bake - November 2017 - 45

MELAO BAKERY
If one were to choose a few words to describe central

supported us from the ﬁrst day Melao Bakery opened

Florida's popular Puerto Rican retailer Melao Bakery,

its doors in April 2009. This award shows that serving

you might immediately choose to call this place sweet

with passion and dedication creates great satisfaction,

and uplifting. In every corner of the bakery, there are

which motivates us to continue working together in the

signs on the wall such as "never underestimate the

community."

power of God" or "exercise daily - walk with the Lord."
They take spirituality seriously here, in a polite gesture

The bakery specializes in breads, donuts and pastries.

to remind customers they are special and all part of the

Their top-selling pastry is the quesito, which they ﬁll

community. Owners Eduardo Colón and Denisse Torres

with cream cheese. Sugar donuts are very popular

started their central Florida bakery six years ago, after

here, as well. Rodriguez says they are known as donas

having run a bakery in their former home of Puerto

querendonas, a term "that brings us to our childhood."

Rico. They grew up in Vega Baja, in northern Puerto

Melao Bakery also sells donuts with glaze topping,

Rico, where beautiful beaches are surrounded by sugar

vanilla topping, chocolate topping, Bavarian ﬁlled

cane ﬁelds. In Puerto Rico, melao means sugar cane.

topped with sugar, cheese ﬁlled topped with honey
glaze, and a twisted donut topped with vanilla or

Once they arrived in Florida, they started the bakery

chocolate.

with seven employees. Today, there are more than 50
on staff, as the owners prepare to open a second loca-

One of the most popular breads at Melao Bakery is

tion in Orlando. The city of Kissimmee honored Melao

known as pan sobao, which is similar to Cuban bread

Bakery as the ﬁrst Hispanic business to win its annual

but has a softer texture because a touch of oil is added

"Small Business of the Year" award. In January 2014,

to the dough. Another type of bread loved by the

Florida Governor Rick Scott recognized Melao Bakery

Puerto Rican community is called Mallorca, a soft and

as one of six statewide recipients of the Governor's

sweet bread that is popular to eat as a snack or with

Business Ambassador Award.

sandwiches. This popular bread is inﬂuenced by the
Spanish culture. The bakery also offers multi-grain

JOHN UNREIN

The bakery's mission is to celebrate Hispanic heri-

bread, cheese bread, and guava & cheese bread.

tage through great food and to have a positive inﬂuence on all those who visit Melao Bakery. "We share

Pastries are available in a variety of ﬂavors: guava pastry

this achievement with the communities of Kissimmee

topped with sugar, cheese pastry topped with honey

and Central Florida," Torres said of the Governor's

glaze or almonds, or guava and cheese pastry topped

Business Ambassador Award. "These communities have

with glaze.

bakemag.com | NOV 2017 > 45

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bake - November 2017

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