I've missed you.

Editor's Note: When I started this blog fourteen years ago I was working fulltime as a daily newspaper reporter and just helping out the family business during holiday rushes and doing a little marketing here and there.

Today, alongside my Bonus Mom Tracy Anderson, I run Anderson's Candy Shop. 

After some time away from writing, I am more ready than ever to bring you Chocolate Chat. 

Hi, I'm Katie Anderson-Tedder. Part of the fourth-generation of candymakers at Anderson's Candy Shop; and I'm finally ready to be here with you.

You may have noticed over the summer we have been quiet online. We haven't sent any e-newsletters or posted much on social media. 

That's because Britta, who had been handling most of those duties since 2021, moved away.

And I needed time to figure how to juggle all of the balls in my life.

I wear many hats at the shop from production manager to retail worker. I also order, schedule, and market, and well... the list goes on both here and at home - with our three children ages 6, 4 and 2. (My wonderful husband Adam Tedder is the best teammate in life! 😉)

But part of running a successful business is not hiding it under a bushel. And it is really important that I make time to share our light here at Anderson's.

So I am adding Voice and Face of Anderson's to my job description.

For the last decade you've read my writing - as a ghost writer for my father Leif on marketing materials like our newsletter; and as a guiding hand for Britta Lea on the blog.

But being the voice and face of Anderson's was always my Dad's job.

Leif Anderson, was our figurehead (literally his caricature is on our homepage). 

His warmth, sincerity, humor and generosity are woven into the fabric of our brand and helped connect us with legions of customers for four decades.

When he passed in 2021, veteran manager and friend Britta offered to help fill the void.

She did an amazing job bringing her own wit, style and viewpoint to all of you for several years. She produced newsletters, social media posts and entries here.

With losing Dad, her help was crucial as Tracy and I needed every minute we had to run the shop, absorb Leif's duties in management and production - and were grieving on top of that.

But early this summer, Britta was offered a great life opportunity and left. (Now I'm grieving her loss too. At least we can still text.)

Her departure meant it was time for ME to reconcile how to do "Dad's" job and connect Anderson's Candy Shop with all of you. 

So, too busy or not. Grieving or not. The way Leif would do it. Or not. 

We have 22 employees who deserve to have someone connecting them to all of you.

We have 105 years of fascinating history that needs to be shared.

We have struggles you can learn from, and triumphs you should celebrate with us.

And I can't imagine a world without Anderson's Candy Shop in it. 

So, here we go! 

We'll continue work toward the three goals I put forward back in 2010. Posts will  

• encourage dialogue between customers and the family at Anderson's.
  
• share stories -- happy and sad -- from the past 105+ years in the candy business.
  
• post information about store offerings and events

and it will broadcast here and on socials, through me.

Take care, Katie

P.S. 

If you need a brief re-cap of who I am in our 105-year line of Anderson's Candy Shop confectioners check out multi-page timeline here: timeline 

Meet our Hazelnut - part sixteen

 Editor's Note: Introducing Meet Me Mondays - Candy Version!  I am Britta Malsch, the Purchasing Manager at Anderson's Candy Shop.  I also help the Andersons with social media duties.  As I enter my 10th year at the store, another one of my goals has been to help introduce each of our delicious candies to our wonderful customers, while also providing a tool for the general public to be able to identify our candy.  I hope you enjoy this series which will highlight all the Anderson's Candy that you love!   

Sixteenth in our series is Hazelnut. 

Meet Hazelnut.  

This nut has quite an interesting history with our shop! 

If you're up for a fun read, go --> here to learn the story of how we transitioned this not-so-popular nut bar formerly known as "Filbert" into the now trendy Hazelnut. All thanks to a devoted customer! 

Our Hazelnuts start out as our other nuts do, sourced locally via NIDA Trading Company in Elk Grove Village. These small round nuts are buttery, sweet, slightly earthy with almost a toasted note in their flavor profile. They are part of a match made in heaven with our chocolate.

When searching for a Hazelnut piece in your next box of Anderson's, you will look for a cup that has two pieces (yep, all of our nut centers are paired up). This piece is ever so slightly oblong and usually fairly uniform in size. On the top you will see a sort of slender "C" shape right in the middle.

You will note in the photo above and below, that the handwriting on the two Hazelnuts is different. Yep! Just like on paper, each Chocolate Dipping Associate in our shop has her own chocolate handwriting.

Hazelnuts are also offered at our shop in the popular "candy bar" format. 

Each bar starts out as an oblong "bed" of chocolate. The Hazelnuts are tucked in and covered in chocolate. The bars are made in groups of ten on a pan, so that each Dipper can weigh their work on a scale to ensure uniformity (within a given margin) in their hand dipped candy bars.

This perfect union of chocolate and smooth rich taste of the hazelnuts is dare I say, better than the famous "Nutella" spread?!  I guess you will have to try one to be the official judge of that!

As always, our chocolate nut bars are Gluten Free!

linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Cashew - part fifteen

 Editor's Note: Introducing Meet Me Mondays - Candy Version!  I am Britta Malsch, the Purchasing Manager at Anderson's Candy Shop.  I also help the Andersons with social media duties.  As I enter my 10th year at the store, another one of my goals has been to help introduce each of our delicious candies to our wonderful customers, while also providing a tool for the general public to be able to identify our candy.  I hope you enjoy this series which will highlight all the Anderson's Candy that you love!   

Fifteenth in our series is Cashew.

This next nut center is my favorite nut!   

What can I say, I’m a simple gal.  Something about that delicious combo of chocolate and salty and ever so tasty cashew... gets me every single time!  (insert laughing, crying emoji here LOL!)

Just as before all of our nut bars are dipped in to chocolate the same way.   

Our dippers take our signature chocolate, whether it be milk or dark, and create those perfect oval shaped beds. Then after carefully placing whole cashews down, they cover each nut in that delicious chocolate -- tucking it into it’s chocolate bed.  

Remember in our Blog Post about Almonds  I mentioned sometimes being able to tell which nut bar is which by looking closely at the shape of the nuts through the chocolate… Well Cashew is that bar that fits the bill.  

The unique “C” shape of the cashew is unlike any other nut in our line up.  This means that if something happens to that naked nut marker that the dippers usually leave as a clue for us, cashew bars are that one bar that can be identified easily.  

This bar again, looks like its partner nut bars.  Shaped into an oblong chocolate puddle and filled with those glorious “lumps and bumps” which are the delicious Number 210 Cashew Nuts. Sourced again for us by locally owned NIDA Trading Company in Elk Grove Village. 

When searching in a box of chocolates and looking for the cashew piece you will look for a candy cup (the little brown paper cups that hold each piece - sometimes two pieces), that is holding two pieces.  You will look for a “C” shaped piece that is marked with a capital cursive letter “C” for “Cashew”.

Funny Fact: When fourth generation Anderson, Katie, was little she called the cashews "Lay Leno Nuts" because they reminded her of the shape of the famous Late Nite TV host's face. 

  Cashews are also GLUTEN FREE!

linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Pecan - part fourteen

 Editor's Note: Introducing Meet Me Mondays - Candy Version!  I am Britta Malsch, the Purchasing Manager at Anderson's Candy Shop.  I also help the Andersons with social media duties.  As I enter my 10th year at the store, another one of my goals has been to help introduce each of our delicious candies to our wonderful customers, while also providing a tool for the general public to be able to identify our candy.  I hope you enjoy this series which will highlight all the Anderson's Candy that you love!   

Fourteenth in our series is Pecan.

Like our Almond bars, the nuts that go into our Pecan candies have been chosen specifically for their freshness and flavor "punch." The pecans are prepared specifically to order for us and the result is an unbeatable buttery, sweet flavor - distinct and robust!

We order what is referred to as junior mammoth pecans grown in either Georgia or Mexico and purchase them through locally owned NIDA Trading in Elk Grove Village, IL.

We then take those pecans and combine them with our delicious chocolate.

When searching in a box of chocolates for a dipped pecan, hunt for two pieces together side by side in one candy cup. Each piece will be a sort of wonky oblong shape with a letter "P" on top.

These pieces are never the exact same shape as each nuts is unique. But we do our best to make them look uniform. We need to be able to identify them in the packing room to be put away properly!

Exactly like dipping the Almond bars, when the Dipping Room Associates make our Pecan bars, they lay down a nice puddle of chocolate, lay nuts on top and then cover each nut in more chocolate on top.

These bars are made 10 at a time, by eye for shape and size. Once 10 bars have been dipped on to a tin, each tin is weighed to ensure that the bars on it are the right aggregate weight. The bars are left to dry and later put away by staff in another area. The Dippers are kind though and leave a "naked" guide nut out on the tray so that there is no question as to which nut is in the candy bar.

Fun Fact: This guide nut process is only the case for the nut bars, Orange Peel and Raisin Bars.  

All of our other pieces are bars have their own identifying marks on top that the packing room can "read".

Pecans are also GLUTEN FREE! 

linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Almond - part thirteen

 Editor's Note: Introducing Meet Me Mondays - Candy Version!  I am Britta Malsch, the Purchasing Manager at Anderson's Candy Shop.  I also help the Andersons with social media duties.  As I enter my 10th year at the store, another one of my goals has been to help introduce each of our delicious candies to our wonderful customers, while also providing a tool for the general public to be able to identify our candy.  I hope you enjoy this series which will highlight all the Anderson's Candy that you love!   

Thirteenth in our series is Almond.

When selecting centers for our chocolates, we are picky. And we spend a LOT of time sampling and vetting our suppliers to make sure we have the best quality possible, while also keeping in mind folks still need to be able to afford our chocolates.

Over the years this challenge has required more and more time, as many of our former suppliers have either gone out of business or been gobbled up by consolidation with bigger companies which now require unrealistic order minimums for shops like ours. 

So much so that supplier vetting, and management has become a part-time position at our shop. One Leif Anderson used to handle and today, falls largely to me, with the guidance of Tracy and Kate Anderson.

Why do we care so much about our ingredients? Because what goes inside our chocolate is just as important as the chocolate itself. And we want you to know every time you unwrap one of our candy bars you will find consistent quality.

This is showcased well in our Nut Centers. The first in this blog series being the Almond Bar.

When it comes to the almonds in our Almond bar and pieces, we have chosen California nonpareil almonds that are roasted and packaged fresh to order for us right in nearby Elk Grove Village by NIDA Trading, a locally owned company.

When searching in a box of our candies for a chocolate covered almond, you will look for a candy cup that has two pieces of chocolate nestled inside and they will be tipped on their sides.

They will be sort of rounds pieces, each with a small "o" on top. (These pieces are not perfect circles because they are chocolate dipped nuts and not all nuts are uniform in shape and size.)

Each single round almond piece will actually have two nuts inside, next to each other. So that means...one candy cup of two pieces actually contains FOUR almonds!

When trying to identify our Almonds candy bars you will look for an oval puddle of chocolate with almond shaped lumps along the top!

.  I remember almost 10 years ago when I was first trained to package candy at the shop. I had to learn all of the different marks on the bars and pieces I remember being a little confused as to how to tell which nut bar was which.

All of our nut bars all look very similar, they are the same shape and size. And they all have lumps and bumps where the nuts lay in the chocolate, and only some of the nuts are recognizable through that chocolate. Thankfully, our dipping room staff leave "clues." When the candy bars come out of the production area, there is usually a naked "guide nut" somewhere laying on the board that the candy bars are dipped on to.

Way back 10 years ago, when I was being trained, I realized then that I didn’t know what different nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, Brazils...) actually looked like, besides a cashew!  Now that I have trained others, I realize this is a very common occurrence when training new staff. After learning what the different kinds of nuts look like, this became much, much easier of a task when packaging up our nut bars!

Some Fun Facts before you go! 

You can order a box of JUST Chocolate Covered Almonds by calling us at 888 214 7614 or using our Make a Special Request feature on our website! 

Almonds are also GLUTEN FREE!

linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Cherrynut Cream - part twelve

 

Editor's Note: Introducing Meet Me Mondays - Candy Version!  I am Britta Malsch, the Purchasing Manager at Anderson's Candy Shop.  I also help the Andersons with social media duties.  As I enter my 10th year at the store, another one of my goals has been to help introduce each of our delicious candies to our wonderful customers, while also providing a tool for the general public to be able to identify our candy.  I hope you enjoy this series which will highlight all the Anderson's Candy that you love!   

Twelfth in our series is Cherrynut Cream.

Our Cherrynut Cream is for those who love flavor. 

Packed full of rich cherry flavor, this cream center rivals Peppermint Cream for the most potent in our line!  

Cherrynut cream is made and flavored much like the other fruit creams in our line. It starts out as a blank cream and is flavored with sweet cherry oil (yes, from real cherries). It is added just a few drops at a time until the flavor is just right. The cook is looking for an authentic and bold cherry flavor that will punch through a layer of chocolate to delight your pallet.

  The originators of our recipe a few generations ago decided to "upgrade" this cream by adding a sprinkling of chopped pecans into every batch -- hence the Nut in Cherrynut Cream. The earthy pecans with the tart bold cherry swirl with our sweet chocolate and delight your tastebuds! 

Much like other fruit creams we make, Cherrynut does not have a larger candy bar counterpart. But it does get to shine bright at Easter time!  

That’s right, our Cherrynut cream also is made into a Cream Egg for Easter, but with a twist!

We add chopped pineapple and cherries to the recipe and Waa Laa! The Fruit & Nut Cream Egg is born! 

When looking for a Cherrynut Cream piece in a box of our chocolates, remember to look for an oblong shape.  This particular piece will have a “rough” mark on top, just like before on our Buttercream pieces and Peppermint Cream Bars.  This mark has a scribbly or messy look to it. Messy, perfect and delicious.

Fun Fact: Cherrynut is also GLUTEN FREE! 

https://linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Sweet Heart Bark - part eleven

 Editor's Note: Introducing Meet Me Mondays - Candy Version!  I am Britta Malsch, the Purchasing Manager at Anderson's Candy Shop.  I also help the Andersons with social media duties.  As I enter my 10th year at the store, another one of my goals has been to help introduce each of our delicious candies to our wonderful customers, while also providing a tool for the general public to be able to identify our candy.  I hope you enjoy this series which will highlight all the Anderson's Candy that you love!   

Eleventh in our series is Sweet Heart Bark!

This one’s a real treat!  

We have taken the concept of our famous Peppermint Bark and put a sweet twist on it!  

We take our creamy white chocolate and garnish it with delicious heart-shaped jelly beans! The jelly beans are full of juicy flavor - strawberry, cherry and watermelon! 

One bite and you'll be smiling! Your pallet filled with a swirl of the sweetest white chocolate and bright fruity notes, too! 

By far this is one of my favorite batches to help make! Although I must admit, my duties for the candy shop have shifted me out of production in the Molding Room in recent years. My job is more administrative since having my first of three children about 7 years ago! 

It takes two people to make this version of bark. We pour liquid white chocolate into a large mixing bowl and carry it over to one of our prepared candy-making tables. We then, VERY QUICKLY, have one of the people uses a large spatula to spread the chocolate evenly all over the table. We are looking for about a half inch thickness.   

This process is done quickly as white chocolate hardens extremely fast. 

Meanwhile the second person follows close behind the spreader taking handfuls of the fruity jelly bean heart garnish and dropping them on to the wet bark. Sometimes a gentle pat is required to get the beans to sink deep enough in so that they stay when the bark is fully dried.

Once the chocolate has fully solidified, it is cracked into shards and packaged into 1/4# bags, sealed shut with an Anderson’s label and moved to the counter for you to purchase! 

Sweet Heart Bark is available for a very limited time each year from approximately Jan. 10 to Feb. 14!  One of our newer products, this bark is great for giving to for Valentines Day but it has also gained popularity as a good snack to set out to enjoy while you watch the Super Bowl!

Fun Facts: The maker of those jelly bean hearts bursting with fruity flavor is actually also the makers of Jolly Rancher! We have chosen them because they pair so nicely with our white chocolate!

Sweet Heart Bark is also GLUTEN FREE! 

linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop