The Zingerman’s name is more than slightly famous among hungry Michiganders. In 1982, its first deli opened its doors to serve up sandwiches, breads, pastries, and traditional Jewish favorites to patrons lining up out the door.

In the decades since, the humble deli has grown into a veritable food empire with estimated annual revenue of $60 million. Zingerman’s has added scores of restaurants, a creamery, a catering division, and—possibly the sweetest member of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses—Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory.

Putting down roots

Situated in the Ann Arbor area (also home to the University of Michigan), the Candy Manufactory opened in 2009 as a wholesale candy maker, creating old-fashioned American sweets by hand. The business currently makes six candy bars, which are sold in Zingerman's stores, on its website, and all over the country.

In 2017, Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory opened its retail store; the shop sells a carefully curated selection of its own craft chocolates, as well as confections from around the world. Oprah’s O Magazine once said this about its Zzang! candy bar (the company’s first product, created in 2002): “Chewy, crunchy, sweet, salty and highly addictive—this luscious handmade candy bar puts the vending machine stuff to shame.”

The company uses ingredients like muscovado brown sugar, Michigan honey, local butter, eggs, cream, and chocolate to make its candy flavorful. It still makes its peanut brittle, nougat, and caramel by hand in big pots on a stove, which means it can caramelize for richer, deeper flavors. It also hand-pulls its peanut brittle, stretching and pulling the melted nut and sugar mixture before it cools. This method puts bigger air pockets into the mix for a flakier bite.

Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory also uses high-quality ingredients for each candy component. For example, instead of the typical “small runner” peanuts found in confections, it sources Virginia Jumbo peanuts for better crunch, for its brittle and Zzang! candy bars. By roasting in-house, the company gets the freshest flavors and can control the salt and roast level. It also grinds its house-roasted nuts to make its own nut butters, instead of using commercial nut butters.

Taste, portion trends

Jamie LeBouef, production manager for the company, says the Zingerman’s team keeps an eye on consumer trends and behaviors impacting the foodservice candy space, working to keep giving customers what they want.

“What we're noticing the most is that people are looking for smaller-size portions. Portion control has been a really big thing over the past few years. [It’s] something that we've been working [on] with our customers, to create smaller sizes for our candy bars and other items,” she notes.

Also, LeBouef notes, candy consumers are increasingly reaching for items that blend sweet flavors with savory tastes.

“That one is near and dear to my heart; that's something that I love to do,” she confesses. “For example, we do sweet chili peanuts, and that brings a little bit of heat, a little bit of sweet, and a little bit of salt. That is something that people are definitely looking for,” she advises.

As in other areas of food, candy buyers are interested in balancing indulgence with better-for-you aspects (like plant-based formulations) and better-for-the-planet attributes.

“A lot of different things are [moving] in that direction, from sustainability to being more health conscious, and that's a big part of the direction that we're moving in,” she states.

As for taste trends, Zingerman’s often looks at sources outside the candy realm, balancing their traditional methods with modern inspirations.

“[We look at] what innovations that chefs are doing around the world, both in savory kitchens and in pastry kitchens. We also have robust customer feedback mechanisms in place—we really cultivate [our] relationships with our customers to know what it is that they're looking for, what types of things that they're enjoying, [and] which of our products are really hitting some of those ‘buttons,’” LeBouef relates.

Allergen-free candy, technology

What’s more, as consumers become more aware of and concerned about allergens, Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory has been working to accommodate those needs.

“A lot of that is just down to our cleaning profiles; area separation, [for example] where we [run] production for peanuts in one area, we don't do production of conflicting allergens at the same time in the same area,” she explains. “If we're running something that has only milk as an allergen, we won't run anything that has peanuts or tree nuts at the same time, because we want to minimize any potential of cross-contamination. It’s how we set our production schedule—we will make sure that we are separating those allergens out and then doing a thorough cleaning protocol in between production for the different items.”

Among the aspects of modern food service that LeBouef finds fascinating is making use of tech tools.

“In candy production or in the work that we do, what I'm seeing as the most interesting work is the efficiencies, and the technology automation, and harnessing that where it's useful, but not forgetting the handmade and traditional ways of doing things too,” she explains. “In order to maintain that full flavor—having those handmade techniques that may take a little bit more time—we can take a little bit more time with some of those things, because we are balancing that out with using the technology and automation that is available to us, and so that's a really nice blend.”

LeBoeuf comments that Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory is a smaller producer, but the automation equipment that is available now is so much better than it’s been in the past.

“[Previously], it was only very large operations on an industrial scale that could afford to have these efficiencies built in, but we have the ability now to use more of that in the smaller kitchens, and I think that's really been great,” she remarks.

What’s next

Coming up this year from Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory will be a vegan candy bar, LeBouef shares.

“It will be our first [vegan option], because we have focused so much on traditional American candy—that is, very butter-focused. We use egg whites to make our traditional nougat, so bringing in a vegan item, [we are] not trying to use substitutes for those things.”

LeBouef reveals that the upcoming product might be her new favorite from the company.

“We're working on a coconut almond bar that [has] a nice fluffy coconut layer, and an almond gianduja on the bottom, and that's gotten some really great feedback in our testing—that will be our next candy bar,” notes LeBouef. “I love it—also our chocolate cashew brittle. I'm a chocolatier by training, and so my personal taste tends to skew toward things that have chocolate in them. So nine times out of 10, what I'm going to choose is either something that's chocolate-covered or a candy bar.”

Images courtesy of Zingerman's Candy Manufactory