Alfenim Pulled Sugar

Official sources agree on an eastern and Arabic transmission but express it with different degrees of certainty. The Azores Crafts Centre describes an eastern recipe brought to Iberia by Arabs, called al-fenid, and later transmitted from mainland Portugal to the Azores. The Azorean Encyclopaedia is more cautious: the sweet and its technique ‘are thought to have been absorbed from Arab culture’. This page does not turn that transmission hypothesis into an undocumented date or route.

In the Azores, official documentation connects alfenim with Holy Spirit festivals. The crafts catalogue describes animals, flowers, hearts and anthropomorphic figures offered as religious vows. DGADR records body-part shapes as ex-votos, wedding-table decoration and prestigious gifts; on Terceira, an offering to the Holy Spirit may remain in the império until auctioned to raise funds for the brotherhood. The ritual role is well documented, although the sources do not present every practice as common to every island.