One of the treats of living on the border of Phoenix and Glendale is the close proximity to the Cerreta Candy Company. The candy factory has been churning out goodies for 40 years and is still being run by the sons and daughter (and spouses) of the founder Jim Cerreta, Sr.
My daughter, Solvay, and I were lured there by the free factory tour and candy pizza making afterwards. When we walked through the door, we were enveloped in the smell of peppermint and chocolate. On this particular day, they were
working on a big special order for Christmas (in July)! They said that this particular order takes about three weeks and they make thousands of white chocolate peppermint candies. During the tour you actually watch the process of the chocolate being pumped into special molds, the right amount of mint flavoring and crushed peppermint candies being added at the precise moment and the candies being cooled until they are unmolded. Part of the tour includes samples and we were lucky to try the exact candy we watched being made. The white chocolate melted in your mouth, leaving just a hint of mint as you crunched the peppermint pieces at the end. The quality is obvious when you taste the confections, as well as the murals on the walls that show each sons’ special job in the candy-making process. This is a family that takes its candy-making serious, and it shows!
After the informative tour, we paid our seven dollars so that Solvay could make a chocolate pizza. They provide you with a small round mold, filled half-way with milk chocolate. Then they give you a squirt bottle with warm, white chocolate and “toppings” (M&Ms, mints, marshmallows, nuts, peanut butter chips, raisins and walnuts). The best part is the popsicle stick that you can mix everything with and squirt liberal amounts of white chocolate on and consume! After Solvay finished her creation, we went shopping in the retail part of the factory. We purchased some assorted candies, honey peanut brittle and my all-time-favorite-best-candy-on-the-planet French Mint Truffles. These candies hold fond memories for me because my favorite aunt would always have a candy dish with these mints in them during the holidays. So, out of respect for the Cerreta family, and to keep a tradition going in my family, I bought the big box of French Mint Truffles!
