Boston's Oldest Chocolate Maker Makes Oprah's 'Favorite Things' List
BOSTON (CBS) -- They're celebrating 90 years of sweet, handmade goodness, and now Boston's oldest chocolate maker is also an Oprah favorite.
Phillips Candy House in Dorchester uses the same recipes now that it started with in 1925. It's a family business with a solid strategy, when you've got a winner, why change.
"I think it is the best candy in the whole world," says one regular customer.
Step into Phillips Candy House and you're enveloped in that scrumptious chocolate aroma, and then the candies lining shelves and display cases become a feast for the eyes and the palate.
"Chocolate, I tell people, it's a comforting food. It's like coming home, to eat a piece of chocolate," says Mary Ann Nagle, the third generation of her family to work at the shop. "The business was started by my grandparents, Phillip and Concettina Strazzula in 1925, actually in their basement in Revere."
They moved to Boston, then Belmont and in 1952 to Morrissey Boulevard.
"We continue to make chocolate the same way that my grandfather did. Ninety years is a long time to be able to say, this tastes good, and people keep coming back to us all the time," Nagle says.
Their signature treat is the "turtle."
"It's chocolate, caramel and nuts. It's a combination that you can't beat," says Nagle.
And it's the turtles that turned Oprah Winfrey's head. She added the candy maker's 20-pound Giant Turtle Basket and 90th anniversary Signature Turtle Basket to her annual "Favorite Things" list, according to the business's Facebook page.
"We drove down this $500 turtle basket so she could see it, and she loved it," says Nagle.
That means this busiest time of year is even busier, and it's still a family affair.
"My mother is 102 and she still asks me all the time 'How's business?'" says Nagle, laughing.
Business is always pretty good, in no small part because of a loyal customer base, and people who don't want to shop at chain retailers. Between now and Christmas, Phillips will make 50 percent of their yearly sales.
