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Auvergne
Eight facets of white sugar, a touch of mint and salts from a thermal spring: in Vichy, a spa-goer's remedy has, over two centuries, become a sweet known to more than 95% of French people.
Confectionery from Auvergne.
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It all began with a tired stomach. In 1824, the Parisian chemist Jean-Pierre-Joseph d'Arcet made his first stay taking the waters at Vichy, where he came to treat his digestive problems. Bicarbonate of soda is the active ingredient in these waters; the idea came to him to bind it with sugar, so as to carry a little of Vichy in his pocket once back in Paris. His recipe took up just a few lines: 5 g of sodium hydrogen carbonate, 95 g of finely powdered white sugar, tragacanth gum mucilage and a few drops of pure mint. He gave it to the pharmacist Regnauld, who brought the product to market as early as 1825.
At the time, the pastille was a medicine sold in pharmacies. D'Arcet chose not to protect his invention: success was immediate, and pharmacists and confectioners seized upon it. In 1826, he published a note on the preparation and use of these alkaline digestive pastilles in the Annales de chimie et de physique, and the recipe entered the Codex in 1837 under the name of 'pastilles de Vichy ou de Darcet'. By the early 1900s, there were around thirty manufacturers of pastilles de Vichy.
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Its eight-sided shape makes the pastille instantly recognisable today: for the mayor of Vichy, it is 'the very essence of the pastille, a guarantee of authenticity'. Yet the story of its birth is told in three different ways: an octagonal sweet from the outset according to one of the articles consulted, a shape introduced in 1853 by Nicolas Larbaud according to another, and an eight-sided model released in 1854 according to a popular account, which adds that success was instantaneous, with 100,000 pastilles manufactured each day.
Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, was fond of these pastilles and recognised them as an 'original' product. Widely consumed by the French aristocracy, they were nevertheless not sold freely as confectionery until 1914. In the meantime, official control over their manufacture had been established in 1857 by decree of the ministère de l'Agriculture.
Only two manufacturers remain today. The first, la Pastillerie de Vichy, has its factory in the quartier des Ailes; acquired in 2017 by the Carambar group, it produces under licence from the Ville de Vichy, owner of the 'pastille de Vichy' trademark, which extracts the raw material and sells it back to the company. The second, Maison Moinet, is the oldest confectionery in Vichy still in operation. Founded in 1852 by Jules Rondepierre and Marie Madeleine Moinet, it has only been manufacturing pastilles since 1932, when Rémi Moinet bought the Roger spring in Hauterive. There it draws salts from a depth of 70 metres and names its pastilles 'du bassin de Vichy', as its spring lies a few kilometres from the town. In the 1990s, the company had to defend its pastille in court when sued for counterfeiting by an American competitor and by the State, then owner of the Vichy springs; the Cour de cassation ultimately ruled in its favour.
In 2025, the pastille celebrated its 200th anniversary. An IFOP poll from October 2024 reported that more than 95% of French people are familiar with it, and a representative of Maison Moinet counted nearly 1.4 million pastilles eaten every day. Between them, the two factories produce some 2,500 tonnes a year. Yet the sweet had gone through a lean patch in the 1960s and 1970s, relegated to the back of grandmothers' drawers.
Appearance
small, white, octagonal sweet.
Taste
originally a mint flavour, available today in mint, aniseed, lemon or orange.
the original flavour, featured from d'Arcet's very first recipe and still in today's.
the other flavours offered by the Moinet confectionery.
the trademark owned by the Ville de Vichy, produced under licence by la Pastillerie de Vichy, part of the Carambar & Co group.
the name borne by that of Maison Moinet, drawn from a spring located in Hauterive.
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Created as 'a medicine for bloating', the pastille retains its digestive reputation: its mint flavour is also said to have digestive benefits. In cooking, it can be crushed and dissolved in hot milk for a panna cotta à la pastille de Vichy, served with raspberry coulis. Two centuries after its birth, it continues to be reinvented in beer, cocktails, herbal teas and even ice cream.
The pastille de Vichy was not protected by any official quality sign in April 2025, when the Ville de Vichy, along with the manufacturers, launched an application for PGI (IGP) to defend it against copies. The procedure was described at the time as under way, with a conclusion hoped for by the end of 2025.
No producer is listed for this product yet.