History of Esther Price Candy

 

                       Esther Price Candy - Chocolate, Chocolate, and more Chocolate!

Since I was little, I can remember my family buying Esther Price Candy for gifts and special occasions. To this day, my family looks forward to their favorite kind of candy from Esther Price Candy. They have assortments of milk or dark chocolate creams, pralines, caramels, turtles, and many more.

In the 1920's Esther Rohman married Ralph Price, and they later had twins. She made fudge at home after her children went to sleep, and this gave them extra money. Plus she had made chocolates and gained a good number of customers before she was married. She experimented with dipping fudge in chocolate and making smaller pieces. She used six hot plates in her kitchen, and cooled her creations in the basement on makeshift tables. Then she expanded in her home and decorated the candy in her attic on more makeshift tables. When she was a teenager, she loved making fudge, and she sold it door-to-door while working at Rike's Department Store in Dayton. Then she had to make a decision to stay in high school or quit and start her business. She chose to devote full-time at home to start her chocolate candy business while single, 

                                  

By 1926, Esther had expanded her selection of chocolates and fudge in her kitchen, and she couldn't make it fast enough to keep up with the demand. She purchased a building and opened her factory headquarters on Wayne Avenue in Dayton, Ohio close to her home. This is where all the candy is made today! She owned the business for fifty years. She used the finest ingredients for her candy, and the buyer who bought her business in 1976 have held to her high standards today. She has seven locations in Ohio to date. They also have added online ordering to their website. They also have expanded the number of stores who sell their candy to 87, and they have about one million orders per year. During their 30 week production period, they make about 5,000 pounds of chocolates a day.

Many admired and respected Esther Price for starting a business when it was hard for women to do so in the 1920's. But her community supported her, and she sold quality and delicious chocolates. 

Thank you for reading about one of my favorite people, Esther Price. 

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How Cacao Became Candy

So how did an ugly pod, containing beans which were dried and used as a bitter drink, valued as money in ancient times and used in religious rituals, become a favorite staple in the candy world we know today as chocolate?

Cacao was found in the residue on pottery over three thousand years old and studied recently by anthropologists. When King Montezuma of the Aztecs mistook the explorer, Hernando Cortes, for a deity, he happily served a bitter chocolate beverage at a special feast. The Spaniards observed that the drink was served to the king with great reverence.

Cacao pods {PD}

Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary was unimpressed with the bitter drink, describing its taste as “unpleasant,” but observed the importance with which the Aztecs regarded it. When cacao was taken back to Spain, and the people of the royal court learned to mix it with honey or cane sugar, the love affair with the bittersweet substance began in earnest. 

By the 1700s chocolate was considered a fashionable drink, and even thought of as nutritious and medicinal. Not until late in that century, with the invention of the steam engine, could chocolate be mass produced and available to more people. 

{PD} 

In 1815, Conrad van Houten, a Dutch chemist, reduced the bitterness of chocolate by adding alkaline salts. He took the production of chocolate further with taking about half the cacao butter out of the chocolate liquor. Chocolate liquor is the paste left after the beans have been skinned, dried, fermented, and ground into a paste, or mass. In 1828, the product left after removing half the cocoa butter and ground into powder was called “Dutch cocoa.” This paved the way for the making of chocolate candy.

In 1847, Joseph Fry added melted cacao butter back to create a moldable chocolate. This chocolate could be made into bars, but wasn’t yet common.

As documented at The Candy Professor you will find the list of popular candies from 1857were often hard candies and came in flavors less familiar to us such as birch, clove, and rose, alongside those we know of, like peppermint, lemon, and butterscotch. It wasn’t until the 20th century that chocolate became a common candy for children.

Cadbury, an English company, began selling boxes of chocolate candies in 1868. A few years later, Daniel Peter and Henri Nestle teamed up to create milk chocolate by adding milk powder to the liquor. 

{PD} Hershey's Conche, early 20th Century

Swiss candy maker, Rudolphe Lindt, invented the “conche” in 1879, a machine that further processed cacao into the smoother chocolate we have today. Rumor had it that Lindt left on a mixer containing chocolate overnight. He was distraught over this accidental occurrence until he realized that the long mixing process had removed the grit usually found in chocolate. We’ll never know if this “accident” truly happened, but Lindt did discover the conching process, which takes the cocoa from the dry phase, to a paste, and finally a liquid phase. It also removes acids which can effect the taste. This helps create the superior smooth chocolate product used today to make the confections we love. 

From there, confectioners, such as Hershey’s went on to produce their chocolate-covered caramels late in the 19th century. By the 20th century, chocolate became more readily available in bars and other affordable treats.

{cc} Dwight Burdette, 2012

Today, Americans can find a large variety of chocolate candies in heart-shaped boxes or other packaging, to spoil their Valentine. What is your favorite chocolate treat to share (or not)? 

Kathleen Rouser has loved making up stories since she was a little girl and wanted to be a writer before she could read. She desires to create characters, who resonate with readers and realize the need for a transforming Savior in their everyday lives. Her first full-length novel, Rumors and Promises, was published by Heritage Beacon Fiction, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, in April, 2016.

Previously a homeschool mother of three, she more recently has been a college student and is sometimes a mild-mannered dental assistant by day. Along with her sassy tail-less cat, she lives in the Midwest with her hero and husband of 35 years, who not only listens to her stories, but also cooks for her.

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