Terry Andrianos places a small brown paper bag on the scale and slowly begins dropping homemade chocolate-covered coconut clusters into the container, each one hitting the bottom with a satisfying thud.

The chocolate had been hand-crafted, following recipes that have been passed down since 1910 to Andrianos and her husband, the current owners of the family-owned Hercules Candy Company.

The small shop, located in East Syracuse, approximately a 15 minute drive from Syracuse University, is preparing for its upcoming busy season, loading its shelves with bags and boxes of chocolates adorned with wrapping and ribbons that correspond with the fall season. The shop will be open for National Candy Day, which is Wednesday.

Although Hercules is in full swing production, the tiny factory and store has recently recovered from an armed robbery that happened on Sept. 22.

In the 23 years Karen Button has worked at Hercules, she had never experienced an incident like it.

She likened the episode to an out of body experience. She said the man came in and approached her with a knife demanding the cash out of the register. Nervously, she fumbled to open it. Growing impatient the man threatened her life, again. Finally, the till opened and she threw her hands into the air as the man’s knife grazed her fingers.

She returned to work the very next day to serve her favorite regular customers.

Having installed a round the clock security system and CCTV camera system, the company is now preparing for the slew of oncoming holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas and National Candy Day.

The season brings upward of 700 people to the store each day, each one looking to tour the factory and watch candy being made before traipsing back into the small shop to fill their pockets with sweets. Every item lining the walls of the cozy shop is hand-crafted in the basement factory of the house.

“I do the molded items as my specialty and then covering things in chocolate like the chips,” said Andrianos as she walked around the store gesturing to the specialty items of each employee.

 

Andrianos said she prides herself on her molded chocolates: Figurines with various themes, penguins huddling from the cold, a motorbike ready to fly off the shelf and animals wrapped in traditional fall colors.

Button is in charge of wrapping and packaging. She said she enjoys the creative part of the job. Her wrappings have illustrations, glitter and sparkles on them. The attention to detail adds to what Button described as “the mom and pop feel” of the store.

The store does cater to large orders as well, however. Sometimes for corporate events, the company will create up to 300 individually wrapped chocolates a day.

Andrianos pointed to a delicately wrapped box of chocolates. Each box contains 17 different types of cream filled chocolate. Each cream is created over a five day process by her husband, Steven Andrianos. The majority of the work is performed behind the scenes in the downstairs factory.

 

Steven Andrianos spends 12 hours a day heating, mixing, cooling and molding hundreds of types of candies including the cream filled chocolates, ribbon candy and the all time customer favorite, chocolate covered potato chips.

He said it is important for him to taste test his creations but his favorite is simple, plain chocolate.

Precision is key when mixing chocolate, he said. If the chocolate is poured at the wrong temperature, the cocoa butter will separate from the chocolate and rise to the top, creating a “bloomed” effect.

While constantly working rich, melted milk chocolate, Steven said the size of the factory plays no role in the taste of the candy, it is the knowledge of the craft that counts. The small underground factory houses molds, churning buckets, tables and hooks from which ribbon candy is worked.

Steven moved around the space swiftly, expertly flicking switches on the vat churning chocolate producing a smell that wafted across the entire room.

He has been crafting confectionary since he was 12 years old. Now at the age of 60, he shows no signs of slowing down, saying he will work “as long as (he) is here.”

Published on November 3, 2015 at 9:50 pm

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu