Valentine's Day brings out the sweet side of the candy business. But behind flavors of love, both the art and science of candy churns from one sweet holiday to the next.
The science involves the chemical reaction of sugar and water that creates the jelly center. But then comes the art: coating the bean, using just the right amount of flavor and color, creating just the right texture to make the perfect confection.
The process takes a week — to mix, form and cool the center; to add the coating and then polish the bean.
And if science makes it possible, art makes it appreciated. It is the art that makes every candymaker proud of his own creations. Line up a bunch of jelly beans, says R. Anthony "Tony" Sweet, president of Sweet Candy Company, and he could immediately tell you which ones were theirs. They'd be the best, of course, he adds with a grin.
Sweet Candy Co. was founded in 1892 in Portland, Ore., by Tony's grandfather, Leon Sweet, and relocated to Salt Lake City in 1900. Besides jelly beans, Sweet is the country's largest producer of salt water taffy. More than 250 kinds of candies and confections that come off its production line collectively make life "sweeter."
More than 15 million pounds of candy roll out of the factory each year to be shipped all over the country and sometimes as far away as Europe and Asia.
Valentine's Day candies are in the spotlight right now. Red and white jelly beans; red jelly hearts; chocolate covered juju hearts; round pink, white and red sours; cinnamon flavored, lip-shaped treats.
"While Halloween is traditionally the biggest holiday for candy sales," Tony Sweet said, "the candy for Valentine's Day is the most identifiable."
"Valentine's Day candy is fun and a little frivolous," said Ken DuVall, vice president for sales and marketing for the company.
Sweet's no longer makes boxed chocolates for the holiday. The company used to — elaborate old heart-shaped boxes are displayed with other artifacts in the little museum corner at the factory. But, Tony Sweet said, it got to where the company could no longer control every phase of the distribution chain and monitor the time the chocolates were held in warehouses before being placed on shelves. He was afraid the quality of the chocolates would suffer, so the company instead carved out a niche in the non-chocolates candy market.
They still dip a lot of products in chocolate — enrobe them, if you want the correct industry term. Sweet's is famous for orange and raspberry sticks; and when they decided to make chocolate-covered cinnamon bears a few years ago, they found themselves a big hit.
But the distribution network points out an interesting phenomenon of the candy world: It has its own calendar. Right now, as Valentine's Day treats are lining store shelves, it is actually Eastertime at the factory. Valentine's Day started in the last weeks of September. Easter will run until mid-March; Halloween picks up at the end of June and goes to September. Christmas overlaps with Halloween on one end and Valentine's Day on the other.
"By the time the holiday actually gets here, it's kind of anti-climactic for us. We've been working on it for five or six months," said Rachel Sweet, manufacturer systems manager and the fourth generation of Sweets to work in the family-owned company.
And, of course, there are all the year-round products that are not tied to any specific holiday.
Salt water taffy, for example, is made all the time, although certain colors and flavors may be targeted toward specific holidays. For Valentine's Day, taffy with conversation phrases printed on the wrapper — "Love Me," "Be Mine" — is popular. For Halloween, they put black faces inside orange taffy.
Despite its name, salt water taffy is not made with salt water — from the Great Salt Lake or anywhere else. The name came from the fact that it was originally designed to be eaten at the beach, Tony Sweet said. It doesn't melt in the heat like chocolate does.
"Before air conditioning, the chocolate business was dead in the summer," he said. And that's originally why Sweet's began making taffy. "Grandfather was looking for something to take up the slack in the summer."
It is another area where artistry comes into play. Sweet's taffy is really a whipped nougat. What makes it so light and soft and fresh, he said, is the egg whites that are whipped into the mixture. (They also add a bit of vegetable oil to keep it from sticking to your teeth.)
The taffy is made in 85-pound batches. Huge machines take a blob of the nougat — with a few blobs of red goo put in strategic places in the case of striped, peppermint taffy — and turn it and turn it into an ever-narrowing rope that is eventually chopped and wrapped in one smooth process, 450 pieces a minute.
Machinery such as this has helped speed production tremendously, but there are still places where hands-on expertise is needed, Rachel Sweet said. "And we have a great workforce; some have been with us for years and years."
The same basic equipment has been used in candymaking for a long time, but when Sweet's moved into its brand new factory two years ago, everything was upgraded to become state-of-the-art, Tony Sweet said. A climate control system keeps the temperature at 68 degrees year-round. "That way we can produce and store at the same temperature."
And, he said, tastes and production do run in cycles. "The interesting thing about being in business for more than a hundred years is that there's not much that is really new. Someone comes up with an idea, and we say, 'That worked well in the '20s, we could try it again.' "
Still the company does introduce a new product or two every year. "We replace the one that is our lowest seller," said DuVall. Recent additions include a "totally taffy" line that is heavily flavored with sweet-and-sour fruit flavors. "It's really taking off," he said.
And they do some things to capitalize on regional tastes. They've done huckleberry jelly beans for Montana, cactus-flavored ones for Arizona, a jalapeo chili bean for Texas.
There are interesting demographics involved in candy, DuVall said. "Cinnamon doesn't do as well in the Northeast; it's more popular in the West. Dark chocolate is preferred in the East — milk chocolate in the West."
Hitting just the right flavor also requires expertise. "The watermelon flavor that works in jelly beans won't work in taffy," Rachel Sweet said. It has to be specially formulated for the mix of sugar, acids and other ingredients.
Chocolate, too, is an interesting animal,Tony Sweet said. "Melted chocolate is more like steel than water, it's more molten than liquid." And it must be handled just right, kept away from too much heat or humidity, cooled carefully so it becomes stable, glossy, resists fingerprints and has what the industry calls "snap." "That's the art part," he said.
As is coming up with the perfect cinnamon flavor for the bears. "We think our cinnamon bears are the best anywhere. We use the best cinnamon in the world." Where does it come from? "That's a secret," he grins.
Science, art — and a little mystery and magic. That's what goes into Sweet's candy. Think about that the next time you grab a handful of perfectly formed, perfectly flavored, perfectly yummy jelly beans.
E-mail: carma@desnews.com