Many of us are looking forward to taking it easy this holiday weekend, but for the Easter Bunny’s helpers, this is one of the busiest times of the year.
The minute you walk in the door at Dutch Hill Chocolates in Altoona, you know somebunny is working very hard.
“Smells like candy,” says Bonnie Green, laughing.
She’s been buying chocolate here for about 25 years.
“It’s the flavor that I don’t think you could find anywhere else. I don’t know how you explain it until you try it. It’s just a really good flavor of chocolate,” she says.
Easter, is one of the big three holidays at Dutch Hill Chocolates, right up there with Valentine’s Day and Christmas. But, it’s the most labor intensive.
Owner Jerry Moore explains, “We still make our regular candy like we do at Christmas, but with all of the eggs, and bunnies and chicks, it makes it a lot more. We’re here 7 days a week in production. It’s all hand-made, small machinery, There’s nothing that’s mass produced here.”
It’s a family affair, with owner Jerry’s daughter Hannah making candy for much of her 23 years.
“It’s time consuming, it’s tiring, the cremes that we cook, my husband comes in after his job and he cooks cremes, and then we roll them by hand and then, I dip them the next day, or my employees dip them,” Jerry says.
But what’s her favorite part of the business? Making the candy.
Here’s something unique about Dutch Hill Chocolates. They make the cremes, for their candies, cooking them in a copper kettle, while most companies buy the center fillings.
They also have a store in Hollidaysburg.