Portugal͛’s towns and city streets are dotted with pastelarias selling large selections cakes, bread and other sweet pastries, the king of which is the Pastel de Nata. It is narrated that over 300 years ago the monks in the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, a civil parish west of Lisbon, created the Pastéis de nata. The monks and nuns used egg whites to starch their clothes, and used the left over egg yolks to develop a host of desserts, the most famous being the Pastel de Nata. With the decline of the monastic system in Portugal, the monasteries required other sources of income for support, and began selling the pastries to raise money. When the Jerónimos Monastery eventually shut in 1834 the recipe was sold to a family in Belem who until this day run the Fabrica de Pastéis de Belem.
The Jerónimos Monastery is a now a UNESCO World Heritage site and a major tourist attraction for visitors to Lisbon and is normally followed by a stopover at the Fabrica de Pastéis de Belem.

A pastel de Nata is a custard tart, often also known as an egg tart. It comprises a crisp, flaky pastry filled with a smooth creamy custard, and is baked at a very high temperature to give it a signature caramelised appearance. These sweets are labour-intensive to make but at Café de Nata we pride ourselves on the freshness of our ͚Natas͛. Our recipe is a secret too, but the key is in our light flaky pastry. Our Chef Team prepare cream and dough every morning, and we bake all day every day to ensure our products are fresh. We never bake pre-frozen natas. In addition to the Classic Nata, we also make Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, Apple & Cinnamon, Coconut, Chocolate, Passion Fruit natas, and more recently we introduced our very own classic plant-based vegan pastel de nata.

From the outset we have always been committed to offering choice to our customers and based on conversations with existing and prospective customers it became evident that there was a huge demand for a freshly-baked plant-based pastel de nata. Going to market involved developing and trialing several recipes, followed by tasting sessions across a broad focus group as we wanted to make sure that we introduced a product that provided an exact replica of what a freshly baked pastel de nata should taste like. 

Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive: “I can confirm they’re spectacular”, “I can’t get over the VegaNata”, “We tried these vegan cakes today and they are amazing! Really light flaky pastry and so creamy inside. Big thumbs up!”