Come along with Country Life and get a look behind the scenes at one of our favorite vendors: family-owned Arnold’s Candies. This small northeastern Ohio company makes Sugar Puffs, Butter Mints, and the thinnest, tastiest nut brittles ever: we’re pleased that we can share these wonderful treats with you!
Vice-President and partner Kyle Roberson took us into the place where the magic happens–the candy production room. In the big, spanking-clean space, owner and president/partner Greg Dauphin, brothers Paul and Shawn Freeder, and Tommy Bennett make workday ingredients like sugar, cream of tartar and water into out-of-this-world confections.
Owner Greg Dauphin (left) and candymaker Shawn Freeder pour the Sugar Puff base onto the cooling table.
Roberson, who left his job with a large international brewing company a couple of years back to help his high school buddy (and former banker) Dauphin run the candy factory, was proud to show off a business founded by Ted Arnold sixty years ago, a business that runs on candy equipment that dates back to the late 1800s.
It’s a business that’s staying true to a family-owned tradition. “Greg’s my brother-in-law, and Paul and Shawn are Ted Arnold’s grandsons. The guys, Paul and Shawn, been here longer than we have. We bought the business from Ted two years ago in April.” Quality control and maintenance are handled by Tommy Bennett, who had Roberson’s uncle as an art teacher in high school. Now the guy with a BA in fine arts keeps the century-old machines running and coaxes more cool air than one would think is possible from the air handling system, which is a pretty fine art in itself.
While the puller/mixer is working, Shawn and Paul Freeder hand pull pink and blue stripes.
Paul Freeder was a high schooler when he started started making candy with his grandfather, Ted Arnold. “I’ve been working here eight years. I started out making puffs. It took me four years to get the brittles right.” Shawn, Paul’s younger (and quieter!) brother also worked part-time during high school.
Watching the two work with Dauphin to set up the 80+ pounds of Sugar Puff candy base, make Sugar Puff candy stripes, and later, make brittle, is like watching athletes who have played together for years. Each is always in the right place, at the right time, and in the end, there’s beautifully made candy everywhere.
Dauphin and Paul Freeder add flavor while the antique puller cools and whips air into a batch of Sugar Puffs.
When Dauphin and Roberson bought the business, there were changes and updates to be made. A top-to-bottom inventory and organization took six months.
Now, with a few new-to-them pieces of equipment, training from Ted Arnold, and the experience from the Freeder brothers as support, Arnold’s Candies is revitalized and moving into a new role as a local candy supplier to retailers like Lehman’s.
The candymaking process is hard, hands-on work, but the Arnold’s Candies crew does it right, every day.
Paul Freeder says, “You look at our puffs, and you can tell they’re not made by machine. You can tell we put the stripes on by hand.”
Dauphin and Shawn Freeder supervise Paul Freeder adding stripes to a custom mint batch. At size, the stripes will appear evenly on the top and bottom of the candies.
He hesitates a moment, and his brother Shawn laughs, and says, “It goes on the other side, dude!”
To Country Life, Shawn says, “We have to pay attention when we do this, we can’t be chatting away, like some people! Or we’ll get the stripe pattern wrong.” It’s obvious, although he’s addressing CL staff, he’s really poking gentle fun at his older brother.
Later in the visit, it’s fascinating to watch Paul Freeder flip air through a batch of brittle as if it weighed no more than a bed sheet, with brother Shawn “pulling corners”. First, they pour a puddle of boiling sugar and steaming hot cashews onto the cooling table. Using just their hands and a stainless steel bar, they pull that puddle into 4 foot by 10 foot sheet of warm nutty goodness, stretched more thinly than a pane of window glass. That’s an Arnold’s trademark–the thinnest, freshest brittle, made by hand.
Making BIG waves! The waves use air pressure to stretch the brittle to near-translucence.
“Nobody makes brittle like Paul and Sean do,” said Roberson. “Paul, Sean and Tommy and their skills are a major part of our team. We’re all dedicated to doing the best job every day.”
“There’s so much interest in eating well now, eating locally. And people are careful about what they eat. We don’t use any preservatives or additives, just the best sugars and nuts we can find. Everything is top notch, and people appreciate that. Our candy’s affordable, and it’s something people have loved for years,” said Roberson.
Arnold’s Candies in Akron, Ohio.
It’s retro all the way at Arnold’s!
Ingredients all weighed out.
The boilers and copper kettles date to the turn of the last century.
Rubber gloves and big spatulas are essential tools in this hands-on candymaking factory.
Sugar, cream of tartar and water boil away–the mixture is well over water’s boiling point of 212°.
Pouring the mixture on the cooling table. This table has water flowing in tubes on the under side to keep it cool.
Owner Greg Dauphin (left) and candymaker Shawn Freeder pour the Sugar Puff base onto the cooling table.
The double-walled cooling table has water circulating through it, which starts to cool the candy base quickly.
Dauphin consolidates the cooling candy base, whipping in air. Cooling and flavoring Sugar Puffs is a hands-on process.
Using a stainless steel bar, Greg and Shawn keep rotating the hot candy base so the warmest parts are always on the cooling table.
A portion of the Sugar Puffs mixture is separated. Color will be added to make stripes.
Shawn Freeder manipulates the portion to be colored.
Using a smaller stainless steel bar, Shawn works to cool the portioned batch.
Depending on batch size, a run of Sugar Puffs weighs between 65 and 80 pounds.
Paul Freeder adds coloring and flavor to Sugar Puff portions. These will be stripes on the finished Sugar Puffs.
Shawn Freeder looks for even color; the puller/mixer is over 100 years old.
While the puller/mixer is working, Shawn and Paul hand pull pink and blue stripes.
Paul Freeder checks color as the blue stripe batch nears the end of its mixing period.
The iridescence is a combination of the cooling sugar and the air mixing together.
Dauphin and Paul Freeder add flavor while the antique puller cools and whips air into a batch of Sugar Puffs.
The colored pieces and the main batch are returned to the warming table. Owner Greg Dauphin uses a culinary torch to warm the stripes, which will be stretched and applied to the main batch that Paul Freeder is forming.
Paul adds stripes to the core. All colored stripes are added by hand.
Dauphin and Shawn Freeder supervise Paul Freeder adding stripes to a custom mint batch. At size, the stripes will appear evenly on the top and bottom of the candies.
When Country Life arrived, candymaker Paul Freeder was getting ready to put a solid-colored batch of Sugar Puffs into the batch rolling machine.
Each batch of Sugar Puffs weighs about 80 pounds.
Paul rough-sizes the batch by hands, and then turns on the batch roller.
The candy is still warm enough to flow smoothly through the rope sizers, exiting at the correct diameter.
Here, you can see the striped Sugar Puffs at the finished size.
The rope sizer also adds a smooth texture to Sugar Puffs.
The rope zips through the cutter…
As one long string of sugar puffs!
The Sugar Puffs speed along, conveyed toward the tumbling drum that gently breaks the rope apart.
The tumbling drum separates the puffs, which exit to a conveyor for packing.
After tumbling around in the drum, the pastel striped Sugar Puffs are deposited onto another conveyor for cooling and traying.
Tommy Bennet handles quality control and tray packs.
Final cooling in stacks of trays.
The century old gas fires, copper kettles and stirrers mix ingredients for brittle.
Cashews are whirled into the boiling brittle mix.
Any brittle that doesn’t make the cut is remixed–but only on the same day.
Sugar and cooled brittle goes onto the hot table to warm up before the liquid brittle is poured.
Liquid brittle is poured onto the hot table. The sugar and cooled brittle melts instantly as the hot brittle hits the table.
Paul quickly adds more cashews through the top of the brittle.
Wielding a large, flat stainless steel bar, Paul stretches each batch of brittle by hand.
Shawn ‘pinches’ the edges of the brittle, which allows Paul stretch the ultra-thin brittle lengthwise.
Making BIG waves! The waves use air pressure to stretch the brittle to near-translucence.
Shawn and Tommy position the hot brittle that’s been stretched from a 2 ft x 4 ft pour into a 4 ft by 8-10 ft sheet.
Fresh warm brittle tastes as good as it looks!
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Marv Siesel
2 years ago
In the 1950s I lived in Bellevue Ohio and there was a Arnold’s candy co.in Bellevue that made the best Peanut Brittle in the world.Are you that company? Thanks Marv
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In the 1950s I lived in Bellevue Ohio and there was a Arnold’s candy co.in Bellevue that made the best Peanut Brittle in the world.Are you that company? Thanks Marv