Granoro Farina "00", anyone? comments please.

[GotRocks]

I made a road trip to Milwaukee WI on 3-08-10 to attend the WRA show (Wisconsin Restaurant Assoc.) because one of my product rep's gave us some preferred customer entry tickets. (5-hours each way for me, and we are not doing the Chicago show this year so I figured why not)
While I was down there, I visited my favorite Italian market. I searched high & low for Caputo flour so I would have something to work with before I do my initial pallet order of 55# bags.
They did not have Caputo flour, and when I asked the owner of the market why not, he seemed like he was not very pleased with the product, and he would never have it in his store. So instead he grabbed me a 1000-gram bag of Granoro "00" and said "try this, you will like it better than Caputo"
 
Has anyone worked with this stuff? does anyone know if it is available in 50# or larger bags in case I like it?

I am guessing that the Granoro will not work in high-heat situations, and most people that purchase at this market dislike Caputo becuase they are not using it in 900 degree ovens and it looks pale after baking.

[scott r]

I have used this flour a number of times when I found it at a local market, then again when a family friend gave me two small bags as a gift because she knew I was into italian flour.    I am surprised that the people you spoke to had negative comments about caputo, and preferred this flour.   I did not find that it browned much more or any faster than caputo pizzeria.   It is definitely a good flour, and to me not quite as good as caputo pizzeria, but  similar.   I wonder if its just one of those "I don't sell it so it sucks" situations, or maybe the people only used caputo once and had bad luck that one time. 

I have never seen it in 55lb bags (italian flour probably wouldn't come in 50lb bags), but if you want to try some other good alternatives to caputo you should check out the rebranded polselli 00 flour that Roma foods sells, or San Felice flour which is distributed by D. Collucio and sons in Brooklyn.   

[andreguidon]

i use granarolo here in brazil... but i dont think its the same... granarolo is good flour...

[GotRocks]

I have never seen it in 55lb bags (italian flour probably wouldn't come in 50lb bags), but if you want to try some other good alternatives to caputo you should check out the rebranded polselli 00 flour that Roma foods sells, or San Felice flour which is distributed by D. Collucio and sons in Brooklyn.   

Thanks for the info, It is appreciated. So at least its similar to Caputo from your description
I should be able to get a solid formulation figured with Granoro, and only need slight modifications to my formula when I get my Caputo delivered.
The Caputo commercial package size is 22KG, which is marketed at 55-pounds by my closest commercial distributor. I will look into the other brands you have mentioned, but I doubt I will have them available in my area. I am in a very tough area for any non-mainstream products because the area is  considered very rural.