Who lived in that period, remember that you couldn’t eat Zana sweets in your home, because they were only for guests. The only way to try is when you were a guest in another house. Zana was famous in Albania as a name for many girls and a symbol of a beautiful goddess.

Surviving the fall of the Communist regime, they remained in the Albanian market even after the 1990s. After the regime collapsed, Albanians wanted to try different things, especially food and sweets, which were forbidden during the communism. Everything typically made in Albania was replaced with foreign products, imported from different countries, starting from fruits like bananas or strawberries to Coca-Cola or other drinking bottles we couldn’t have in isolated times.

This happened with everything. We wanted to remove everything that related us to the previous regime from our houses, even the furniture. This curiosity for the other things we didn’t have lasted for at least two decades. But soon, Albanians started to feel nostalgic for the food and products we cooked at home during the communism, and gradually, we began to produce some of the famous products of the communist time. One of these products is Sweets Zana, the famous red caramels we offered guests during the previous regime.

For those who still have nostalgia for these candies, you can find them in Tirana. We have tried it at the Komiteti Kafe-Muze; you can also buy them everywhere in Tirana in the supermarkets.