favorite candidate, the brigadeiro.

Who Invented the Brigadeiro? Heloísa Nabuco de Oliveira and the Women Who Made History

As history tells it the answer emerged in the kitchen of Heloísa Nabuco de Oliveira, a carioca (a Rio native) from a traditional Brazilian family who supported the Gomes campaign. Heloísa was a confectioner, and at one of the campaign's afternoon gatherings she introduced a new chocolate treat she had developed: a small, fudgy chocolate ball, rolled in sprinkles, easy to make in batches and easy to share. It took off right away, and based on its association with the campaign teas quickly took on the rank of the candidate himself as its name; it became the "brigadeiro."

What happened next is the part of the story that often gets pushed aside in the telling of history, but it is the most interesting part. Women across Rio's political circles began making brigadeiros to sell at fundraising events for the Gomes campaign. They were the campaign's unofficial workforce, organizing teas, hosting gatherings, raising money, and using the newly created chocolate as their tool. These were women who had just won the right to vote, and they were claiming political voice the only way Brazilian society had left open to them: by gathering people around a table, putting something delicious in front of them, and starting a conversation.

It is easy, eighty years later with today's norms and culture to read the campaign slogan and cringe at how it traded on Gomes's looks. But the women who made and sold those treats were doing serious work. They were participating in a democracy that had only just made room for them. The brigadeiro is the symbol of Brazilian women's first national vote, and it has survived the test of time.

Why Condensed Milk? The Wartime Resourcefulness Behind the Recipe

There is a practical reason brigadeiros are made the way they are. As I mentioned earlier in late 1945, fresh milk and refined sugar were both still scarce in Brazil because wartime rationing was still in effect. Anyone trying to make traditional desserts had to work around shortages of sugar, milk, and other ingredients. Condensed milk, on the other hand, was widely available. Nestlé had been distributing it in Brazil since 1890 and had opened a domestic factory in 1921, where the product was sold under the Brazilian brand Leite Moça. By the 1940s, condensed milk was a pantry staple in Brazil and the tool of every creative cook.

Heloísa's brigadeiro recipe was born out of necessity, but turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Condensed milk, cocoa powder, and butter were cooked together over low heat until the mixture thickened into a glossy fudge, then cooled, rolled into balls, and coated in sprinkles. Four ingredients, no oven or specialized equipment needed. The cooking technique gave the candy a texture that was (and to this day continues to be) truly unique. Denser than a truffle, without being heavy, yet creamier than fudge, with a distinctive caramelized note that comes from reducing the ingredients very slowly over heat. The result was perfect.

As with almost all food histories and origin stories it is worth noting that the brigadeiro recipe likely existed in some form before 1945. Sweetened condensed milk had been a feature of Brazilian home baking for decades, and different variations of small round chocolates appear in earlier accounts. What 1945 gave the brigadeiro was a name, a campaign, a moment, and a network of women who took it from a random home recipe to a national phenomenon. The story is that a chocolate treat was discovered by a nation at exactly the right moment.

What Happened to Brigadier Gomes? (And Why It Didn't Matter)

Unfortunately for him and his supporters Gomes lost the 1945 election. Eurico Gaspar Dutra, a former general aligned with outgoing president Getúlio Vargas, won by a comfortable margin. Gomes ran again in 1950, against Vargas himself this time, and lost again. He served honorably in the Air Force, retired with the country's respect, and faded into the background of political history.

The brigadeiro did not. Within a few years of the 1945 election, it had escaped its political connotation entirely. It was a children's birthday party staple, a wedding-table fixture, a thing you made at home with your avó on a Sunday afternoon. The candidate had become a footnote, and the chocolate had become a national institution. Most Brazilians would be hard pressed to remember the origin story (if they had ever even heard it) but they certainly remember the first time they had the chocolate.

From Political Treat to National Icon: How Brigadeiros Became Part of Brazilian Life

By the 1960s, brigadeiros were everywhere! No birthday party for a Brazilian child is complete without a tray of them. New flavors have been developed and they are often arranged in a careful pyramid with the original chocolates being joined by coconut, mint, passion fruit and other unique flavors. Weddings serve them by the hundreds. Carnaval gatherings include them on the dessert table, Christmas dinners end with them, and family lunches on lazy Sundays often turn into family afternoons because someone has produced a fresh batch. They are, as anyone who has spent time in Brazil knows, the rich and fudgy treat that is the essence of dessert in Brazil.

As time went on regional variations developed. In Rio Grande do Sul, in the country's south, brigadeiros are commonly called negrinhos, "little black ones." Confectionaries experimented: white chocolate brigadeiros, coconut brigadeiros, coffee, passion fruit, dulce de leche, and many more flavors were created. A spoonable version was created (brigadeiro de colher) eaten straight from a small jar with a spoon (or a finger by the little ones) and became a popular alternative to the rolled balls. None of these variations displaced the original. They simply gave Brazilians more ways to enjoy what has become the most popular Brazilian dessert treat.

Frequently Asked Questions About Brigadeiro History

Who invented the brigadeiro? The brigadeiro was created by Heloísa Nabuco de Oliveira, a Rio de Janeiro confectioner from a traditional carioca family, in 1945 to support the presidential campaign of Brigadier Eduardo Gomes.

Why is it called a brigadeiro? The dessert is named after Brigadier Eduardo Gomes, an Air Force officer who ran for president of Brazil in 1945. Women supporters sold the candy at his campaign rallies, and the name stuck.

When was the brigadeiro invented? The brigadeiro became popular in 1945 during Brazil's first national election in which all women could vote. Some food historians believe similar recipes existed earlier, but the dessert took its name and current form during the Eduardo Gomes campaign.

Why are brigadeiros made with condensed milk? Post-WWII rationing in Brazil meant fresh milk and sugar were scarce. Condensed milk, already widely available thanks to Nestlé's distribution since the 1890s, became the practical alternative, and its richness gave the brigadeiro its signature creamy, fudgy texture.

Bringing the Brigadeiro Tradition to America and to Your Door

Eighty years after that first campaign tea, brigadeiros have left Brazil. As Brazilians like my parents have emigrated to new countries around the world they brought brigadeiros with them. Wherever they are in the world Brazilian families still make their favorite Brazilian dessert treat in home kitchens and Brazilian churrascarias everywhere. Brazilian-born confectioners have opened shops in cities across the United States. And brands like ours have set out to do something specific: bring the real thing, the family-recipe version made in small batches by people who care about it, to American doorsteps that have never tasted one.

When you send a box of brigadeiros, you are sending more than chocolate. You are sending a piece of a story that began at a Rio campaign rally in 1945 and ended at every Brazilian celebration for the next eighty years. You are sending an authentic Brazilian gift with real history behind every bite.

If you'd like to taste the chocolate treat behind the story order a batch of our handcrafted brigadeiros delivered straight to your door.