If life is like a box of chocolates, the holiday season is a real slice of life for fans of the Fox Cities’ oldest candy maker.
“Most of our business is done in the last seven weeks of the year,” says Wilmar Chocolates owner John Houlihan, who purchased the company in 2021. “Our buffet box, which has a little bit of everything, is definitely our number one seller at Christmastime.”
Wilmar’s golden box has become a tradition, tucked full of chocolate surprises with nutty, crunchy, creamy, chewy, fruity or smooth centers. The buffet box sits alongside chocolate covered potato chips and seasonal selections like pillowy angel food and decadent peppermint s’more bars as favorite items when holiday shoppers from all 50 states fill their carts online and Wisconsinites descend upon Wilmar’s two retail locations.
“These are recipes we have been using for 70 years,” says Houlihan, who adds that many of Wilmar’s candy makers have decades of experience and all have tremendous pride in their craft. “We’re excited about making something that’s going to be a gift, or is going to create some sort of Christmas memory. Maybe that seems funny, but we enjoy making something that’s special, that has some significance to people in the community.”
Wilmar’s products are handmade at its iconic awning-clad location at 1222 N. Superior St. in Appleton. In August, Houlihan opened a second storefront at 220 W. Wisconsin Ave. in Neenah, across the street from The Plaza ice skating rink and where the addition of fresh drinking chocolate as an in-store offering is likely to create extra holiday magic.
Houlihan says Wilmar sources its ingredients from local suppliers like Lamers Dairy, and the chocolate it uses is couverture — the crème de la crème of cocoa. Most mass-produced candy uses chocolate that is barely over the 10% cocoa content required to even consider it chocolate. Couverture, on the other hand, is higher than 34% cocoa.
The other thing that sets Wilmar apart, Houlihan says, is that each piece of candy is “extremely handmade.”
This includes things like mixing, shaping caramel centers and understanding the chemistry of tempering chocolate so it shines and snaps: “There’s a lot of hand work that goes into making the perfect box of chocolates,” Houlihan says.
Chocolate prices have increased 78% in the past five years, and the world is currently in its largest cocoa deficit in 60 years, which has put a strain on confectioners. But Houlihan says Wilmar has done its best to maintain prices and to date hasn’t had trouble sourcing its most important ingredient.
It just wouldn’t be the holiday season without it.
“We have a lot of fun,” Houlihan says. “Christmastime is our favorite time of the year.”
On the web:wilmarchocolates.com
