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Italian to English translations [PRO] Marketing - Food & Dairy / macarons
Italian term or phrase:puffo
Hello
This is from a list of colours of macarons (macarons not macaroons). All the other colours in the list are types of fruit (strawberry, lemon, orange, cherry) so to just translate it as "blue" would be a bit odd. Then again I think that changing all the fruits to their colours (red, yellow, orange, red again!) would be even worse. In America they apparently have Blue moon gelato which is like the puffo flavour in Italy, but that doesn't mean anything to most English speakers I doubt.
I had to reword this as a moderator erased my discussion entry. But it does pertain to the question because it demonstrates that 'Schtroumpf' macarons (the French word for Smurf) and the Italian for 'Puffo' are so common that they make earrings ! If this gets erased, I will begin to take it personally, because 'No need to feel blue over the festive season...(which I have nothing against) does not pertain to the subject at all.
from Holly's words, we don't know if these macarons are given fruit names because they taste like them. We don't even know if in Italian the blue ones are named "puffo" because they taste like "puffo" or simply because they have a blue colour. Perhaps the client shoud have given her more information about this...
Wouldn't it be a bit misleading if you go with a fruit or anything connected to a flavour?
Presumably the 'lemon' macarons taste of lemon and the 'strawberry' ones do actually taste of strawberry. 'Puffo' flavour is just crema pasticcera and blue food dye, calling it 'blueberry' would give the wrong impression, non?
Yes, I think the biggest problem is that you say "puffo" to an Italian and they'll instantly make the connection with gelato. Say "smurf" to an English speaker and they just think of the cartoon.
And the point here is about all those other macarons NOT tasting like their namesake (the "strawberry" red ones, the "lemon" yellow ones, etc.), so going for a name of fruit, like I suggested, would not pose any problems, and be much more elegant than "smurf".
As the question shifted to a gelato discussion, perhaps people instantly thought 'smurf', but, in my opinion, this is much too unsophisticated for a macaron. A bit disgusting if you ask me. Even if the Italians use it, it is not a reason why you should use it. The person who wrote the Italian text perhaps made a quick decision and called it 'Puffo' - the easy way out. As it was already used for gelato, why not macaron ? The macaron market is very different from the gelato market, much more upscale and less kid-oriented.
This is certainly more elegant. Not sure whether it would imply that the macaron would taste of cornflower though, or perhaps this doesn't matter too much.....
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Answers
2 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
Smurf!
Explanation: It literally means this as its a children's flavour!!
Isabelle Johnson Italy Local time: 12:04 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Isabelle, I was trying to avoid the literal translation though because I am not sure it would mean anything to an English speaker who doesn't know about puffo ice cream. I don't know.....I am talking about the beautiful colours of macarons and mentioning these fruits and then I stick smurf on the end......do you see what I mean?
10 mins confidence:
(light) blueberry
Explanation: My suggestion -- as all the other colours mention fruits... why not "blueberry" or "light blueberry"?
Glinda Local time: 12:04 Works in field Native speaker of: Italian
Explanation: If I'm honest I'm not entirely convinced by this myself, but without going a long way from the original Italian it seems like a reasonable compromise. My reference also seems to imply that the Chicago tribune used this translation.....
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 12 mins (2011-12-21 13:57:09 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I see your point! How about "cornflower"? More elegant, if a little further from the original.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
