How Filbert became Hazelnut

EDITORS NOTE: In this blog I aim to share what it is like to grow up in, and work at Anderson's Candy Shop through stories about our family, customers and our chocolates.

My two favorite aspects of my job are collaborating and goofing around with my sister, Susanne and being able to interact with our customers.
This blog... well, it showcases my two favorite things and lets you in on some recent drama at the shop surrounding a little-known nut. This post is based on a true story. There is a real customer named Michael Hedrick and he really did give us a $20 bill. We got a little creative from there. I hope you enjoy!
                                                                                                       

Meet Filbert.

He’s round (chubby, some say), with pale skin and brown freckles.  

He’s earnest and follows the rules (maybe a bit naïve).  He doesn't quite fit in, a bit of a square peg in a round hole – or in this case, a round peg in a square hole.  He’s nervous a lot.

Filbert also happens to be a nut that we at Anderson’s dip in chocolate and sell in candy bar form. And, for a long, long time, Filbert has been very unpopular.

He just doesn't fit in with the rest of the nuts.

Brazil is tall, handsome and foreign; Cashew deliciously curvy with a golden brown tan; Pecan has delicate, symmetrical folds and Almond is just everyone’s favorite.

With competition like that, who wouldn't be nervous?

But Filbert dreams of more. 

He dreams of achieving his inner potential.

Filbert dreams of transcending his small, freckled stature and showing the world what a robust, smooth flavor he has.

He may not taste like the other nuts, but that is his strength. He is unique and he dreams of one day standing up and boldly saying, “Add me to your chocolates! No longer will I apologize for my roundness!  CALL ME HAZELNUT!”

We Anderson’s have talked of Filbert’s potential, but we haven’t been able to bring it out – until now – until we met Michael Hedrick.

Michael Hedrick of Barrington

With one gesture, Michael changed the course of Filbert's destiny and crossed over from good customer, into the territory of customer of legend.

On a recent trip to our Richmond shop Michael met Filbert.

While Michael is typically more interested in our fruit selection – apricot and coconut are among his favorites – he inquired on that trip about Filbert.

As he gazed down through the glass of the candy bar case at our selection of chocolates, his eyes passed over the nut section and he asked one of our employees, Barb, a question that got straight to the heart of the matter:

“What is filbert?” he mused.

Barb, having known filbert a very long time, told Michael that Filbert was also sometimes known around the shop as Hazelnut.

Fascinated by the fact that such a dynamic little nut had been hiding in the bar case right in front of him for so long, Michael wondered why Filbert hadn't let the world know who he was inside.

“What would it take to let Filbert be Hazelnut?” Michael asked Barb.

“You stamp each bag with the candy bar’s name – is all it would take to make the change buying a new stamp?”

Skeptically, Barb replied, “Yes.  But I’m not sure Filbert will ever change.”

About a month passed and unable to stay away, Michael found his way into our Barrington shop and visited Filbert.

Michael felt compelled to give Filbert the push he needed to realize his true potential. Micahel knew that Filbert had everything it takes to be a star, what he needed was an image makeover and someone to fund it.

After checking out with his bag full of chocolates, Michael approached Katie about Filbert's situation and offered to fund Filbert's metamorphosis.

Michael handed Katie a fresh, crisp twenty dollar bill and said those words that Filbert had so longed to hear, “Buy a Hazelnut stamp.”

It was a long road, but clad in his new label the Hazelnut that was there all along finally came out. 

He isn't nervous around his peers anymore.

He’s proud to be the round little nut with the big, smooth flavor.

They say the clothes make the man, and in this case, the stamp made the nut.
http://www.andersonscandyshop.com/product_info.php?cPath=cPath=53&products_id=112

Ribbons to remember, ribbons to raise awareness

EDITOR'S NOTE: At Anderson’s Candy Shop, we do special orders all of the time. Actually they are my favorite orders to fill. Bacon-bit dusted caramels, mango-flavored chocolates -- as a former journalist, I’m a sucker for a good story and these types of orders always come with good ones. One of the best stories this year took me by surprise. It did not come from a customer, really, but came from a young woman I work with at the candy shop nearly every day. Her's is the picture at the top of this blog and the following is, really, her story.

Just after Easter I took a phone call from our longtime customer and friend, Derrick Wolff. He is a firefighter/EMT with the Lake Geneva Fire Department and he needed chocolate “awareness ribbons” to sell as a fundraiser for his Walworth County Wisconsin Relay for Life team.

I took the order while making a batch of candy and then passed the project off to our chocolate-molding extraordinaire, Bethany Galla.

Beth is 21 and has worked at the candy shop for five years. She is fun, creative, attentive and cheerful, and I figured that she and Derrick would hit it off and the order would be relatively simple.

What I didn’t think about was that Beth is a cancer survivor herself. Because of this she felt inspired to take this order to another level.

On Friday, July 20, Wolff and his Relay for Life team will have 600 chocolate ribbons to sell -- about 400 of which are dyed and flavored to represent seven different kinds of cancers including green for kidney cancer, white for bone cancer, and gold for childhood cancers.

Over the years Beth has shared bits and pieces of her cancer story with our Candy Shop family and her survival story has given me immense respect for her strength and resilience.

Now I would like to share that story with you, our extended family.

I asked Beth last week to write some notes about her experience with cancer as a young child and the following is from what she wrote:

“Before I was a year old, noticeable bruises appeared under my eyes.

Doctors declared it food allergies and instructed my mother to remove solid foods from my diet and reintroduce them one by one.

This was not a good enough conclusion for my parents, however so my mother took me to get a second opinion from another doctor.

After a few more tests, I was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.”

(In simple terms, the doctors had discovered a cancerous tumor. It was caused by abnormal nerve cell growth. Normally, these immature cells grow and mature into functioning nerve cells. But in Neuroblastoma, they become cancer instead. Early symptoms can include bone pain, difficulty breathing, pale skin and bluish color around the eyes, and loss of movement of the hips, legs or feet. This type of cancer usually occurs in infants and children and the cause is unknown. Eventually, Neuroblastoma can cause liver and kidney failure, decreased resistance to infection and organ failure. Beth’s symptoms did not surface until after her cancer had advanced.)

"The bruises and lethargy didn't manifest until the cancer had already spread to multiple organs in my body, including my liver, abdomen and bone tissue.

The cancer was in the fourth stage. I remember being in the hospital, though it is quite vague.

I remember I lost all my hair because of the chemotherapy. On top of the chemo treatments, I underwent radiation and finally surgery.

I have a huge scar on my abdomen as a constant reminder of my early childhood horror."

If you met Beth, you would never guess she went through trauma as a child. Even her voice is happy. But earlier this year when one of our dippers, Colleen Vineyard, organized her own Relay For Life team, Beth brought some of her old photos in to share.

In Beth's "before treatment" pictures there is a sad and sick looking little girl. In the "after" pictures is a child which resembles the bright and sweet person we all know and love today.

As I have watched Beth labor for more than 20 hours on the ribbon order during the past month -- carefully mixing the colored chocolates and pouring each mold, then wrapping her masterpieces and tying them with bows -- I am deeply touched by the love she has poured into each piece.

When a project is as personal as this one was to Beth it really shows, in the best way possible. Beth’s creations are as beautiful as she is.

For the past month, every time I have walked past the chocolate-molding room filled with Beth’s colored ribbons I have been struck with emotion. We all have our own stories.

I see the pink ribbons and my heart tugs as I am reminded of my mother who I lost to breast cancer in 2009. Sometimes I smile because the white ribbons remind me of the love of my grandpa, who suffered from bone cancer.

Always I am thankful for Beth.

“It is scarce these days that any family escapes the devastation that cancer springs upon them.

"It is so prevalent and we need to band together to raise awareness and continue campaigning for research of cancer treatments."

For me, Beth's passion for raising awareness to cancer has turned Derrick’s ribbons to something more than just chocolates. They have become sweet reminders of the resilience, dedication and strength possible in people and have made me feel extra proud to be working with a person like Beth.

***


If you have time, please consider taking a moment to support Derrick Wolff and his Relay for Life team by following this link: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY12MW?px=27674204&pg=personal&fr_id=39462

Wascally Wabbits

EDITOR'S NOTE: One of my favorite things about working at the candy store is working with my sister because no matter how many years we do the work together she continues to have me doubled over in laughter with her funny observations and inner monologues. Here's a peek into some of the fun I get to have every day.



When spring arrives and the Easter bunny starts calling, at the candy shop that means one thing: it’s rabbit season.

Every day of production we have at least one person (and as many as three) devoted solely to making our solid chocolate rabbits. We use metal molds that fasten together with small clamps until the chocolate solidifies and a new bunny is born.

I’ve been lucky enough to be the head of bunny production in the past, but this year that duty falls to one of our lovely employees, Beth. She has the privilege of spending 40 hours a week devoted to clamping, filling, unclamping, trimming and packaging hundreds of chocolate rabbits.

With three people, this job isn’t too bad. It’s even relaxing. With two, it’s still pretty good. Chatting the day away while filling molds with delicious chocolate. Not bad.

It’s those days when you’re the only person in the bunny room when the bunnies start to get to you and they begin to take on lives of their own.


There’s Alice, of course, who is the most stuck up chocolate there is. She’s the only human form we make and she thinks this makes her better than the rest. And her rabbit friend? He doesn’t even have a name.






Peter is the public’s favorite, but he’s hiding a big secret. He may look like an innocent schoolboy, but he’s really an undercover detective sent from the government to discover our chocolate secrets.







There’s only one real Lamb with Bell, the rest are just clones (but we’re not telling which one is the original).








And then there’s Smooth Fat Standing Rabbit. Poor, poor Smooth Fat Standing Rabbit. He has self-image issues and he’s not very confident, because whenever anyone talks about him, they call him fat.







And to think, next to his counterpart, Large Smooth Standing Rabbit, he looks tiny.

But nobody would dare call Large Smooth Standing Rabbit fat. Nobody.

Foiling a credit card scam, chocolate, and Vietnam

EDITOR'S NOTE: Typically, my father Leif is in the newspaper for one of two reasons - our chocolate has been awarded; or, as a local businessman and active citizen, he's sounding off at a town meeting about traffic patterns, development, etc. This is a bit different ... Dad recently alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigations to a credit card scam! The following was published last week in the The Northwest Herald of Crystal Lake, Ill.

Chocolate for Vietnam? Richmond candy shop targeted in scam

By SARAH SUTSCHEK - ssutschek@shawmedia.com

RICHMOND - The first order for chocolates to be sent to Vietnam was odd. But by the fifth or sixth, Leif Anderson knew something was up.

“Vietnam is a problem any time of year because of temperatures,” said Anderson, who owns Anderson’s Candy Shop in Richmond.

Even if the chocolate is headed to a cooler area, there’s no guarantee that it won’t go through a more tropical area depending on the route.

Fifteen orders to be shipped to Vietnamese cities came in around Christmas under 15 different names from locations across the United States. Canada, as well. The total was between $1,300 and $1,400.

It was a credit card scam, and with some detective work on his own, Anderson was able to track down 13 of the 15 credit-card holders. Only two of them knew their information had been stolen.

Anderson said he had the credit-card holders’ names and ZIP codes. They were of different demographics: young, old, male, female, American, Canadian.

One of the scam’s targets was a high school junior whose mother answered the phone and insisted that her kid didn’t have a credit card.

The mom found out otherwise, Anderson said.

“Two of them were upset that I could get their information and thought I was the one trying to steal their credit card,” Anderson said. “I said, ‘No, I already have your credit card.’ Later, they all called back and were thankful.”

Anderson didn’t fill the orders, and the charges ended up being reversed, he said.

“If they notify their credit-card company, they’re not liable, which is the reason I was trying to get through to them,” he said.

The scam was sophisticated enough that fake phone numbers were used, as well as fake email addresses that would reply when confirmation was sent.

FBI spokesman Ross Rice declined to comment on any specific case, but said that without a financial loss, there is no federal prosecution.

“We have so many cases like this,” Rice said. “There has to be a substantial economic loss to one or more individuals.”

The FBI also doesn’t have jurisdiction to conduct an investigation outside the United States, Rice said.

“If a fraudulently purchased item goes somewhere outside the U.S., we have to rely on the local law enforcement in the affected country,” he said.

But a scam involving chocolate was a new one to him.

“They could have been testing to see if the credit cards would go through, but that’s really the only thing I can think of,” he said.

The idea had occurred to Anderson, who was wondering where the profit is in such a scam.

“It’s very puzzling,” he said. “We’re all very suspicious here now. If something doesn’t smell right, you always check first.”

A bittersweet Christmas story

EDITOR'S NOTE: From time to time we hand deliver chocolate for our customers. Dad recently rushed from his busy schedule at the cooking room over to a local Cub Scout meeting to deliver a very special box of candy as a Christmas surprise. My sister Susanne gives a brief recap below. Merry Christmas.

About a week ago Joe Kalisek, a Ranger in the U.S. Army, contacted us at Anderson's via email.

He is stationed in Afghanistan and asked if we would deliver a box of chocolates to his wife at a local Cub Scout pack meeting since he could not do it himself.

Although Joe previously thought that he would be able to come home for Christmas, he recently learned that he will not be coming home until spring.

To help his wife Ivy cope, he wanted us to surprise her with a personally delivered present and message from him.

Leif, my dad, just so happens to have three sons in the same Cub Scout pack as Ranger Joe so, of course, he said yes! (And definitely would have even if his sons had not been at the same meeting.)

It was a very emotional experience for all of us -- Dad gets teary eyed while presenting the candy to Ivy.

And, with Joe's permission, we video taped the moment to share.

Here's a video clip of dad presenting Ivy, with her gift.

Ivy, we are so sorry that you have to be away from your husband this Christmas.

We hope those chocolates remind you how much you are loved.

And Ranger Joe, we thank you for your service and wish you a safe and speedy return home!

Merry Christmas!

Understanding the real magic

EDITORS NOTE: Today's entry is from my sister Susanne Anderson (pictured at right). She writes about transitioning into a fulltime role at Anderson's Candy Shop and how the move has given her a new perspective on the magic that happens inside 10301 Main Street. I think that the second half of this entry really describes what it feels like when you grow up into a family business.

I’m going to be honest with everyone right now, and it might hurt a little: growing up in a chocolate factory is nothing like what you saw in that Willy Wonka movie.

Ok, ok, it sort of is, but not in the way you might think. There are no chocolate rivers, no psychedelic boat rides and no little people that produce the chocolate – though sometimes, it’s true, we do break out in song.

No, these things don’t exist, but growing up here, it did feel like magic.

Just walking through the cooking room (aptly named, for this is where all of the caramel, cream and other candy centers are cooked) was enchanting.

There was always a cook, whether it was my father, my uncle or one of the various assistant cooks, stirring a huge, boiling batch of sugar turned into something even more delicious.

I didn’t know as a child exactly what everything was, but I loved watching the process. Dad pour boiling sugar out onto a cool marble and somehow – somehow – this turned into the caramels and fudges and peanut butter creams I loved so much.

Then there was the molding room (aptly named, for this is where all of the molded chocolates are made). I often saw my grandmother here, tapping the bubbles out of the chocolate after it had been poured into the bunny rabbit or Christmas tree shaped molds, and then trimming the excess chocolate off of the edges once the chocolate had hardened.

If I brought my friends to this room for a tour they always marveled at the large cylindrical melters holding hundreds of pounds of chocolate.

The packing room (where all of the chocolate pieces get packed into boxes) is probably the closest thing to Willy Wonka that we have. It is an entire room filled with chocolates just waiting to be consumed.

As a child, I didn’t understand the complicated business my elders were part of, but I did know this place was spectacular -- not only because what we made was delicious and unique, but because being here meant family.

The candy store often culminated everything a child could want: loving people making delicious, beautiful treats that you often got to eat.

I am not a child any longer. And over the past year, I have begun to work at the store much more to learn about this place in a new way.

I can now transform those boiling kettles of sugar and make melty chocolate into molded rabbits and snowflakes and more.

And although this means that there isn’t magic here for me anymore, my eyes have been opened to something else. I now see all of the hard work that every employee puts in, and I see the lasting effects of a lifetime of hard work from those before us.

Throughout my entire life, my father has been incredibly passionate about this business and these chocolates and until now, I have not understood how a person can stay so passionate for so long about the same thing.

But, when you are a part of every piece of the process from purchasing supplies to cooking, to packaging and selling – how can a person not become emotionally involved?

And I finally, do understand just how superior our products are. Every caramel batch, for instance, is tested by hand. By hand! That means we don’t just cook our caramels to a certain degree and say, “Eh, they’re good enough.” We test every single batch of candy before it is even completed to make sure our product is the absolute best it can possibly be.

Now I’ve caught myself going into seller mode – but that’s the thing I’ve realized. When my father speaks about the candy shop with such fervor that it sounds like he’s trying to sell one person the whole business, not just a caramel bar, it’s because he so completely believes in what we do here.

And that’s true for all of the people that work here. Now, including me.

We might not have the magic that Willy Wonka has, but we certainly have the same drive and the passion for our trade, and for producing something that will delight others.

Today, when I see my three little brothers here at the candy store, it harkens me back to my childhood and how magical this place can be.

It the dream of all three of my brothers to work at the candy shop when they are older and I hope that one day they can be where I am now, looking at this business not just from the perspective of a child who believes in magic, but from the perspective of an adult who is amazed at learning how much life goes into the production of a small piece of chocolate.

A cute, sneaky, customer story

Editor's note: Here at the candy store in Richmond, Illinois we get hundreds of emails, phone calls and letters each year from costumers who give us a little snapshot into what happens to our candies once they leave 10301 Main Street.

It is these stories that brighten our day and inspire us to continue to produce candy like the generations before us always did.

In this post I'll share a few examples of the kind of feedback we get.

The smiling woman in the photo below is the owner of Toom Toom Thai restaurant in Elgin, Illinois. She posted a photo of herself smiling with a box of our candies after she received the treats as a Thank-You gift from a customer.

To see another particularly cute upload visit our Facebook page. (You'll find an adorable young customer in Colorado enjoying a chocolate Easter bunny.)

During the past year, in fact, Facebook has become one of our favorite ways receive feedback. To round out this post, I'll share with you what is probably my favorite Facebook share this year.

The story is from a customer who has enjoyed Anderson's Candy since her childhood in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Her name is Amanda Glauser Schneegass and she wrote to us this fall about her sneaky 80-year-old father.

"My Dad received two, one-pound boxes of your candy for his Birthday from me last week," she said.

"He lives in Michigan and called to say he shared the first box with my Step-Mom, BUT he has 'stashed' the second box in his sock drawer." Amanda continued. "She doesn't know about this box and I don't think he will be sharing this with her."

Amanda later wrote that her father is very, "bipartisan" when it comes to his favorite candies.

It turns out that he grew up in Ringwood, Illinois and got married to my Amanda's mom in 1956.

The couple had two daughters lived in Crystal Lake for 32 years before retiring to Michigan.

"I'm not sure exactly when he was first introduced to Anderson's Candy, BUT, I remember him driving us to your shop when it was just the one room store front when we were very young," Amanda wrote.

"It was a treat for us and we were thrilled getting to pick a BIG piece of candy for each of us," she said.

In case it wasn't clear from this post, we LOVE feedback! Share your stories with us in the comments section below or email AndersonsCandyShop@gmail.com.

A happy (delicious) accident

Welcome back to a special edition of Chocolate Chat. Today's entry is from third-generation candy maker (my Dad) Leif Anderson. He shares the story of how an accident in the cooking room brought about a new type of candy. It is Dad's first stab at a blog entry and I think he did great! Let me know what you think.
Blog editor, Katie Anderson

It's funny sometimes how discoveries are made.

While researching the flu in 1928 Alexander Fleming noticed that a blue-green mold had infected one of his petri dishes - and killed the bacteria growing in it. Viola! Penicillin was discovered.

Just a few months ago, I myself made an exciting accidental discovery – albeit it probably will not be as world-changing as Mr. Fleming's.

A new cook and I were making a batch of Raspberry Mallow – a layer of homemade marshmallow over a layer of raspberry jel. Yes, we also homemake the jel, using real raspberries and real raspberry extract.

My assistant cook became distracted listening to the radio and forgot to add the raspberry flavor to the jel.

I decided to add the flavoring to the marshmallow itself instead and see if that boosted the flavor enough to save the batch.

It did! It also reminded me that I had been wanting to find time to experiement with a way to make our own marshmallows for use in our boxes of individual chocolate dipped candies.

When the Raspberry Mallow batch was done, we had a little extra of the flavored marshmallow left and so we poured that into a separate pan and prepared it to be cut up into small cubes and dipped in chocolate. We then let it loose in our store this June for a test with all of you!

The new raspberry-flavored marshmallow pieces were available for sampling in our store for about a month and many of you requested that we send you a taste of the new treat along with your mail orders this summer.

You made the creation a hit and Raspberry Marshmallow is here to stay.

I guess whomever first said, "I'd rather be lucky than good," knew what he was talking about.

But that shouldn't surprise me too much, the Raspberry Marshmallow incident isn't the first time Lady Luck visited our cooking room. But I'll save that story for another day.

Leif Anderson




The Anderson family can be reached at AndersonsCandyShop@gmail.com.

I grew up in a candy store

Well, sort of ...

My name is Katie Anderson and I am the oldest daughter of third generation candy maker Leif Anderson -- the current owner and operator of Anderson's Candy Shop in rural Richmond, Illinios.

My father, Leif, and his brother, Lars, inherited the business from their mom and dad, Raynold and Violet Anderson. "Vi" and Raynold inherited the shop and all of its secrets from Arthur and Gertrude Anderson -- Raynold's parents.

You can see my dad (at left) uncle, great grandpa and grandpa (at right, from left) all making candy in the photo.

I was born into this family of confectioners in 1985.

Although my family did not actually live in the candy store when I was growing up (we had a house in the neighboring town) I, like my father and his father, in large part grew up at the candy store.

You see, as head cooks, accountants, janitors, repair men and the face of Anderson's Candy Shop, Anderson's are never truly away from work. Grandma and grandpa used to answer their home phone with a business-like, "Hello, Anderson's" and my dad often does the same on his cell today.

As I begin this blog, it is my hope that it will serve three purposes:

• To encourage dialouge between customers and the family at Anderson's.
  
• To share stories -- happy and sad -- from the past 90+ years in the candy business.
  
• To post information about store offerings and events like Classic Car Cruise Nights in Richmond and our upcoming County Fair schedule

I'd also like to incorporate more than just promotional material and my point of view in these pages. I'd love to post stories, comments, questions and pictures from customers, family and friends along the way.

I encourage you to contact me at any time at AndersonsCandyShop@gmail.com.