"Some of our best sellers are English toffee, butter creams, and Buckeyes," said Candi Trifelos, Director of Retail Operations at Anthony-Thomas Chocolates in Columbus. "We are the licensed OSU Buckeye, the official Buckeye."
Trifelos is the fourth generation of the family behind Anthony-Thomas Chocolates.
Sweet success has been the name of the game there for nearly 60 years, reported ONN's Jessa Goddard.
In the Anthony-Thomas factory, eight production lines of workers produce 25,000 pounds of chocolate per shift. They have two shifts every day.
"A tanker truck will pull up to our building and unload a full tank of chocolate. It is pumped into one of our 60,000 pound holding tanks; we have five of them. That chocolate is then pumped around the facility," Trifelos said.
Liquid chocolate pumps through silver-wrapped pipes throughout the factory. It's then molded, filled or covered to order.
Anthony-Thomas even makes special assortments for holidays. They have heart-shaped items for Valentine's Day and lots of chocolate bunnies for Easter.
"We'll go through 35 tons of chocolate alone just to make Easter bunnies at Easter time," Trifelos said.
The chocolate is shipped to 14 retail stores in Central Ohio, but one of the newest and most popular items is sold across the country.
"We'd like to say we created the Buckeye, but I think we actually perfected the Buckeye. It's the best blend of real peanut butter and chocolate," Trifelos said. "It's a delicious piece, it's very attractive and everybody loves it."
Anthony-Thomas offers public factory tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Reservations are not required.
