Music records sound and taste sweet in Split

SPLIT, Croatia (Reuters Life!) - In the late 1970s, Marinko Biskic was the first punk rocker in this picturesque Adriatic city.

More than three decades later, the moustached 50-year old has found a way to combine his first love, music, with a thriving chocolate business.

"I've had a band for a long time. We've recorded two songs and I made a record out of chocolate which can be played on a gramophone," he told Reuters in his small sweet shop inside the ancient walls of a palace built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century.

The record, which looks like an exact replica of the vinyl singles that have given way to CDs, crackles as it plays, conjuring up the magic of old times.

"It can hiss and screech, but everyone who remembers old records knows this is not unusual and many find it romantic," Biskic said. "It can play up to 20 times, on a good gramophone".

The record contains only two songs, a cover of an old Italian canzona and a Biskic original, but he has more ambitious plans, which include a Long Play record and possibly even a chocolate cassette tape.

Biskic's company, Nadalina, produces chocolate and spices and sells most of it to visiting Japanese tourists.

He manufactures only a couple of hand-made records every day, which have to be stored in a cool place, saying the records were a labour of love rather than a commercial project.

"I've actually sold more chocolate records than the real ones my band made," he said with a laugh.

(Reporting by Tina Smole; Writing by Zoran Radosavljevic; Editing by Nick Tattersall)