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