With roots starting almost 100 years ago, a generation within a family changed everything. Enstrom Candies has become World Famous for it’s most delicious, buttery, chocolaty piece of heaven they call Almond Toffee.
Our recent visit was filled with chocolate wonder. We enjoyed ice cream and coffee! Of course we took home plenty of toffee to stash in our freezers. If you have not tried it, YOU MUST!!
Enstroms is located at 201 University in Cherry Creek. They are open 7-6 M-F, 8-6 Saturdays and 10-5 on Sundays. You can also order online, they ship WORLDWIDE!
Some history from their website:
The history of this confectionery family dates back to 1919, when Chester K. “Chet” Enstrom got his start in the candy business. At 17 years of age, Chet went to work in the ice cream factory at Barthel’s Confectionery in Colorado Springs. Often, when his shift ended, he would help out across the street in the adjacent candy factory, and he quietly began learning the candy-maker’s art.
In 1929, Chet and his bride, Vernie, packed up their Model T and drove the rut-filled roads to Grand Junction, Colorado to begin a new life. There Chet and a partner, Harry Jones, launched the Jones-Enstrom Ice Cream Company, a business he pursued for the next thirty years.
Meanwhile, Chet also pursued his favorite hobby; handcrafting various confections. His specialty was almond toffee, and he experimented at night and on weekends, brewing up small batches of this hard-to-make treat as a gift for family and friends. By 1960, his almond toffee had begun to develop a reputation and, at the urging of those early gift-recipients, Chet founded Enstrom Candies.
Chet and Vernie planned to make their new “Candy Kitchen” a mom-and-pop operation, but the orders kept flooding in. By 1965, Enstrom was shipping almond toffee worldwide and Chet sold the business to his son and daughter-in-law, Emil and Mary Enstrom, so he could pursue a political career in the Colorado State Senate.
Today, Enstrom Candies remains a family business. Jamee and Doug oversee the operation of the “Candy Kitchen” and retail stores in Grand Junction, Colorado, where every batch of traditional almond toffee is still made by hand with only the finest, freshest ingredients. Rick and Linda manage the Denver-area retail stores. Jamee and Doug are also very proud that their sons, Doug Jr. and Jim, have joined the Company to become the fourth-generation of the family business and are learning the art of what it takes to make world-class confections.
Throughout the last 50 years, Enstrom Candies has expanded their product line to include toffee popcorn, truffles and delicious gourmet chocolates. Thanks to Granddad Chet, they are celebrating over fifty years of a treasured family business; over fifty years of watching eyes light up and smiles appear when people taste the world’s finest almond toffee. Most importantly, they are celebrating more than fifty years of honoring Granddad’s philosophy that “we’re just making a little almond toffee for a few of our friends.”
