Following the exits of Brach’s and Fannie May, the Chicago area lost another major candy manufacturer in January, when the American Licorice Company—maker of Red Vines, Sour Punch straws, and Super Ropes—pulled the plug on its 250,000-square-foot factory in south suburban Alsip. But while contractors broke down equipment among Dumpsters filled with enormous clumps of fused red licorice whips, a sweet aroma hung about the echoing plant like a ghost.
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Since July, Das, a 38-year-old native of Ukraine, has leased the space to make her Das Caramelini caramels—mostly by hand, but with a bit of help from a 70-year-old candy-wrapping machine she calls Steve. Available in varieties like Chinese Plum and Cafe Cortado, the sweets are a departure from the traditional Breton salt caramels they’re based on. But these aren’t brash New World knockoffs, either. The flavors are delicate, well integrated into the smooth, buttery caramel and given a boost by the salt’s natural flavor-enhancing properties. There’s an extra reward in the occasional satisfying mineral crunch of a salt crystal.
Das worked on products like Kraft Ranch Dressing With Bacon, but she was restless. Hoping to transfer to brand management, she took a leave of absence to earn an MBA at the University of Chicago. “The aspect of marketing and human behavior was something I wanted to learn,” she says. After returning to Kraft, though, she found it difficult to break into the marketing side of the business, and began to feel conflicted.
She and her 20-year-old assistant, Ryan Keebler, the son of a former American Licorice mechanic, make two or three batches each production day, heating the sugar, honey, and rice syrup and adding butter and cream to kick-start caramelization. Eight different varieties are flavored with combinations of natural ingredients like lavender oil, lemongrass, citrus zest, coffee beans, dried Chinese plum, cardamom, ancho chile powder, star anise, and Szechuan peppercorn; these are added near the end of the process so they don’t cook off. When the temperature reaches between 245 and 260 degrees, Keebler pours dollops of the caramel onto a cooling table to test its ability to set. Das has a refractometer for measuring the hot caramel’s moisture content, but she usually relies on Keebler. “Ryan is a lot better than my refractometer,” she says. “Ryan is like the human refractometer.” Once the caramel sets in a wide sheet, they sprinkle it with more salt and cut it into long rectangular ropes, which are fed into the wrapping machine. If there’s too much moisture in the air, they have a sticky mess on their hands and Steve rebels. “We do a daily prayer to Steve so that he works and treats us well, with dignity and respect,” says Das. Once the caramels are wrapped they’re boxed by hand, 12 to 15 pieces per.
