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

Meet our Peanut Butter Cream - part ten

 

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!   

Tenth in our series is Peanut Butter Cream!

                            

Before I had the pleasure of working for the Anderson family, I thought I loved Peanut Butter, just as most people would say.  The go to being Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups… Yum.  That was until I had that first bite of Anderson’s Peanut Butter Cream, WOW!   There hasn’t been a peanut butter candy created yet that is equal to our Peanut Butter Cream.  Seriously.  

Our Peanut Butter Cream bar was developed by third-generation candymaker and owner, the late Leif Anderson. He too was a peanut butter lover and adored the famous Reese's candy. One day he thought to himself, I make the best chocolates you can buy... I bet I can make a peanut butter cream that is even better! 

He quickly developed a special variation of our decadent brown sugar buttercream center and blended it with his favorite rich, smooth, creamy, salty-sweet peanut butter. The next bit was easy! The harmony between our chocolate and the finished peanut butter cream center was magic! It truly has to be tasted to be believed.

The perfect ration of this Peanut Butter Cream center to chocolate was in our two-patty candy bar form, rather than small individual pieces. And so, the Peanut Butter Cream Bar as you know it today was born! 

When you look at our Peanut Butter Cream bar you will see that it follows our usual format of being rolled into two halves - perfect for sharing! (If you’re able to eat only half, you deserve an award if you ask us!) The "mark" found on top will be a capital letter cursive “P” on one patty and a “B” on the other which stands for, you guessed it - Peanut Butter! 

FUN FACTS: If you are looking for a bite-size Peanut Butter candy don't worry. We do have other delicious Peanut Butter treats in our line for that including our refined Peanut Butter Truffle and our addicting flaky crunchy Peanut Butter Crunch (think Butterfinger but BETTER!)

Peanut Butter Cream is also GLUTEN FREE! 

https://linktre.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Lemon Cream - part nine

 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!   

Ninth in our series is Lemon Cream.

Fresh.  Sweet. Just tart enough.  A showstopper in our books! 

Our lemon cream is made and flavored much like the other fruit creams in our line.  Starting from a blank slate so to speak of sweet but unflavored cream center and then brought to life by our head cook and his assistants.  Getting the flavor just right is an art form.

We use pure lemon oil in our Lemon Cream centers spading each small batch by hand and tasting along the way. A few drops can take the center from a hint of lemon to make-your-mouth pucker quickly! Our goal is to add enough oil so that when covered in chocolate the cream is unmistakably lemon. A sweet citrus that fills your mouth roundly with flavor and blends perfectly complimenting the chocolate.

When looking for Lemon Cream in a box of Anderson's Candy, you will look for an oblong piece (remember all cream centers are either round or oblong).  

Look for the piece marked with a cursive “L” on top. And if you've been following along with us you know each L will look different depending on the chocolate handwriting of person who dipped it!

We do not make a larger candy bar counterpart for our Lemon Cream pieces, but if it is one of your favorites you can always order a 1/4#, 1/2# or 1# box of these delicious pieces by calling us at the shop 1-888-214-7614 or using our Make A Special Request feature online. 

Fun Fact: Lemon Cream is also GLUTEN FREE! 

https://linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Raspberry Cream - part eight

 

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!   

Eighth in our series is Raspberry Cream.

If you love the authentic taste of our “Fruit Cream” centers, Raspberry Cream will not disappoint.  From the flavors to the color, everything about this piece screams DELICIOUS! 

There are only a few of our cream center candies we make that come only as individual pieces. The flavor is potent, and we love the ratio of cream center to chocolate in the "piece" format so unless you place a special order you won't find a Raspberry Cream egg or candy bar.

The Raspberry Creams at our shop start out as a "blank" cream center. We use a very high grade beaten egg white in our recipe to ensure a fluffy, creamy consistency every time. We also hand spade this cream center and add in pure raspberry oil little by little until the cream center is super smooth and the flavor is just right! It has to be bold enough to come through the chocolate but not too strong or the effect will be "perfume" like.

When searching in a box of chocolate for the Raspberry Cream, whether it be in a Creams Assortment, an Everything But Nuts (EBN) Assortment or a Deluxe Assortment ... look for a small round piece with a beautiful capital "R" on top.

If you have not had the pleasure to taste this wonderful piece, next time you are in to our Richmond shop, ask for a sample, you won’t be disappointed! 

Fun Facts:  Sometimes this cream center piece is larger than other round cream centers in a box of Anderson's Candy. This is due to the consistency of the center which sometimes is "spreads" more as it is dipped in chocolate. This is due to the edition of the Raspberry oil. 

And, did you know that Raspberry lovers can find several chocolate creations in our line besides the Raspberry Cream? We also use Raspberry oil plus REAL whole raspberries in our Raspberry Jel which is part of the center of the Raspberry Mallow candy bar. And, we use real raspberry fruit in our ganache for the very popular Raspberry Truffle!

Raspberry Cream is also GLUTEN FREE!

https://linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Marzipan - part seven

 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!   

Seventh in our series is Marzipan.

An old fashioned European treat done Anderson’s style. Marzipan is also known as an almond paste and in its simplest form is just that.  We intensify the flavor of ours and give it a smoother texture by adding pure almond extract and some of our handmade fondant. Then we dip it into our signature milk or dark chocolate. The result is something so delicious that your eyes will close and your head will bob like you just heard a great "jam" on the radio! Eating our Marzipan is truly total delight! 

Some say this traditional center is an acquired taste, for me I have come to love it because of how smooth, sweet and delicious Anderson’s version is.

When you get this flavor in bar form, you will notice that it is rolled into two round patties, connected in the middle, just as the rest of the cream center bars.

 When you pull this bar out of it’s crinkly wax bag you will see it’s unique mark on top - a sort of "x" or some see it as an "awareness ribbon."

When you look closely you will see that the main part of the mark is a triangle and that triangle has two of it’s sides extended past the main part of the triangle.  

Look at your next bar and enjoy the unique mark on top before you take a bite! Like mentioned in our previous posts, each candy bar may look slightly different depending on who dipped it! Each of our Dipping Room staff has her own "handwriting" in the chocolate!  

Marzipan is unique amongst our cream center candies as the bar and the piece DO have the same mark on top! (Finally! hehe)

When looking for Marzipan in a box of Anderson's Candies, you will look again for a small round piece, and look for that triangle shape with extended arms.  Though sometimes the pieces are a little harder to decipher as the extended sides on the triangle tend to get a little “loopy” at the start and end of the mark. (It is a lot to fit on a little piece!)

Fun Facts: Marzipan is one our most requested special packs! That means customers call us and order a whole half pound or one pound box of JUST Marzipan centers - opposed to enjoying it as one of many flavors in an assorted box. 

Many people associate Marzipan as a Christmas flavor, so if you've never had it before, consider it with the holidays coming up!

Marzipan is also GLUTEN FREE!

https://linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Vanilla Cream - part six

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!   

Sixth in our series is Vanilla Cream.

Our Vanilla Creams are rich, sweet and have a distinct real vanilla flavor.  That's because we flavor them with pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla and hand-spaded each batch.

These are simply the smoothest and best vanilla creams you will find.  

Made like its companions in our cream center line, Vanilla Creams start out as "blank" creams in small batches. They are cooked in our copper kettles and spaded out on our big marble slabs.

  So what is the difference between our Buttercream, the Vanilla Creams? 
We use whole cream in our Buttercream which add a buttery, thick, tone behind the vanilla. Our Vanilla creams light up your pallet in the way sugar or cake frosting does.  When paired with the cocoa butter in our signature milk or dark chocolate, WOWWIE! It will leave you yearning for more. 

Vanilla Cream does not have a larger candy bar counterpart. But you can find it in our boxes of Anderson's Candy such as our Creams Assortment, Deluxe Assorted or Everything But Nuts boxes.

At Eastertime we do make one exception for this however when we create our Vanilla Cream eggs! 

When looking for a Vanilla Cream in a box of Anderson's Candy you will look for a small round piece (remember, all cream centers are either round or oblong), and on top of this piece you will find a very swirly - quite fancy "V", for "Vanilla".  

Fun Facts: Because all of our candy is handmade you can enjoy the distinct handwriting of each Dipper as you look for this piece. Just like when writing a letter using pen and paper, each person's letters look unique. Vanilla Creams is one the pieces where this is most apparent. 

In the photo below you can see two different Dipping Room employee's handwriting. Each has made her own "V."

Vanilla Creams are also GLUTEN FREE!  

https://linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Maplenut Cream - part five

 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!   

Fifth in our series is Maplenut Cream.

A rich maple-flavored cream center made with real maple extract is in the center of this piece!  We also add bits of chopped English Walnuts for a one-of-a-kind-flavor.  Rich and savory, the maple and walnut flavors soar hand in hand.  

The Maplenut Creams at our shop start out as a "blank" cream center. We use a very high grade beaten egg white to ensure a fluffy, creamy consistency every time. We also hand spade all of our cream centers until they are smooth, and then add the natural oils or flavors.

Maplenut Cream centers are brown on the inside to match that maple flavor however the maple oil we use is not potent for coloring. So to achieve our signature "look" when you bite open a Maplenut Cream, we use a burnt sugar solution to create just the right brown color!

When third generation candy maker Leif Anderson was teaching his daughters to flavor this cream center, he would be sure to coach them in how to get the flavor and the color just right. 

Fourth generation candy maker Katie Anderson-Tedder remembers he would say.

"Customers eat with all five senses." and "You eat first with your eyes."

The look, mouth feel, scent and flavor all have to be just right. (The sound element comes in when the customer says, "Mmmmmm!")

While some of our cream center candies you can enjoy in a candy bar format AND as an individual piece, this flavor cream is only made in individual piece form (most of the time!). You can order it packed up in a 1 pound or 1/2 pound box or enjoy it as one of the assorted flavors in our boxed chocolates. 

However, there is one special time of year when Maplenut goes BIG so to speak. During Easter season we make Maplenut Cream Eggs!  Our fruit flavor cream Cherrynut will also get a chance to go big during Easter.

But back to the main star of this week, Maplenut Cream. 

Once inside a box of Anderson's Candy, while searching for the Maplenut Cream, you will look for an oblong piece.  Atop the Maplenut Cream there is a mark that looks like a cursive "M."

Do you see it?  All of our candy has an individual mark unique to its center and this one is phonetic. The fancy "M" stands for Maplenut.

Fun Facts: This center is number 2 behind only Buttercream as the most requested Special Pack cream center. That means customers request boxes of just Maplenut to fill their box. Opposed to ordering our Creams assortment.
This cream is also GLUTEN FREE!

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Meet our Peppermint Cream - part four

 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!  Fourth in our series is Peppermint Cream.

When third-generation owner Leif Anderson used to flavor this cream center, he would sample as he went, adding triple distilled peppermint oil a few drops at a time when he felt the flavor was close.

"When you take a bite of this cream, it should open up your nasal passages," he would say. He wanted enough peppermint oil so that you would fully experience the powerful peppermint flavor and so that it would stand out even through a thick coat of Anderson's rich chocolate.

 
Cooks at Anderson's will never forget being taught how to properly flavor this center by Leif. 

The Peppermint Creams at our shop start out as a "blank" cream center - never gummy or waxy, we use whole cream in our recipe. We also hand spade all of our cream centers until they are smooth, and then add the nature oils or flavors.

If you are a York Peppermint Patty fan, once you've had our Peppermint Cream Bar you will never go back. 

Unlike the other cream center candy bars which at different times throughout the history of the shop have been presented as one oblong bar verses two patties - our Peppermint Cream bars have always been rolled in to two patties and dipped in two halves. This is due to the cream center's potency.

Looking at the candy bar from the top down, you will notice it wears the "rough dip", and wears it well. ;)  

Hopefully you aren't still looking for this candy bar's smaller counterpart to be strutting out of a box of Anderson's Candy wearing the SAME mark as the bar. No way. Like the other cream centers, the Peppermint Cream when made into an individual piece has a different mark on top.

 In your box of cream centers you would search for a small round piece (all cream center pieces are either round or oblong), with a line straight across the top.

 But be careful, if you find a piece that you think is Peppermint Cream, but isn't quite round, or seems flat on the top, that's because you've likely found a Walnut instead.

 Identifying the candies  by their mark takes practice, but once you figure it out, it's a piece of cake. 

Fun Facts: Peppermint Cream is most popular in Dark Chocolate. 

We have a family who lives locally (Hi Katzenbergs!) that orders several pounds of JUST Peppermint Creams for major holidays and birthdays because it is their family's favorite. We are so thrilled to be part of their traditions!

Peppermint Cream is also GLUTEN FREE! 

https://linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop

Meet our Pudding Cream - part three

 

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!   

Third in our series is Pudding.

Pudding cream is a cream center we refer to as the “dark side” of Buttercream.  

Our Pudding creams start out as a perfectly respectable vanilla buttercream batch, but then we add a blend of our signature chocolate and a secret ingredient, and the result is a sinfully smooth and chocolaty cream with bittersweet undertones.  

So rich, this cream is almost considered a truffle. 

When in candy bar form, the Pudding comes rolled and dipped in to two patties -

it’s almost too rich to finish in one sitting, though you see I did say “almost.” 

You can identify the Pudding candy bar by the beautiful "bows" on top of each piece.  If you are looking for an individual Pudding piece, you could look for a bow again, but it will not be Pudding inside. Like it’s cousin creams we have already featured, this piece has a different mark when in piece form.

To find the individual Pudding piece in your next box of chocolates, look for an oblong shape with a letter “P” on top, which stands for… you guessed it, Pudding.  

Fun and delicious fact: When third-generation owner Leif Anderson was in grade school, he would sneak this candy bar as an after-school treat. When Leif would check in at the shop on his way home, he would back up to the box that held the Pudding bars and sneak one into his pocket. Any employees that saw him smiled and knowingly "looked the other way."

Extra fun and delicious fact: Pudding is GLUTEN FREE! 

https://linktr.ee/andersonscandyshop