A great pastel de nata has three things going for it: a blistered, almost burnt top, custard that still trembles, and pastry so crisp it shatters onto your shirt. The first two travel well. The third is the problem. Steam is the enemy of puff pastry, and a box of warm tarts is basically a small sauna.
So we ran a test. One morning we ordered natas from Nata Nata in Chiado to three addresses, at three distances, and compared them with tarts eaten at the counter. We also ordered from Café Elétrico, which bakes croissants and pastries a few streets away, to see what a good bakery does differently.
What the kitchens get right
Nata Nata bakes a fresh tray every twenty minutes from seven in the morning, and the kitchen will not pack a tart that has been out of the oven for more than an hour. More importantly, they use vented boxes. The tarts sit in a single layer in a paper tray, with holes in the lid so the steam escapes instead of soaking back into the pastry. Cinnamon and icing sugar come in sachets on the side, never sprinkled on before travel.
The results were clear. At the closest address, about six minutes away, the tarts were nearly indistinguishable from the counter. At fifteen minutes the base had softened slightly but the edges still crackled. Only at the farthest address did the pastry lose its snap, and that was easy to fix.
Café Elétrico takes the same approach with croissants: a paper bag rather than plastic, never sealed tight. Their flat white travels in a separate carrier, because a hot drink next to pastry is a guaranteed soggy bottom.
How to bring a tart back to life
If your natas arrive a little soft, three minutes is all it takes to make them taste like they just left the oven. Here is the method we settled on after far too many tarts.
- Open the box as soon as it arrives so the steam can escape.
- Heat the oven or an air fryer to 200 °C; skip the microwave, it makes pastry chewy.
- Warm the tarts on a rack for three to four minutes, no longer.
- Let them rest for one minute so the custard sets again.
- Add cinnamon and icing sugar only now, right before you eat.
One more tip from the bakers: a box of six is better value than six single tarts, and they keep each other warm on the way. If you are ordering for a meeting, a box of twelve with a few galões will make you very popular before nine in the morning.
Our verdict: the pastel de nata passes the delivery test with honours, as long as the kitchen packs it properly and you give it three minutes of heat at home. Somebody had to eat thirty of them to find out. We are not complaining.
