It Happens Here: Hilliard's Chocolates In North Easton Shares Secret To Success Since 1924
NORTH EASTON (CBS) – Oprah Winfrey once listed Hilliard Chocolates' peppermint and Hannukah bark on her annual "Favorite Things" list. It's not very hard to see why.
Hilliard's Chocolates, headquartered in North Easton with two other locations in Norwell and Mansfield, continues to be one of the best candy shops in the country. And they've had a lot of practice at it.
"We're going on 100 years in 2024," said Maegan Dec, a co-owner with her sister, Erin McCarthy.
Their great-grandparents founded Hilliard's in 1924.
Not a lot has changed inside the kitchen since then. The machines all date back to the early 1900s and late 1800s, and they're using the same copper kettles to boil their chocolate as they did in the 1920s.
"It's the copper that is great for tempering the chocolate and the ingredients inside; it gets it just right," said Erin.
The recipe has also gone untouched. "It's a family recipe. Everything is, as you see, hand-stirred in copper kettles with a wooden spoon in small batches, and we use all-natural ingredients," said Maegan.
The options are seemingly endless inside the retail shop: there are even beer-infused chocolates and s'mores kits for summer.
But the secret sauce for Hilliard's has been consistency – now in their fourth generation.
"People have a lot of memories and it's very nostalgic to them," said Erin. "So they expect it to stay the same, and we wouldn't want to change it, anyways."
Visit Hilliard's website here.
